“Speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” - Ephesians 5:19 (NKJV)
Popular songs are popular for a reason: they strike a chord within humanity by expressing our greatest hopes, deepest fears, and most fervent longings for our personal lives and for a better world. They are both uniquely powerful in the time in which they were written and performed, and speak to current circumstances, possessing a timeless quality that transcends any particular time and place.
In this way, popular songs are similar to many Biblical stories. Biblical stories have captured the imagination across thousands of years, languages, continents, religions, and peoples. Even today, they address themes that resonate with our lives.
By examining the similarities and differences between popular music and Biblical themes, we find a place of intersection between our sacred and secular lives. We also discover the language the non-religious, non-Christian world uses to express its own hopes and dreams.
Some of the popular songs we’re going to explore, like John Lennon’s "Imagine," ask us to envision a world with no heaven or hell. In a sense, he expresses a desire for a world free of belief systems or structures that create the haves and have-nots. But ultimately, the world he envisions isn’t one empty of meaning and purpose—it is unsatisfied.
Aretha Franklin’s re-envisioning of Otis Redding’s "Respect" served as a powerful anthem for women, particularly Black women, in its time. Her interpretation transcended the legislative moment, commanding a solidarity of hope for all people. In this way, her music reflects an ancient desire: that all people receive the dignity with which God created them, a dignity inherent in our divine nature.
Bob Dylan, in his song "Like a Rolling Stone," asks us, “How does it feel?” “How does it feel to be without a home, like a complete unknown?” While expressing his personal frustrations with the public’s expectations of his music, he reflects the desire of many Americans who increasingly feel out of place in their own country.
Ultimately, Dylan expresses a shared feeling, even with that of Jesus, who at one point felt so rejected by His hometown that He said, “Birds have nests and foxes have holes, but the Son of Man has no place to rest His head.” (Matthew 8:20) Each one of us feels like a rolling stone because our ultimate home is not in this world but in our heavenly one.
That subliminal feeling—feeling out of place and out of time—reflects a truth: our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God.
Prayer of Confession
Lord, You have made us to be in community with each other and with You. But too often we listen to the beat of our own drum while failing to appreciate the song You have given others. Open our spirits to the creative passions and wisdom You have placed in others that we might harmonize our voices with people of different faith and insight all to Your glory. Amen.
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