Today’s news, hate filled words,, lies and contempt, images of cruel, violent acts, wound my heart, wound each of our hearts.
They evoke yearning… longing for justice, truth, goodness.
Faint echoes of Johnny Cash’s song When the Man Comes Around seep into my mind. He wrote the song following a dream. He was with Queen Elizabeth and she said to him, “ You’re like a thorn tree in a whirlwind”, When he woke up he looked in the Bible and found similar words in the book of Job and he began to write.
When the Man Comes Around
Intro
And I heard, as it were, the noise of thunder
One of the four beasts saying “Come and see”
And I saw, and behold, a white horse
Verse 1
There’s a man going ’round taking names
And he decides who to free and who to blame
Everybody won’t be treated all the same
There’ll be a golden ladder reaching down
When the man comes around
Verse 2
The hairs on your arm will stand up
At the terror in each sip and in each sup
Will you partake of that last offered cup?
Or disappear into the potter’s ground?
When the man comes around
Chorus
Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Voices calling, voices crying
Some are born and some are dying
It’s Alpha and Omega’s kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks
Verse 3
‘Til Armageddon, no salaam, no shalom
Then the father hen will call his chickens home
The wise men will bow down before the throne
And at his feet they’ll cast their golden crowns
When the man comes around
Verse 4
Whoever is unjust, let him be unjust still
Whoever is righteous, let him be righteous still
Whoever is filthy, let him be filthy still
Listen to the words long written down
When the man comes around
Chorus
Hear the trumpets, hear the pipers
One hundred million angels singing
Multitudes are marching to the big kettledrum
Voices calling, voices crying
Some are born and some are dying
It’s Alpha and Omega’s kingdom come
And the whirlwind is in the thorn tree
The virgins are all trimming their wicks
The whirlwind is in the thorn tree
It’s hard for thee to kick against the pricks
In measured hundredweight and penny pound
When the man comes around
Outro
And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts
And I looked, and behold, a pale horse
And his name, that sat on him, was Death
And Hell followed with him
Vivid images of ultimate rightness and justice flow through the text…a sure hope. It was the last song Johnny Cash recorded. It is said that he was so weak he could only sing a phrase at a time.
And the Man Came around.
Johnny Cash 1932-2003