Good contemporary Christian music can be a bit like buses.
You wait ages for one and then two come along at once. This was the case in February 2018 which saw the release of new albums of original material by American singer-songwriters Audrey Assad and Sandra McCracken. Coming from separate seasons of struggle, doubt and sorrow, Assad’s Evergreen and McCracken’s Songs from the Valley both carry patterns from the Psalms into different styles of contemporary music, both concluding, in their own ways, to ‘not let the darkness have the final cadence’.
Evergreen
Assad’s Evergreen is best heard in full, playing out as a whole story. Between several tracks there’s no pause or break, but a piano riff leading seamlessly from one song to the next, carrying its themes into a new light. This not only compels the listener to continue hearing how the story of justice, mercy or doubt will play out in the next chapter, but also cleverly mimics life itself and the way we cannot neatly deal with one thing before the next comes along.
Instead, as Assad sings in the opening and title track, we must messily walk through things in a place that ‘looks nothing like Eden’, but we can do so trusting that all that is needed will be provided by ‘a water that is living’. In ‘Deliverer’ Assad copies many psalmists in addressing God directly, recalling his characteristics back to him, and speaking aloud the glorious consequences that God’s character has for those who trust in him: ‘Your law is freedom and mercy is your rule / though you dwell within me, I cannot contain you.’
‘Unfolding’ is perhaps the most autobiographical track on the album, poetically documenting part of Assad’s recent journey of faith, from which this album came. Again copying the psalmists in times of distress, she cries toward God instead of to herself or the world around her: ‘Jesus Christ, I don’t know what I am, am I a lost little lamb or a wolf in sheep’s clothing? / Oh, my God, I don’t know what this was, am I a child of your love or just chaos unfolding?’. Assad’s lyrics are unwavering in their seeking of God, and the penultimate song, ‘Immanuel’s Land’, brims with hope at the thought of weary sinners being brought home into God’s glory.
The final song is a culmination of all the seeking, confession and praise that has gone before it. ‘Drawn to You’ expresses how, once we’ve realised that our devotion is faltering and our grip on Christ is weak, we can depend on God’s constantly open arms of welcome. When the world around feels foreign and confusing, we go back to basics: ‘Lord, I know this much is true / I’m still drawn to you’. The pattern of Evergreen closely mirrors Asaph’s sentiment in Psalm 73, when he tells God: ‘My heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was a brute beast before you. Yet I am always with you; you hold me by your right hand. You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but you?’
Songs from the Valley
McCracken’s Songs from the Valley occu-pies a more musically subdued end of the spectrum, carrying a less clear-cut narrative, but is nevertheless a quietly faithful short set of songs which search for shards of light in the darkness. Like the psalmists, McCracken approaches God in humility and honesty, with no attempt at stoicism: ‘The question has no answer / and the wounds are bruised and sore / where else will I go? / Lover of my soul, how you always know / what is best for me’. The theme running through McCracken’s album is one of wondering at the circumstances she’s been given and, though wanting them to be different, trusting that God has designed them for her good and for his glory. In ‘Gracious Light’ this posture is described as ‘Live leaning in when the pain is fierce / oh the bow it will break at his coming / who can understand the design / the refining holy fire.’
As with Assad, McCracken’s lyrics echo the psalmist’s declaration: ‘As for me, it is good to be near God. I have made the sovereign Lord my refuge, I will tell of all your deeds’. Both albums offer a contemporary vocabulary to the framework of the Psalms, putting to melody the strife and struggles we encounter while we wait with faith for Jesus to return, for the day when ‘all things are right’.
