God In The Music


This blog has noted before that the black experience in America has been strongly tied to Christianity. The Bible has played a part in every struggle that blacks have faced.  Most of the blacks brought to the Americas during the slave trade were not Christians and had not been exposed to the Bible.  Some argue that Christianity was forced on blacks.  During the early parts of the black experience in America, slave masters exposed their slaves to Christianity.  The reasoning they gave for that action was that they wanted to save the heathens and savages.  It was the same reasoning some used for the actions taken against the Native Americans.  Now, most sensible people can admit that the spread of Christianity to black slaves was less about saving their souls and more about control.  That is why the Slave’s Bible, a version of the Bible created specifically to be friendly to the concept of slavery, exists.  It was a tool to be used to keep blacks in their place.
Given that truth, one would expect that as soon as blacks gained their freedom, they would abandon Christianity and the Bible.  However, that wasn’t the case.  In fact, to this day, hundreds of years after the advent of black enslavement in America, the black community is one of the most Christian oriented groups in the country.  Why would that be the case?  Why would blacks cling to something forced on them by the people that abused and terrorized them?  Perhaps the answer is in the Bible itself.
Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in Him – Proverbs 30:5
While it may have been the intention of some slave masters to use the Bible for insidious purposes, they could not change what God intended for his word.  The Bible and every word in it is meant to bring people closer to God, and the closer you are to God, the better off you’ll be.  Instead of simply accepting their status as property and buying into the idea that the Bible supported their lowly position, the slaves found hope in the Bible.  They saw their plight reflected in the trials of the Hebrews.  They found a savior in Jesus that was willing to die so that everyone else could live and be free from the bonds of sin.  For many slaves, exposure to the Bible had the exact opposite effect as what the slave masters intended.  If that sounds far-fetched, just take a look at some of the songs they sang.  One example is Steal Away:
Chorus: steal away, steal away!
Steal away to Jesus?
Steal away, steal away home!
I ain’t got long to stay here!
My Lord calls me!
He calls me by the thunder!
The trumpet sounds it in my soul!
I ain’t got long to stay here!
Chorus
My Lord calls me!
He calls me by the lightning!
The trumpet sounds it in my soul!
I ain’t got long to stay here!
Chorus
The spirituality of the slaves was evident in their songs.  Their faith in God and belief that he would save them from their plights is clear.  What some might not know about these songs is that they served another purpose.  Steal Away, for example, was used by slaves to communicate that they were about to attempt to escape.  Harriet Tubman and others used these songs as code to help slaves find freedom.
Songs used Biblical references and analogies of Biblical people, places and stories comparing them to their own history of slavery.  For example, “being bound for the land of Canaan” for a white person could mean ready to die and go to heaven, but to a slave it meant ready to go to Canada.[1]
When exposed to the Bible, the slaves saw themselves in it.  They didn’t just see it as a collection of stories.  They saw it as the Living Word that it is.  It wasn’t just something that talked about freedom.  It was something that could be used to achieve freedom.  For them, God’s Word was the gift that kept on giving.
In some ways, African American music is the best example of how God can work through an element of a culture to affect an entire group of people and even beyond that group.  Everyone has heard the song We Shall Overcome.  Just as with Steal Away, the theme of faith in God is unmistakable.
We shall overcome, we shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall overcome some day
The Lord will see us through, the Lord will see us through
The Lord will see us through some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
The Lord will see us some day.
How many people actually know the history of the song?  Originally, it was called I Shall Overcome Some Day and was written by Charles Albert Tindley, a child of a slave father and a free black mother.  He eventually became a Methodist minister.  He is considered one of the founders of gospel music and his songs often merged belief in God with hopefulness that the people around him would be delivered from the misery they faced.  We Shall Overcome was later adapted from Tindley’s version by whites to serve as an anthem for workers being mistreated in the early 1900s.  That is an example of how blacks have inspired others, but also an example of how God can tie different groups together in a common cause.  Eventually, the song came full circle and became one of the Civil Rights anthems that were used to unite black people and their allies in the struggle for equality.
The link between faith in God and the struggle of blacks in America is undeniable.  It’s easy to see that from the human side.  The songs are evidence.  As believers, we also have to acknowledge the other side.  At every step of the struggle, God was there for blacks in America.  Just as He helped the Hebrews in the Bible escape bondage, He did the same for the slaves in America.  Just as He used Jesus and later Paul to bring Jews and Gentiles together in mutual salvation, He united various groups of people in the fight for equal rights for all people.
The legacy of blacks using music to express faith and hope in God is just a continuation of what is done in the Bible.  After all, a whole book, Psalms, is dedicated to songs with similar purposes and meanings.  David too sang songs about God delivering him from strife.  Perhaps the most famous of all the Psalms has the following lines:
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil for you are with me your rod and your staff, they comfort me – Psalm 23:4
As we celebrate black history, let us remember that God was always a part of it.  Just as he continues to be a part of our present.  Every Sunday, we sing songs to God.  Let us remember that they shouldn’t just be seen as time fillers during church services.  Invoking God in song has long been a powerful way of demonstrating faith and letting Him know what we desire.  Let it continue to be so, not just for blacks, but for all of God’s people.



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