Everybody’s Hurting

A good friend of mine is in the habit of periodically sending me an envelope full of Starbucks/iTunes cards that he collects from week to week.  A couple of weeks ago Jakob Dylan’s “Everybody’s Hurting” came in the mail.  It is a haunting and beautiful song, both lyrically and musically.  It is rich in biblical imagery and speaks powerfully to the brokenness of our world and the profound longing of the human condition.  Some of the lines in this song truly take my breath away and have reduced me to tears (maybe I’m turning all mushy and sentimental in my old age).   Each line in this song could probably inspire a sermon!  I’ve had the rest of Women and Country in the headphones as I write this post and I can tell that this album is going to be getting regular play in the iPod for a long time.

I couldn’t find a video of the studio version of this song but the one below is pretty good.  If you’d rather listen to the studio version click on the link above.  They lyrics are reproduced below.

Been walking the dirt floor, my eyes are open Lord
Where did you go, have we just left you bored?
On down this unholy well we rolled
Stirring barrels in hell to be warm
It’s further back down than the high ground
Ain’t milk and honey, we’re movin’ round
Only one thing is certain
That’s everybody
Everybody’s hurting

We come from the country where the rain follows plow
And the evenings are cold enough to pluck your feathers out
We hear your engines roaring deep and loud
As we work the mules on this bludgeoned ground
We’ve hunted these hills dry
We’ve long outlasted the winter and our last wood pile
Only one thing is certain
That’s everybody
Everybody’s hurting

Through rolling acres of boneyards we drift
Our spirits’ been broken been splintered to bits
Faith is believing what you see ain’t so
My sweetheart we’ve got to learn to live with these ghosts
They can’t leave; we can’t go

We’d sell this valley if we could go north
Where the sun sets dripping buckets of gold
Through snow topped thunderheads and rows of wind clouds

Coming down this mountain how sweet salvation sounds
With our hands out like lowly pilgrims
As the old men death salute the young ones in
Already know what we’re just learning
That’s everybody
Everybody’s hurting

Amen.  Come Lord Jesus.