The Psalms of Eminem
A few weeks ago I said to a friend, “I think that if Eminem lived in the days of King David he may have written a psalm or two that would have made it into the Bible.” He thought I was crazy, and perhaps he was right. However, I still stand by that statement.
Eminem hit the big time in 1999 and was met with wild acclaim. He drew a mainstream audience that had, until his arrival, largely remained distant from hip-hop music. Perhaps it is because Eminem is white, and (paraphrasing his words) people “connected with him too because he looked like them.” He has constantly garnered attention on the music scene and away from music.
He has had a long list of well-documented problems - drug addiction, a difficult upbringing, public lawsuits, and his tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife. Beyond this his lyrics have been considered by many to be vulgar, sexist, and violent. Over the years people have protested his concerts and tried to censor him.
To say that Eminem is controversial is a bit like saying Northern Alaska is a bit chilly in the midst of winter is, one might say, a colossal understatement. To suggest that he could actually have been someone whose words could have been recorded in the pages of Scripture is, one might say, a colossal overstatement. Yet, in the midst of a troubled life and raw lyrics there is a redemptive thread in his music.
The redemptive thread in the music of Eminem echoes the same that one finds in the collection of Psalms in the Hebrew Scriptures. Many often think and speak of the Psalms as a book filled with the praise and adoration of God. While there is a considerable amount of that in the book, almost half of the Psalms are laments.
The Psalms of lament are brutally honest lyrics that reflect the concrete realities of everyday life. Within the book of Psalms are confessions of dark secrets, desire for vengeance, violence, and deep expressions of doubt, confusion, and anger aimed squarely at God himself. The language in the laments portray deep trouble, torment, and anger in language that many Christians may want to censor if they were written today.
These laments charge before God with gut wrenching lyrics. Some are directed toward enemies such as, “Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks” (Psalm 137.9). There are lyrics of hopeless surrender like, “You have taken from me friend and neighbor - darkness is my closest friend” (Psalm 88.18). Psalms that question God over his neglect, “Why do you hide your face and forget our misery and oppression?” (Psalm 44.24).
Beyond the lyrics of the Psalms are the poets and musicians who wrote them. King Solomon penned a couple of songs that made it into the Book of Psalms. We know that he could not keep away from women, which led to him having almost 1,000 wives and concubines. It was his weakness with women that led him away from God. While his story is sultry, what about his dad’s?
Solomon was the son of Bathsheba, the woman who had a tryst with David, Solomon’s father. As the story goes, Bathsheba got pregnant from their encounter, and David wanted to cover it up. Which involved deception, betrayal, and eventually murder – none of which worked. David was so violent that God told him that because he was a man of blood he could not build the temple.
You may be thinking that while this is true, a man like David confessed his sins. Well, so does Eminem. On his latest solo album he has a fascinating line where, when struck by lightning, he calls out to God saying, “Alright then I quit, God I give up. Call it evil that men do, lord forgive me for what my pen do.” It sure does not measure up the sanitized confessional prayers we have all been taught to pray, but he is talking honestly to God in his all of his imperfection.
For Eminem there is a brutal honesty in his music that is admirable. He is willing to say the things that no one else is willing to say, even when it’s profane. He speaks of his anger, sorrow, hatred, fears, love, and rays of hope in a smashingly candid way. It is from this place that he cries out to God, who sometimes, as the Psalmists says, seems to be hiding his face.
You, like my friend, may think I am crazy. That's okay. However, I do not believe people or things have to be “Christian” to be sacred. In the same way people and things do not need to be “non-Christian” to be secular. There is always a bit of both in everything here on this earth. Perhaps we should not be so quick to throw something out that makes us uncomfortable. Maybe we should hold it and seek to learn from it. Perhaps we have more to learn than we realize from the Psalms of Eminem.