I just saw Once last night. I can't remember the last time I was that drawn in to a musical. None of it felt silly (unless it was meant to, like in certain places) or unnatural. It actually made the story richer and more believable. I would sum it up in one word: honesty.
The main guy is a street performer who sings his heart out. In the day he sings "established" songs. At night, he sings what he wants to sing.
He sings songs he wrote with emotional honesty. The lyrics are mostly about unresolved feelings, so there's lots of honesty in them as well. "You lied to me," "You left when times were hard," etc. It shows an honest struggle as opposed to the garden variety "you make me happy" posing of most popular music. That's why I can't stop listening to it or singing it. The honesty resonates.
I saw Once last night. I thought about it this morning when I was reading the Psalms.
Psalms were songs. I reminded myself of this when I read chapter 74. Especially the parts that said "my enemies surround me", "we have no prophets", and (my personal favorite) "take Your hands out the the fold of Your garment and destroy (our enemies)". Take Your hands out of Your pockets, God. People sang this when they worshiped. We'd be looking for lightening if we sang something like that.
I'm not saying music we sing doesn't ever seem honest. There's a time and a place for the praise as well, and even the rough passages come back to praising Him. But what about the hard times? Why do we skip that, even when God Himself through writers of the Bible didn't?
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