Forever (RV)

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures for ever.

 - From Psalm 107

Over the course of the past century, Pop Music has traversed a course from relative complexity, with wide-ranging melodic lines and lush harmonies, to endless repeated refrains over simple looped chord patterns. Lyrics have dumbed down, from high aspirational themes and love built around selflessness and self-control, to an obvious emphasis on calling attention to oneself, and the instant gratification of one's own most carnal desires.

Our great-grandparents knew that classical music, composed by the maestros of history, was of a high order, and represented humanity at its most actualized. No one suggested that there were other forms of music of greater difficulty, complexity, or value.

Even the Christian music of today has fallen victim to this impulse: repeated lyrics, over and over again, over three or four chords (the same four, in different arrangements, in 80% of all music today, in all popular genres). A person doesn't have to know real music theory, much, to sell a hit record today.

Today's Psalm inspired one of the best Christian songs of the past generation, that still seemed to follow the old rules of building upon a catchy, soaring melody, and chorus that gets people to their feet (without being coaxed). Of course, it's the song "Forever" by Chris Tomlin, one of the last of the old style Christian songwriters. But even "Forever" utilizes a repeated line, a few times too many.

Forever. Forever. Is there a concept more lofty than that?

No matter what happens today . . . remember that God's plan for us, is forever. Your problems are gone, forever. Your family is reunited, forever. God loves you, forever.

And let it bring to mind a song that sounds great, even if you don't hear the words. The world may be deconstructing. But you only have to go back about fifteen years, to connect to when things were still basically sane.

But then, aren't they always sane, in the House of the Lord?