In 1963 Paul Simon wrote the song “The Sound of Silence.” A little bit later he and Art Garfunkel recorded the song as a duet which failed, however after a digitally remix from one of their producers the song was released again in 1965 as “The Sounds of Silence” and became a tremendous hit.
Simon wrote the song while sitting in his bathroom with the door closed, turning on the water faucet, and turning the lights out. He sat in his bathroom because he liked the sound of his guitar and voice bouncing off the tile surroundings similar to being in an echo chamber. Someone asked him what inspired him to write this song and he replied, “I have no idea.” Garfunkel however, summed up the song’s meaning as “the inability of people to communicate with each other, not particularly internationally but especially emotionally, so what you see around you are people unable to love each other.”
I was in college when this song re-surfaced and stayed popular through my military career. Even though I didn’t, at that time, understand what the song was about I established my own thoughts of what I would think it meant. All through my upbringing and my Christian training I was always told to go into a closet, shut the door, and talk with the Lord. I am reminded what our Lord and Savior said in Matthew 6:6; “But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”
PRAYER
Thank you Lord for your guidance. I pray that as I talk with you I will listen to you instead of the world around me. Amen.
Suggested Readings
Sunday – Lamentations 3:25-30;
Monday – Mark 1:35-39;
Tuesday – Psalm 37:1-8;
Wednesday – Ephesians 5:8-14;
Thursday – Proverbs 18:12-13;
Friday – John 15:18-25;
Saturday – Ecclesiastes 3:7-8
For many of us when go to our closet to pray we tend to take the world with us. As the song states “Hello darkness, my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again; because a vision softly creeping, left its seeds while I was sleeping; and the vision that was planted in my brain, still remains, within the sound of silence.”
We all need to realize that when we have our quiet time with the Lord, we need to talk with Him and only Him. He will be our sounding board and give us solace when the world just wants to keep pounding at us the problems we have in everyday life. Jesus cares for us and will guide us through these problems if we will lay them at His feet and then get out of His way. We can take the world with us into our quiet time but we need to let go of them and listen to the quiet, still voice of our Lord and Savior. He will give us comfort and peace when the world just wants to keep us in tune with our problems.
I enjoy hearing the song but I have renewed attitude toward it. It brings back sweet memories of my yesterdays and reminds me of the good times I had as a younger person. I know now that when I go into a dark place the darkness is not my old friend but a place that I can be alone with God. I don’t go in to talk with the darkness because I am in the Lord’s presence and He gives me strength, hope, and guidance.
Psalm 46:10 tells us, “Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!”
What about you? Do you talk with the Lord during your quiet time and when you go to your closet to pray? Even though Simon said his song was about the inability of people to communicate, I disagree and say everyone has a Father in Heaven that will guide us in whatever we attempt or do. Let go of the world and turn all of your anxieties, misunderstandings, and problems over to God.
