There will be plenty to say about Dylan and his new album in the coming days, so, this Sunday, let’s step aside and let ol’ Leonard Cohen in for a change. The YouTube clip at right features a performance by Leonard, apparently from just yesterday, of his song Hallelujah.

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah

It’s a song Cohen originally recorded and released way back in 1984 on his album Various Positions, but it is lately that it seems to have taken the world by storm, with a variety of highly successful cover versions, including by Jeff Buckley and Alexandra Burke. There’s no question that the song is affecting for many people, but I think a lot of performers and listeners also have widely varying takes on it.

I recently read an interesting take from a Christian standpoint by a writer who is, coincidentally or not, named Christian Scharen. His piece appears in The Cresset Online and is entitled “On Leonard Cohen: The Holy or the Broken Hallelujah.”

The song begins with David but moves progressively out of the Bible and into the challenges of daily life. The last verse speaks to the challenge of living. A deep humility about human goodness comes through as Cohen sings, “I did my best, it wasn’t much.” Perhaps this is easier to say in Canada, but in eternally optimistic USA where pastor Joel Osteen’s Your Best Life Now became a best seller, such sentiment is often dismissed as misguided—a downer, at best, and at worst unfaithful. Theologically, however, I think Cohen is spot on; his lyrics get what a faithful life means. In this life, all we are capable of is a broken hallelujah. We’re only able to raise a broken hallelujah because of what God has done for us. Knowing that keeps us from trying to please God with our shiny “holy hallelujahs” and allows us to be honest about ourselves, our need for God’s mercy, and our call to join in God’s mission of mercy in the midst of a broken world.

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• Hallelujah
• Hallelujah: A song goes home
• A Song on Sunday, Volume 3