I noticed a few trends of what many people value from the lyrics of newest Dave Matthews CD “Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King.” The song “Lying in the Hands of God.” I really like the song, but the lyrics are what first jumped out at me. The chorus reads, “Save your sermons, for someone that's afraid to love, I'll be right here, lying in the hands of God.” DMB holds an agnostic view of God, that is he is real, but they are not sure who or where he is. This song seems to equate God's values with love. Based on the chorus, it seems he's tired of hearing sermons and being lectured on perhaps how to love, or what someone should be or should do. Rather, the value that he clings to is love.
The message is, if you love anything and everything, then you are in the hands of God and you can live peacefully. I really like that his desire is to love people. Paul says “faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Cor 13:13). The difference from the Christian worldview is that we are to love God with all our heart, soul and mind. The second commandment is like it, to love our brothers as we would love our selves. To really be “lying in the hands of God,” is to have peace with God. Because Christ substitutes his righteousness in our place, we can have peace with God (Romans 5:1). This is the only way. (John 14:6)
I think another point that Christians should disagree with is the fact that love itself is worshipped higher than anything else in the DMB worldview. Unbelievers love creation more than the love the creator. (Romans 1:24-27) This is idolatry. Yes, God is love (1 John), but if we even just worship one part of God over the complete divinity and glory of God, we rob him of his rightful glory.
This song captures that God loves those who love. And this is true. He desires compassion and mercy. But if this is all that God is and wants, then we rob God of his other attributes; his omniscience, omnipotence, his redemptive work, his forgiveness, mercy, grace, the riches that are to come, his wisdom, his suffering..etc..
I think many people agree with this song's world view and they believe that if they just volunteer a lot, work hard in class, treat people with hospitality and kindness, that they are at peace with God. Yet the unbelievers' sin screams louder over these good things. To have peace with God, someone must pay for our sins we've committed against him.
Part 2 later..regarding Family Guy
"DMB holds an agnostic view of God, that is he is real, but they are not sure who or where he is"
ReplyDelete--That's not really what agnosticism is, and definitely not what he meant by saying that---
Here are a few quotes from Dave Matthews on God:
"I use the word "God" in my songs all the time, because I don’t know what the hell is going on. So that’s God – everything I don’t know. But the idea of God as a fatherly figure who looks down on us and worries about how we’re doing or takes sides when we have fights – it’s more irritating than Santa Claus. The world and the universe are far more wonderful if there’s not a puppet master."
"Forty years from now, we’ll realize that taking religion seriously was like taking astrology seriously."
Thanks for your insights on the post, and the quotes from Dave. I hadn't read those quotes from Dave before, so thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I appreciate the correction on the definition of agnosticism. When wikipedia disagrees with it, I can admit that I probably just got carried away with defining it.
Wiki says "is the philosophical view that the truth value of certain claims — particularly metaphysical claims regarding theology, afterlife or the existence of deities, spiritual beings, or even ultimate reality — is unknown or, depending on the form of agnosticism, inherently impossible to prove or disprove and hence unknowable. [1] It is not a religious declaration in itself and the terms are not mutually exclusive." [2]
Also, that quote really helps explain how I view his songs. If God is used as the unknown (or the messed up things it sounds like with his tone), its way different than just God as some sort of entity.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure who commented on it, but what do you think of the song "Time Bomb" off his new album? He specifically talks about Jesus. His references to him has to be about actual Jesus right? I wonder why he's so specific in this instance but not in others...