I’ve heard there was a secret chord that David played, and it pleased the Lord…
If there’s anyone in the Old Testament who truly KNEW God as God wanted to be known, David would be that person. God longs for us to know Him in an intimate way, and David, a man after God’s own heart, who composed songs for Him and turned to Him in triumphs and tragedy, could be described as one of God’s favorites.
“But you don’t really care for music, do ya?”
But even David couldn’t help but betray the God he loved. He devoted his life, his everything to God… until he saw a beautiful woman bathing on the roof. So He took his eyes off of God to pursue something that didn’t belong to him. God’s favorite, God’s good boy: even he could not help but sin, and had to suffer the consequences of that sin.
The baffled king composing Hallelujah….
David’s lyre that pleased the Lord didn’t seem to be what pleased Bathsheba. So he sought whatever pleased her instead, and made it his hallelujah. The king was definitely baffled.
Her Beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya…
It’s almost as if he only took his eye off the ball for a split second. But that was time enough for him to fall into the throes of lust, which took him further into a sin that even he couldn’t comprehend. He was wrapped up in something that felt.so.good…. until it turned his heart to the point that he didn’t just consider doing something evil… he planned it, and using his power as king, he made sure it happened. He made certain that Bathsheba’s husband, one of his own favorites… was killed in battle. He knew that Uriah was faithful to him, and he took advantage of it so that he could have what he wanted. Simple lust morphed into betrayal and murder.
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair…
The next thing David knew, he was no better than Samson, allowing himself to be overcome by temptation, which becomes his downfall.
Love is not a victory march; It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah
After that, a life of sorrow befalls David. And yet, He turns to the Lord. When he is confronted with his sin, he immediately repents. It’s too late to undo the damage he has done, because things have been set in motion, and he can’t travel back in time to undo his mistakes…. but he can still come to his God, whom he loves dearly, and beg for mercy, knowing he doesn’t deserve it. And God can redeem him.
Sin can seem like such a small thing to us… a minor fall, a little stumble, an impure thought, a little bit of justified anger, some bitterness we can’t let go of…. But the cascading effect of sin is inevitable. It can bring down kingdoms.
But God….
And even though it all went wrong, I’ll stand before the Lord of Song with nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah…
It’s hard to see our way through hard times, because we are surrounded by fog when we’re in the midst of them. And often, we can’t even see the reason for them. Did we sin? Did someone else sin? Why are we going through this agony? Why are people suffering? The cause-and-effect aren’t always obvious. God has to work around and through every screw-up in the entire history of mankind to right a ship that has gone off course.
If we miss a turn, we have to follow a detour, making it longer to reach our destination. Life is full of detours, but God is with us every step of the way. He is the destination, and He is in the journey. If we are aware that He is our constant companion, and we tune ourselves to His frequency, every moment of our lives, even the tragedies, the pain and sorrows, can be a hallelujah.
Footnote: My use of Leonard Cohen’s song, Hallelujah, to illustrate a Biblical truth does not correspond with the songwriter’s interpretation. Cohen said of his song: “This world is full of conflicts and full of things that cannot be reconciled. But there are moments when we can… reconcile and embrace the whole mess, and that’s what I mean by ‘Hallelujah’. The song explains that many kinds of hallelujahs do exist, and all the perfect and broken hallelujahs have equal value. It’s a desire to affirm my faith in life, not in some formal religious way but with enthusiasm, with emotion.”