A Theology of the Blues
Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Psalm 96:1 NASB
New song– For a long time I’ve known that the Blues reach into my soul. I find myself among those sad refrains, those struggling lyrics. Give me Clapton, B.B., Stevie Ray, Ronnie Earl, Aretha, Robert Cray, and Kenny Wayne any day. Oh, and don’t forget Anna, Janis and Duke R.[1] I think I’m so “happy” with the Blues because of something Frederick Buechner said:
“Part of the inner world of everyone is this sense of emptiness, unease, incompleteness, and I believe that this in itself is a word from God, that this is the sound that God’s voice makes in a world that has explained him away. In such a world, I suspect that maybe God speaks to us most clearly through his silence, his absence, so that we know him best through our missing him.”[2]
In fact, I find my most creative self arises from this place of darkness, of emptiness; the place where I am most aware of the absence of my Father. This connected me to something in Zornberg’s work:
“Enveloped in sadness, the human being is easy prey for Satan. Finding some basis, however tenuous, for joy, becomes a religious duty. . . . To this end, [R. Nahman] develops a striking theory of spiritual healing as melody. Having found one good spot, one should continue the search for another, and yet another. Drawing those fragmentary, disjointed moments into connection with one another, one creates a niggan, a song: a way of drawing a line through the wasteland and recovering more and more places of holiness. Music arises from joy, but the power of a ‘true singing’ comes from sadness.”[3]
“ . . . the work of niggan, the redemptive melody that vibrates between high and low, is the work of self-healing, which then qualifies one to lead others in prayer. . . The sense of dejection, of being divided from God, is the sickness from which all seek healing. Only in melody can the dislocated spots of holiness become part of a living songline, making the fragments whole.”[4]
Sing it, baby! It’s the theology of the Blues.
Topical Index: music, emptiness, R. Nahman, song, healing, Psalm 96:1
[1]In case you don’t know Duke Robillard, here’s a taste: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DjEvKrqWbg
[2]Frederick Buechner, Listening to Your Life(HarperOne, 1992), p. 128.
[3]Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture: Reflections on Exodus(Schocken Books, New York: 2001), p. 244.
