Firlapalooza

It’s interesting to note that at least two popular rock groups of the past incorporated the poignant words of the Book of Ecclesiastes into their lyrics, and that these overnight hits are still quite well known today - I heard both of these songs fairly recently.  Who would have thought that the Bible would be regularly quoted on non-Christian radio?

First of all, there’s the most well-known piece by progressive rock group Kansas, ‘Dust in the Wind’, released in 1977 (please click here to see a brilliant home-made music video of it).  It cleverly paraphrases a number of the sombre passages from Ecclesiastes, chiefly “All go to one place: all are from the dust, and all return to dust.” (Eccl 3:20), though much of the rest of the song appears to have been taken from scripture in the first chapter of the book, with such passages as, “What profit has a man from all his labor in which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; but the earth abides forever.” (Eccl 1:3-4).

As well, 1960’s folk-group The Byrds recorded the most popular arrangement of the song ‘Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)‘, which also has a custom-made music video available for viewing here.  This song actually quotes verbatim an entire series of partially recurring - though hard-hitting - passages in the third chapter of the book:

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 
A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.  (Eccl 3:1-8)

The book of Ecclesiastes (a word which means “the preacher”) was written in around 935 B.C. by a much-wizened King Solomon near the end of his life, as he was witnessing his splendid Kingdom creeping into decline.  In it, he writes about his realization, that despite the fact that he had all the power, prestige, and pleasure he could ever want, none of these wordly things (among many others) could ever be depended on to provide him with true satisfaction in life – just a moment that quickly left.  In a variety of ways through the twelve-chapter work, he explains how he finally recognized that true fulfillment can only come through a relationship with God, no matter how hard he searched for something lasting and meaningful outside of that.

I came across a highly articulate, very insightful message by J. B. Nicholson which examines the themes of this fascinating book.  It is free for download, just right-click here and go to ’save target as’ on the menu which pops up to get it onto your computer desktop.  It’s about 45 minutes in length, but with only a 10.4 MB filesize, thanks to .mp3 technology.

Life is eternal, and it certainly does not need to be without meaning.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 19th, 2007, and is filed under Scriptural Reflections. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. I reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments.