My son, Benjamin, has recently been watching the movie Shrek on DVD. We are now all very familiar with it, we can all say the words and know whats coming next (not to mention have a giggle because we know a funny bit is coming up!). But really, there is one moment in the film, a song actually, that has been in my mind for the last little while as we have watched it. It has really spoken to me. Here it is: –
“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
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty in the moonlight overthrew you
She tied you to a kitchen chair
She broke your throne, and she cut your hair
And from your lips she drew the hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Maybe I’ve been here before
I know this room, I’ve walked this floor
I used to live alone before I knew you
I’ve seen your flag on the marble arch
Love is not a victory march
It’s a cold and it’s a broken hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
There was a time when you let me know
What’s real and going on below
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you
The Holy Dark was moving too
And every breath we drew was hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Maybe there’s a God above
And all I ever learned from love
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you
And 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
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah”
Ok, maybe the theology isn’t that great, and maybe not Christian, but what really spoke to me was the concept of a broken hallelujah. The idea of King David strumming out his hallelujah in spite of his sin, in spite of the enemies of his kingdom and of his soul. It reminds me that to live the victorious Christian life, that on the days when you can’t fly a flag on the marble arch, we can offer our broken hallelujah…the victory in that lies in that we praise God through our situations as opposed to feeling neglected, rejected and forgotten by God. He is so faithul and I am so thankful and enriched by those times when I have cried that broken hallelujah, from a broken me to a faithful God. I think its called singing through the rain.
yours
Andrew
Andrew M Clark 