The Great Reversal

Several years ago a YouTube video of Bono and Eugene Peterson was downloaded and played thousands of times. It is about twenty minutes or so long and showed a great friendship and respect the famous singer and famous Bible scholar and translator had for one another. It is well worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-l40S5e90KY  

One of the things I remember Bono saying was that he wished contemporary Christian artists were as “honest about life as the psalms are.” They talked about the proper role of lament in the lives of God’s people

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We don’t do well with lament.

A contemporary Christian song I hear often is I Called, You Answered. It is a Hillsong United song based on Psalm 138:3, which says, “On the day I called, You answered me; You emboldened me and strengthened my soul.” (ESV) The lyrics of the song are nice and the tune to which they are sung, at least to me, has a kind of haunting quality.

Obviously this isn’t a “song of lament!” Its recurring theme is “you came to my rescue and I wanna be where you are.” (I’m too old to be fond of “wanna be” as a replacement for “want to be,” but those are the lyrics!)

But recently, in my personal reading of Scripture, while reading from Isaiah, I came across two different texts that are a bit of a reversal from the hope, joy, and thanksgiving of Psalm 138. Isaiah 65:12 says, “I have destined you for the sword, and you all shall kneel to be slaughtered, since I called and you did not answer, I spoke and you did not hear, and you did what was evil in My eyes, and what I did not desire you choose.” And then, in Isaiah 66:4, “I, too, will choose their rank acts and what they fear I will bring upon them. Because I called and none answered, I spoke and they did not listen, and they did what was evil in My eyes, and in what I did not delight they chose.” (Translation from Robert Alter, A Translation with Commentary.)

That sounds like Lament!

Isaiah introduces a kind of great reversal at the beginning of Isaiah 65 – “I yielded oracles when they did not inquire, I was found when they did not seek Me. I said, ‘Here I am, ere I am’ to a nation not called by My name. I spread out My hands all day long to a wayward people that walked on a way not good after its own divisings.” (Alter) God speaks when we don’t ask, is found when we don’t seek, prays (spread out my hands) for wayward people who travel a path that isn’t good. God will have a people, but it may not be the people who think they are His people. 

What would a Hillsong United tune and lyrics on these texts look and sound like?

I’m certainly not suggesting we go around in “sack cloth and ashes” twenty-four hour a day, nor am I suggesting that somehow it is less than spiritually appropriate to celebrate the presence of God in our lives as Psalm 138 does. But . . . shouldn’t it break our heart that in these Isaiah texts, it is God who calls, but we don’t answer. It is God who speaks, but we don’t bother to hear.  Instead of “answering and listening” we choose “to do what is evil in His eyes.” 

Robert Goldingay (The First Testament, 648) suggests that the message of Isaiah 56-66 “relates to the situation of Judah when people have been free to return there after their exile but where things are not as wonderful as they might have expected.” It seems certain that Judah has experienced a kind of forgiveness out of the exile but has returned to its former way. 

In a great reversal – rather than Israel calling on God, He calls on them. They don’t answer.

Lament.

Rather than Israel praying, it is God whose hands are spread out all day long for a wayward people.

Lament.

I look forward to the next time I am with God’s people and we sing, I Called, You Answered.

But I’m wondering if our culture – church-going and non-church going – couldn’t use a song or two of lament and repentance.

Perhaps Bono was right. We need contemporary artists who are as honest as the psalms – and as Isaiah is!