“My cup runneth over.” – David
Many who love Leonard Cohen and his most famous song, “Hallelujah,” are not aware that the song is a STORY SONG about the biblical character of David.
David is a religious figure for billions of people on the planet; he is, for sure, a historical figure; and he’s considered in this essay as a literary character, mostly.
Leonard called David, who lived three thousand years ago, “the first modern writer,” as the writer of the Psalms, which are songs and poems. There is no doubt that David wrote many (not all) of the Psalms, which were later heavily revised many times by other hands.
He also played what we would think of as the guitar, was a poor shepherd boy as a child (who later became king), slew the giant Goliath with a slingshot when he was a child in one of the most famous stories of all time, so famous that now it even gets made into Disney movies; and fell in love with Bathsheba; fell so hard and so fast when he saw her bathing on the roof below him that he had her husband sent into battle soon after at the front of the ranks so he would be killed, which he was. Knocking out (permanently) Goliath with the little stone and slingshot, then cutting off his head for all the armies to see, then confiscating his armor, helmet, and shield and placing them in his own tent were all WAR; but when David killed Bathsheba’s husband, it was murder. Therefore, one of the undersongs of Leonard Cohen’s most famous song is a murderous crime of passion. “Thou art the man” is a famous phrase that was used against David by a prophet later when he was accused of the crime he was indeed guilty of; David admitted his guilt and showed more authentic sorrow and genuine remorse than most people are capable of imagining.
Leonard Cohen always talked about his most famous song in non-monetary terms. Everyone always wanted to know how much dough Cohen had made from the song, and he always said he didn’t know and didn’t care, because he didn’t even believe he was owed money for the song, since it was, and is, a universal human thing. There are those who will scoff, but I believe him that he didn’t know and didn’t care. Next, there are those who will immediately opine that he should have donated all the money to charity in an official capacity. But that is just one more way of worshiping the Golden Calf. Stop worrying about it.
David was the original author of what became one of the most famous English-language poems of all time in the KJV, Psalm 23. As with many phrases in Poe’s “The Raven” or Shakespeare’s “To be or not to be” soliloquy, millions or billions have heard the words who have no idea what the words mean.
As with Leonard Cohen’s story-song “Hallelujah,” which is a song about him, David’s poem-song that came to be called “Psalm 23” is also a story-song and story-poem, about a poor shepherd boy guarding his flock. (It would later influence someone else, who said: “I am the Good Sheperd.”)
The famous first line is: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.”
“My cup runneth over,” “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” and “I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever,” are just a few of the phrases from this 55-word story-poem that “everyone” has heard.
The context of the character and the situation in the story-poem are what make it really meaningful.
The speaker of the poem is a boy given the job of guarding the sheep from wolves and thieves.
In other words, there are enemies out there, lurking, watching, waiting, hiding, deciding.
No one knows exactly when David wrote the poem, but one thing is known: he wrote it after he’d been through much suffering and many tribulations and life-threatening trials, like the times he had to go on the run to save his own skin.
In other words, he wrote it while he was in great danger, or AFTER he had been in great danger, not when things were easy and cush. The simple curse of the modern world for billions of people is that they have grown too comfortable and don’t have to do anything in the real sense of doing something, which does not, by any means, always involve earning money (or not earning money).
As Leonard Cohen sang, echoing David, and making Leonard Cohen himself a literal heir of David, “AND EVEN THOUGH IT ALL WENT WRONG, I’LL STAND BEFORE THE LORD OF SONG, WITH NOTHING ON MY TONGUE BUT HALLELUJAH.”
Genuinely praising the world, like David and Leonard did, despite all (despite all), in one’s own way, is doing something, especially now.
All real art is praise, even the darkest.
Anything you have an authentic, individualized passion for, that doesn’t directly harm others (and isn’t directly driven by commercial self-interest), is also praise.
Nothing more is needed; or expected.
