This is a retro blog in that I am referencing a song recorded in the 1960’s, Simon and Garfunkel’s I am a Rock. When I was young, I sang outloud to this song while dancing around my bedroom, watering my plants. I never thought about the meaning of the lyrics. I have no idea what brought this song to mind, but there it was rattling around in my brain and I decided to look up the lyrics and discovered that it is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard.
I am a Rock
Sung by Simon and Garfunkel
I Am a Rock lyrics © Paul Simon Music, Lorna Music Co Ltd
A winter’s day
In a deep and dark December
I am alone
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow
I am a rock
I am an island
I’ve built walls
A fortress deep and mighty
That none may penetrate
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain
It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain
I am a rock
I am an island
Don’t talk of love
Well I’ve heard the word before
It’s sleeping in my memory
I won’t disturb the slumber of feelings that have died
If I never loved I never would have cried
I am a rock
I am an island
I have my books
And my poetry to protect me
I am shielded in my armor
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb
I touch no one and no one touches me
I am a rock
I am an island
And a rock feels no pain
And an island never cries
Reading over the lyrics, made me want to cry, because I know people who have lived their life by this song. It’s sad because when we look at ourselves as the rock of our lives, we are fooling ourselves. The best we can ever be is, maybe mud? We are never unchanging and solid like a rock. Only God is the true rock in a person’s life.
Why is taking God as the rock of your life a good thing? Let’s start with looking at how Moses described God – the God he followed as he brought his people out of captivity, and the God he met with and talked to intimately. Moses says,
For I proclaim the name of the LORD;
Ascribe greatness to our God!
The Rock! His work is perfect,
For all His ways are just;
A God of faithfulness and without injustice,
Righteous and just is He. Deuteronomy 32:3 & 4
Moses tells us that God’s work is perfect and His ways just. God is faithful and righteous. If you honestly look in the mirror, can you say those things of yourself? Even for us perfectionists, our work is never perfect. It always needs tweeking. God’s work never needs to be tweeked.
The thing is, knowing just what Moses tells us here about God, gives us confidence in Him. Because He is always faithful and His work is always perfect, we can live a worry-free life. I mean really worry-free. I don’t mean we won’t have issues, but because God is our Rock, we know He has our back and wants the best for us. He will always come through for us. We can trust in His perfection.
Taking God as our Rock, also means that when we experience heartbreak, God will heal our hearts and allow us to feel and love again. God cries with us when we are hurt. He knows what it means to be betrayed by those He loves and calls friends. Jesus felt all the same range of emotions that we do while He walked the earth. And yet, He never hardened His heart. Paul writes to the Ephesians concerning what a hard heart does to a person, and how a tender heart makes one compassionate and kind.
So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.
Therefore, laying aside falsehood, SPEAK TRUTH EACH ONE of you WITH HIS NEIGHBOR, for we are members of one another. BE ANGRY, AND yet DO NOT SIN; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:17-32
Unfortunately, those who claim themselves as their own rock, often become bitter and lead angry lives. However, if we claim God as our Rock, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and give us the ability to forgive others and be tender-hearted so that we may bring compassion and joy into others’ lives.
One of the saddest lines of the Simon and Garfunkel song is, “I am alone.” If a person is his/her own rock, then he/she has no one to stand beside them. This person feels utterly alone. I’m afraid many have experienced this feeling during this past difficult year. However, if we make God our Rock, we are never alone. He is always with us, being our confidant, our joy, our helper, our comforter, our provider, our protector and our guide. Because God is faithful, as Moses said, our God is immovable and always with us. I am so grateful to have such a friend to hold my hand and walk the road through life He has prepared for me.
Even though I like the music of “I am a Rock,” after really looking at the lyrics, I can never dance to it again because it is one of the saddest songs out there. It does make me grateful, though, for my relationship with the living God.
Photo credit: Amos, J. October 2020. What Wobbling Rocks Can Tell Us about Nuclear Safety. D & A Rood/Imperial College London, https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-54374465.
