A Bluesy Psalm

I deeply yearn to be like David, who screws things up Royally, but always runs back to Truth. He was known to have a heart that pursued God.  I'm really good at the screwing things up part at least.  

I read Psalm 88 this morning, and was oddly encouraged.  Over and over and over I've seen psalms that follow the same pattern:  1. things suck  2. God doesn't   3.  I'll trust Him more and the things that suck either will cease to matter, or will get miraculously better.  I thought that formula defined what it meant to have a heart after God. 

But in Psalm 88, nothing gets better.  I don't know who Heman the Ezrahite was (and I laugh that maybe, just maybe SheRa will show up in a Psalm too!)  I love HeMan for showing me that things can suck for a long time, and that we can have faith in such way that a resolve doesn't have to come in the 3 minutes it takes to sing a song.  

An entire season in life - or a whole Psalm Song can be devoted to questioning without receiving an answer.

I don't know who said or wrote that (maybe it was me?? Haha!)  it meant enough to me to write it down as a note that could possibly become a song though.    

Our unmet longings bring up questions. 
Questions are an important part of a relationship. Questions are a way of wrestling with something inside that is unresolved.  There is a beautiful vulnerability and tension to asking a question, like that time Jacob wrestled with God.

So what does this Psalm have to do with the Blues?  I'm still learning about what makes up chords in this incredible genre of music, but what I know is that there seems to be a focus on playing the chord with an added 7th.  

It's like this whole psalm/song is beautifully and awkwardly wrestling with and yet resting on the tension of the 7th tone of a scale. 

In my mind, when I hear a chord with an added 7th, I instinctively hear it resolving. Like so many of life's problems, it hasn't resolved yet, but someday it will.  Maybe tomorrow, maybe not until heaven, but I can question God when things get rough because I know He is the answer.  

This could be why I like listening to the Blues so much.  😎