Long Live God

When I was about 19 years old, I bought the soundtrack for the musical Godspell. The songs are catchy and packed with Scripture. . . . for me, it was the less controversial and more wholesome counterpart to the Jesus Christ Superstar rock opera that I was avidly listening to at that time.

(Don't get me wrong. . . I really love the JC Superstar music. Even though it's not an entirely accurate representation of the gospel story, it throws out a few kickers that really worked me over and made me look at the life of Jesus again in all its troubling and bewildering complexity. And it does that while rhyming. . . . impressive, Mr. Tim Rice. But nobody protests or hands out tracts outside of a Godspell performance, as they did with Superstar.)

Anyway, Godspell has great music too. In the Finale song, which is played during the scene of Jesus' crucifixion, there is a line which is repeated again and again that says, "Long Live God". When I first heard it, I thought it sounded ridiculous. Long Live God? Yeah, He will live long--eternally--but what a silly thing to say. My dad happened to hear me and he made a wise and quiet remark about "man's feeble attempts to give praise to God". That has always stayed with me. Not only did it change my opinion about that particular song (now one of my favorites from the show), but it changed my opinion about all of the lofty praise songs and hymns that we sing in churches across America. Isn't that how all of our praise must sound to Universe Maker God? We can't possibly have the words or the music to actually express what or who He is. Our language is wholly insufficient; our instruments are hopelessly inadequate. The verses which we deem the most magnificent can surely sound like nothing more than "Long Live God" to Him who receives the joyful praise of ten thousand times ten thousand angels. I do not doubt that our efforts to acknowledge Him are impossibly thin and frail. But I do believe that we, nevertheless, bring joy to His heart as we bless His name. What mother doesn't smile at the barely intelligible declaration of love from her child? What bridegroom wouldn't relish the adoring praise of his bride? Our Lord is well aware of all the gross inadequacies of our fallen existence, but our weak and broken attempts to honor Him are never in vain.

Until the day that we have the words. . . . Long Live God!