In the October 2016 issue of Pastoral Music, Fr. Virgil Funk selected one quote from each of 150 back issues of the magazine from 1976 to 2001. One from Robert Strusinski was, “It seems as if today’s Christians are most comfortable singing only ‘good news.’”

So, the prophet Habakkuk mystifies us. Try reading the whole book in scripture: in my Bible, it’s not even four full pages! It’s horribly uncomfortable reading, but at the end the prophet says, “Though the fig tree does not bloom and no fruit is on the vines … and the fields yield no food … yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the God of my salvation.” How does one express that in song?

If you’re really, really lucky, in your music library you may still have a copy of the hymn book, When From Our Exile, which contains a song called “Even Then,” with urgent music by Bernard Huijbers, text after Psalm 13 by the great Dutch poet Huub Oosterhuis:

Even then, even then, I’ll cling to you …
whether you want me or not,
in your good grace or even out of it,

   ‘Save me, save me!” I’ll cry to you
or maybe only “love me, love me!”

It’s as searing a prayer as one could sing. It’s long out of print now, but ask around, especially of your older colleagues who may remember it—or even have a copy of the recording. It’s worth hunting down.

We don’t do well with lament (“It’s a downer—who wants to sing that kind of stuff!”), but when we pass over songs of suffering and abandonment we dismiss the authentic voice of people who suffer. And we diminish ourselves in the process.