Crying Out A Broken Hallelujah

Every now and then a song just haunts me and won't let me go.



Such is the case with the song "Hallelujah" by Leonard Cohen. It started when a favorite songwriter, Michael Knott, recorded a sparse arrangement of the song and put it on his myspace page. Then author/pastor/teacher/theologian/cool-guy-I'd-like-to-know Christian Scharen announced that his next book would carry the title "Broken Hallelujahs" as it explores faith messages in popular culture (his previous book, One Step Closer, is an awesome theology book based on the music of U2). Here is Scharen's description of why he picked the title "Broken Hallelujahs":

In this life, all we are capable of is a broken hallelujah. We’re only even able to raise a broken hallelujah because of what God has done for us. Knowing that keeps us from trying to please God with our shiny “holy hallelujahs” and allows us to be honest about ourselves, our need for God’s mercy, and our call to join in the God’s mission of mercy in the midst of a broken world. (full article)

Back to the song...

The video with this post is my attempt to reflect the way that this song has kept me up late the last few night playing the guitar and singing. Here's the lyrics:

I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this: the fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew that Hallelujah

Maybe there’s a God above,
But all I ever learned from love
Is how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.
It's not a cry you can hear at night
It's not somebody who's seen the light
It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah.

The final verse (in my arrangement) is my favorite. I'd be quite happy to have it be the words I use to sum up my existence if I have the opportunity to do so when my time comes:

I did my best, it wasn’t much
I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch
I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you
And even though it all went wrong
I’ll stand before the Lord of Song
With nothing on my lips but...Hallelujah

Thank you Leonard Cohen.