Extremes vs Grace

Psalm 13

To the choirmaster. A Psalm of David.

1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

³ Consider and answer me, O Lord my God;
    light up my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death,
⁴ lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed over him,”
    lest my foes rejoice because I am shaken.

⁵ But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing to the Lord,
    because he has dealt bountifully with me.

     In this psalm of David, we see a beautiful picture of the extremes of reality. From the start, we see David crying out in anxious pain. He's looking for God, asking Him questions, begging for His presence. And if we stopped there, we would be left with doubt and perhaps resentment from David. But no, David ends this piece saying, "But I have trusted in your steadfast love." He ends with rejoicing and singing and gratitude for the gifts of mercy and grace God has bestowed upon David. Rooted within each of the psalms is the essence and resolve of all music.

    All music finds form and structure in the give and take of a measure, a lyric, or a rhythm. All music lives with these extremes. And the best music lives in the balance of these extremes.

    In Music Club today, we began to consider these extremes and how they play out in the music we listen to every day. So we listed off some possible extremes:

               Dark                                                           Light

               Black                                                          White

                         Sin                                                       Righteousness

                   Ugly                                                        Beautiful

                 Lost                                                            Found

               Despair                                                          Hope

     We could go on with these extremes for some time. In actuality, the idea of opposing forces is an ongoing characteristic throughout existence because that is the nature of life. As Augustine terms it, there is the City of God, and there is the City of Man. Because these extremes are the mantle by which each individual must live, humanity has come to deny this antithesis with the idea of adiaphora or "gray area". Instead of facing these extremes, much of humanity chooses to see the world dimly. So their list of extremes may look more like this:

       DarkLight 

       BlackWhite

         SinRighteousness

        UglyBeautiful

       LostFound

       DespairHope

 

     There is little difference within each antithetical idea. Hate and love are the same beast. With adiaphora hope and despair are the same illusion. However, a biblical portrayal of these realities might look more like this:

                                                                                              Black                             G                         White

                                                                                              Sin                                 R                         Righteousness

                                                                                              Ugly                              A                         Beautiful 

                                                                                              Lost                               C                         Found

                                                                                              Despair                          E                          Hope

      By the grace of God, we can live in these extremes and see the beauty of it all. It's not some gray area that stands between these two worlds and creates a muddy puddle of watered down ideals. Grace is a purifying force that stands as a bridge, allowing the extremes of our fallen world entrance into the City of God.

     Now what does this mean musically? Each psalm, either by pleading for mercy or thanking God for His mercy, is a prayer of praise trusting in God's ability. All music mirrors this pattern by exemplifying extremes and balances. As we study more musical patterns and terms, we will soon conclude that even a song without lyrics (perhaps especially songs without lyrics) expresses the give and take of these extremes. And the best pieces do so while keeping grace at the core.

     In our session today, we attempted to listen to "I Will Follow You Into the Dark" by Death Cab For Cutie to examine the song for its qualities of extremes and to identify some of the themes presented within that piece. However we weren't able to load the right video during class. So here is that video again: I Will Follow You Into the Dark, Death Cab For Cutie

     Listen to this piece. Pull from the specific artistic expression displayed in the music video itself. Comment. Add to the discussion. Or pull ideas for future discussions.

     As our musical grammar grows, we will be able to root through more pieces of music to glean more truths and eventually find ourselves witness to a whole host of marvels regarding God and His creation. Charles Dickens said that the characters he created in his books always reflect God, either by mirroring Him or by denying Him. Keep this idea in mind as we look at different types of music. Music can show us truth either in the way it glorifies God or in the way that it denies God. For now, let's try to see/listen for the more apparent ways antithesis exists in music. Discuss any topic from this song you'd like. Maybe relate it with other pieces, if any come to your mind. You are welcome to examine this for its lyrics (the words), its melody (the tune you can hum along), its rhythm (the pace of the song and its phrasing), or whatever else grabs your attention.

     What truths can we learn from this piece?