Everyone should learn to write songs. Teachers make children write poetry, stories, and essays. But songs? Perhaps songs are too difficult. It’s not just the music—it’s the HEART. A good song touches the heart of not only the writer but the singer and the audience. David Allen Coe has the ghost of Hank Williams sing about it:
“Drifter, can you make folks cry when you play and sing?
Have you paid your dues?
Can you moan the blues?
Can you bend them guitar strings?
Said, ‘Boy, can you make folks feel what you feel inside?
‘Cause if you’re big-star bound,
Let me warn ya’ it’s a long hard ride.”
Coe sums up songwriting: “Can you make folks cry when you play and sing… Can you make folks feel what you feel inside?”
King David could. He wrote songs that have touched people for thousands of years.
It’s as if David were the Shakespeare of songwriting. No one in history will ever write as many songs loved for as many years as David.
And here’s the thing: he even wrote passionate songs praising KING SAUL. That’s right. David was so humble before God’s anointed king, and so comfortable in his place as a servant to Saul (though David KNEW God had chosen him to be king after Saul), that David praised Saul in song after his death:
“How the mighty have fallen!…
Saul and Jonathan, loved and delightful,
They were not parted in life or in death.
They were swifter than eagles,
Stronger than lions.” 2 Samuel 1:19-23.
Could you write a song praising the man who had hunted you across the wilderness for years and years? If not, perhaps you have a heart issue. Are you humble? Are you a forgiver?
God, help us love people the way you love them, forgive the way David forgave. Make us humble, yet confident, and patient enough to wait on your perfect timing—just as David waited on you.
ΑΩ
Household Words: 