A simple, quiet, plea for help. A
calm invocation of the Lord’s intervention in our lives. A peaceful prayer to
the God of all power. A whisper of thanksgiving that we know who holds this world
in His hands.
The descriptions I just listed
come rushing to my mind when I hear the word Kumbayah. To be honest, I hadn’t thought
of that word for many years until just a few weeks ago. As I have mentioned in
a previous post, my prayer time is not always as quiet and reflective as I
would like it to be. I often find myself praying while I’m driving, cooking,
cleaning, or even giving the 4 year old a bath as I just had to do while I was
writing this because he “almost” made it to the potty (face in palm).
I found myself praying in one of
these situations a few weeks ago for a sweet friend that just happened to be on
my mind at that moment. I knew of a struggle she was having but I wasn’t sure
what she needed to get her through it. My simple prayer was for God to be with
her and give her the help she needed to make it through this difficulty. Immediately
after I prayed for her I lifted a thanksgiving to God that he is able and
willing to help His children. When I concluded the thought occurred to me, “I
have just prayed Kumbayah.” I am not sure why this thought came into my mind.
As I mentioned, it had been years since I had thought about or heard the word.
Then, as random thoughts have a way of doing, it sent me on a search through my
mind, the internet, and the Bible. Before I share this journey, I need you to
know it was a long one. As evidenced in my earlier confession of ceasing the
writing of this to deal with a potty emergency, things don’t happen as quickly
in my real life as they do on the page.
The first stop on the train of
thought was childhood. I could vaguely remember my mom singing me this song one
night as I sat in her lap. I can’t remember exactly where we were but it wasn’t
home and I remember being a bit scared. Then my mother sang this prayer to the
Lord and all was calm. I didn’t know what it meant but it made me feel better.
I also heard echoes of the song being sung through the years at worship or
during VBS. I remembered I liked it’s comforting melodic sound and that it
seemed to be asking God to be near, though, I wasn’t sure if it actually was.
Stop two, the internet to search
for definition of this interesting word. I was remembering a faint voice
somewhere in my past that was telling me the word was roughly translated “Come
By Here” but I knew nothing else about the origins of the word or the song it
was attached to so, I asked Google. That was a fascinating pit stop. Let’s just
say, they don’t make dictionaries like they used to (and I’m not that old
people).
A site called Urban Dictionary
can apparently be added to by it’s users to give traditional definitions of
words and the newer, updated meanings used by many in our culture today and
then have those definitions voted on and ranked according to how it’s used. It’s
an interesting look into cultural changes in vernacular through the years. Some
of the differences are minimal but the changes to the use of Kumbayah struck me
as a profound and telling. This definition was listed for the word as the most
popular: “Kumbayah is a uniquely
African-American Contribution to American English. Kumbayah is Gullah
pronunciation of the phrase “Come by here” (or ‘come by yah’, ‘yah’ being a
West African Form of ‘here’.) This word has been turned into an ironic term by
over usage and misinterpretation by the mainstream culture. However, it’s
actually a call to God to visit the singer ‘Kumbayah my Lord’ means ‘come by
here my Lord’.”
I also found two articles written
on the song from people with two different platforms and backgrounds, one a Christian
perspective and the other political, who reached the same conclusions. (Those articles
here and here) They both agree on the fact that this song has it’s roots off
the coast of Georgia and South Carolina in the times of slavery. The Gullah
people did in fact sing this soothing spiritual to cry out to our mighty God to
come near, to comfort them, to hear their pleas for His relief from their
suffering. They invited Him, “Kumbayah Lord! Hear us pray! Hear us sing! Hear us
cry!” They also both agree that it has been thoroughly hijacked and abused by
our modern culture. The Christian writer says, “Kumbayah is an excellent
example of a song that was made internationally available but in the process it
was robbed of it’s meaning. What would the song have meant if it was left as
the local prayer a few saints on the coast of South Carolina?” The political
commentator says, “Rather than Kumbayah representing strength and power in
togetherness and harmony as it once did, the word has come to reflect weakness
and wimpiness.” They also both ponder why this happened and, I believe rightly
in part, place the blame on the winds of change in society. I say I only agree
in part because this only addresses that changes have been made on a societal
level. It doesn’t really address the heart of those changes or, rather, the hearts
of the people who are blowing in those winds. Why have they made a cry to God
something to be ridiculed or viewed as weak?
In asking myself this question I
was lead to the place I find myself in pondering moments like these, God’s
Word. As I thought about the background information I had learned about this
word and the song it is connected with I could not help but think of Psalms.
This song was, and is, in fact a psalm to it’s core. It is a poetic, lyrical, prayer.
It echoes many of the poetic prayers of David in the book of Psalms as he cries
out to God for deliverance from his foes and has the tone of assurance that God
will appear and save His children.
Here are a few examples from the
book of Psalms of pleas to the Lord for rescue and relief:
“Arise, O LORD! Save me, O my God! For you strike all my enemies on the
cheek; you break the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to the LORD; your
blessing be on your people!” Psalm 3:7-8
“Answer me when I call, O God of my righteousness! You have given me
relief when I was in distress. Be gracious to me and hear my prayer!” Psalm 4:1
“O LORD my God, in you do I take refuge; save me from all my pursuers
and deliver me, lest like a lion they tear my soul apart, rending it in pieces,
with none to deliver.” Psalm 7:1-2
“When the righteous cry for help, the LORD hears and delivers them out
of all their troubles. The LORD is near to the brokenhearted and saves the
crushed in spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the LORD
delivers him out of them all.” Psalm 34:17-19
These urgent requests have one
thing in common, they recognize God as an active source of the deliverance for
which they plea. They admit and proclaim that God is the source of salvation,
righteousness, relief, refuge, and deliverance for the brokenhearted,
afflicted, and crushed in spirit. Just as Kumbayah, though quiet and
unassuming, is an urgent request to God to hear and recognize the lion of
slavery tearing apart the soul of the Gullah people trapped in it’s terrible
jaws. They sang because they knew He heard and He would come to save and
deliver. These Psalms, and this song tell the story of those who sang the
prayers but most importantly they tell of the power of the God they were
praying to.
I believe the ridicule by many
that Kumbayah has experienced in our society is a small, but very telling, indication that the knowledge who God is and
what He has done for His creation is being lost. Asking God to come near in our
times of distress is not a sign of weakness. When God’s children sing songs
such as this together and pray prayers with it’s sentiment together they are
praying to the only one with the absolute ability to bring the peace we are
pleading for.
Those outside of the family of
God do not understand this. Those who do not know His power cannot see the
point. It seems foolish to many in the world who think themselves their own
savior. Because they do not understand they view it as irrelevant and laughable
that we call out to an “unseen” God.
This may seem like a giant “bunny
trail” I hopped down a few weeks ago after a simple prayer for a friend, but, I
am rather glad I followed it. Whether you enjoy the little song that caused
this journey of mine or not one thing is certain, it has made me think. Reverence
for our great God and a failure to recognize His power has always been and will
always be a problem for the world until Jesus comes again. Our job as Christians
is to keep it from infiltrating the Lord’s body and shine a light on His
holiness and mercy so the world will begin to see it.
I am thankful to know the same
God of Israel that David and the other psalmists cried out to. I am thankful to
know that He is my heavenly Father and the Father of Jesus Christ who is the
intercession for all of His children. In times of hurt and despair I may feel
weak but He makes me strong when I cry out to God this deceptively simple plea,
“Kumbayah!” I know He hears. He not only hears, He acts to meet the needs of
His people. When His children invite God to “come by here” we can be sure He
will arrive and that he will deliver.
