Haggard's Hope for the Good Times

Even an Outlaw can see it.

Introduction

I was in an “outlaw country” kind of mood the other day driving home from work, so I found a playlist on Spotify that had some of my favorite country singers and let it ride. One of the songs that randomly played was Merle Haggard’s, ‘Are The Good Times really Over (I wish a buck was still silver)’. As soon as that first strum from the acoustic guitar hit with the single bass note at the very beginning of the song, I was instantly transported back to riding with my dad in the front seat of my family’s brown Pontiac station wagon, which we called “The Grocery Getter”, going to soccer practice or karate practice or just running errands around town. On one such drive my dad introduced me to Merle Haggards Epic Hits. The first song that I remember hearing was, “Are the Good Times Really Over”. I remember this song because the instrumentation was so distinct, the lyrics painted a colorful picture and Merle’s voice…well, let’s just say they don’t make ‘em like Merle anymore.

As I listened to this song on my drive home from work and hearing Merle’s lament about the cultural state of his day and how he wishes that life could be like it used to be; back before Elvis, the Vietnam War, and when people still used silver dollars, I related to the song in a way that I hadn’t before…but I haven’t listened to this song in years. As a child of maybe 8 or 9, listening to this song while riding in the car with my dad, I obvioulsy didn’t get all the references. I was an 80’s kid and that was all I knew; riding bikes at break neck speed with no helmet; staying gone until the street lights came on; walking in the door, sweaty, smelling dinner being prepared; playing war; fights with neigborhood kids; rope swings in the creek, etc. The 80’s were awesome! What was Merle so bent out of shape about? Now, listening to this song as a 44 year old man, I get it.

If I were to write my own version of this old Haggard classic, today, I might say something like,

“I wish more daddy’s were like mine was and taught their young boys to be men; taught them to work hard an earn the right to sit down at days’ end; before mega churchs and satellites, when the word of God was more often preached right; back before preacher’s gave Tedtalks and it was still a good thing to be white.” - Matt Lavender

Merle goes on to say things like, “I wish Coke was still Cola and joint was a bad place to be.” I don’t remember what I thought about this line, but I can’t imagine, at 8 or 9 years old, understanding what he was talking about. At that age, I didn’t know Coke was anything but cola and a joint, nothing more than a body part. At two different points in the song, Merle brings to light the cultural role reversals of men and women. In the first verse he describes a time when, as he says, “a man could still work and still would.” In the second verse, Merle futher illustrates that place in time when he says, “…before microwave ovens, when a girl could still cook and still would.” I don’t know what Merle’s religious views were, but it’s interesting that even a pagan or unbeliever, if that was in fact his worldview, can come to the realization that the world is a much better place when men and women are operating in and fulfilling the roles for which they were created.

The song eventually builds to the chorus in which Merle loudly sings, “Are we rolling down hill like a snow ball headed for hell with no kind of chance for the flag or the liberty bell.” Merle, in essence, is saying that given the trajectory of our culture, the destination of hell is certain. However, Merle is asking, “Is this what we want? Is this what will become of us? Are we really willing to cast aside our heritage of freedom (represented in the song by the flag and the liberty bell), which was bought with much blood and sacrifice, for the sake of convenience, inclusion, autonomy, equity, etc.? The situation is so obviously dire, even an “outlaw” can see it. Merle is asking the right questions and coming to logical conclusions based on his observations; that said, I would argue he doesn’t go far enough.

Adding a wrinkle

Now, I’m not saying that convenience, inclusion, autonomy, equity and any other topic one would want to list here are bad things in themselves, however, they only work the way they’re supposed to when they’re applied in the proper context. One should ask, “By what standard are we defining these terms?”. Haggard sings of a heritage that, at first glace, is obvioulsy and distinctly American, but if American’s really new their history, they would realize that the ideas of freedom and liberty are even more disctinclty Christian.

It’s interesting how liberal democrats and progressives in our day wax poetic about things like inclusion, human autonomy, equity and then turn right around and defend the government’s authority to define these terms and their applications. In this view the only entity that is truly “free” is the state/government. In reality, these ideas can be applied rightly and approprately, only in a world where the sovereign God of the universe is acknowleged as the sovereign God of the universe. It’s also interesting how there is a vein of professing Christians who would argue for the unbeliever’s “right” to be an unbeliever and how the idea of “the separation of church and state” somehow promotes this right. In actuality, the separation of church and state is a Christian doctrine and was meant to keep the governement out of the affairs of the church. It was never meant to keep the church and true religion out of the affairs of the culture. Here’s a good article on the history of the separation of church and sate,

https://firstliberty.org/news/history-behind-the-separation-of-church-and-state/

Not whether but which

Some folks, many of them Christians, would also argue that morality cannot be legislated. Wrong again! All legistlation is an extension of someone’s moral convictions. Everyone is religious, no matter how much they might claim to not be, they are religious. In fact, to be human, is to be religious. Governments are formed by cultures, cultures are formed by people, people are deeply religous; so it stands to reason that whatever laws or legislations are made by a society, they stem from the religious convictions of the people. So, it’s not a question of whether morality can or cannot be legislated, the question is which or whose morality is being legislated?

There is nothing new under the sun

Here’s thing, the kingdom’s of men have been trying to overthrow the kingdom of God and his sovereign rule over creation for a very long time with no success. What we are currenlty experiencing in the post-modern world and more specifically our nation, with the decline of Christian liberty and the rise of relgion defined and organized by the governement is not a novelty. This play has been run consistantly for a long time. Since the begining of history, kingdom’s have risen and fallen and thrones have been thrown to oblivion. God’s word tells us, “What has been done is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc. 1:9, HCSB). The only kingdom that has stood and will stand forever is the kingdom of God.

Haggard’s Snowball

So, let’s bring thing back to Haggard. In the last chorus of Merle’s song he changes the words of that iconic first lane. He says, “STOP rollin’ down hill like a snowball headed for Hell. Stand up for the flag and let’s all ring the liberty bell.” Obviously, all Americans would agree with this statement, but what’s their perspective or worldview? Should they agree with Haggard and work to return to a simpler time when things were more black and white or is the progressive view correct, that says “do what thou will” is the pathway to freedom and liberty? Allow me to offer a different perspective. The book of Daniel describes, not a snowball, but a rock that rolls down hill and wipes out all earthly kingdoms (Ps. 145:13, Dan. 2:44).

“As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. ³⁵ Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth” (Dan. 2:34-35). “And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, ⁴⁵ just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure” (Dan. 2:44-45).

This passage tells of Daniel’s interpreting Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. In the dream, was a statue made of a golden head, silver chest and arms, bronze waist and thighs, legs of iron, and feet made of both iron and clay. The different portions of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream represented different kingdoms both current and future. The head represented Babylon, the chest and arms represented Medo-Persia, the waist and thighs represented the Greeks, the legs of iron represented Rome, and the feet of iron and clay represented Rome after it had started mingling with other nations making it increasinly unstable. It is during the time of this final kingdom that God’s kindgom enters history through the birth of the Messiah and has been slowly yet steadily growing ever since. God’s kingdom struck the feet of the statue in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, conquering all past, present, and future kingdoms. We know from history that in just a few hundred years after the birth of Christ, emperor Constantine converted to Christianity and established Christianity as the offical religion of Rome. The first advent of Christ ushered in the kingdom of God. God’s kingdom is the stone that was cut by no human had, destroys all earthly kingdoms, and becomes a mountain that fills the earth. I like what Ian Duguid says about the certainy and finality of Daniel’s interpretation:

“The depiction of these changing and ultimately failing earthly kingdoms stands in stark contrast to what replaces them, however. The kingdom of God enters the chaos and hopelessness of human history and brings fresh and lasting hope to humanity. After the despair of Genesis 11 comes the new hope of God’s call to Abram in Genesis 12. Nebuchadnezzar’s dream comes to a similar conclusion. The final word of history does not lie with a new and improved version of the statue of man. Rather, it lies with something radical that God will do: a rock that is not hewn by human hands will strike and demolish the statue and then grow to fill the earth (Dan. 2:34–35). This rock clearly points to the kingdom that God will establish in the last days, a kingdom that starts small and lacking in glory but grows through the power of God until it ultimately dominates the entire globe and becomes the ultimate fact of history. Only that divine kingdom is eternal.”

Christ or Chaos

So, here’s the point. While there does need to be a hard stop in our current direction as a society, there also needs to be a “next step”. What do we do after we, “Stop rollin’ down hill…?” Which direction do we go? In reality there are only 2 options for us or any society; Christ or chaos. Perhaps, changing directions is actually “next step” and what needs to happen first is belief and repentance. If there is any hope of our nation ever getting back to the, “good times”, as Haggard calls them, there will need to be reformation and revival in three major areas:

1. Human hearts

2. The family

3. The church

These three areas, as I see them, have sort of a triune effect; each one effects the other two. The family and the church cannot begin to experience revival without there first being reformation in the heart (Rom 10:14-17, Ez. 36:26-28); the church cannot experience reformation without the hearts of parents being transformed and emboldended by the power of the gospel to bring their children up in the fear and admonition of the Lord (Rom 10:14-17, Ez. 36:26-28, Eph. 6:1-4, 1 Thess. 2:2); human hearts will not be changed without pastor’s preaching the gospel faithfully (Rom. 1:16, 10:14-17).

Having said all this, it stands to reason that if there is entity on which to cast blame for the state of our union, it should be shouldered by any one, if not all three of these areas. It has been said that as the church goes, so goes the culture. You want to know why our nation is in as bad a shape as it is? Listen to the sermons preached and the liturgies performed at many of our local churches; listen to the songs that are sung. Rather than preaching the whole council of scripture, many pastors cherry pick verses and passages to affirm their motivational speech on whatever topic they’re addressing that week. Rather than addressing sin and calling people to repentance, many pastors soften what the bible has to say about sin in an attempt to keep the congregational numbers up and growing by making the parishoners feel better about themselves. Rather than singing hymns that are rich with theological depth and truth or the psalms themselves, many churches sing love songs to Jesus that one wound not know were about Jesus unless His name were literally in the lyrics.

Many church services today do not look much different than a Coldplay concert; the American church over the last century or so has gotten very comfortable mingling with and mirroring the world. The sad part is that we often don’t recognize it and when there is a challenge brought forth from a faithful brother or sister in Christ because they have been, “examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11), their concerns are often met with indifference or a response to the effect of, “Well, this is what the congregation wants or expects.”

Conclusion

Will the U.S.A make it back to the “good times” or will we continue down the path to distruction? Maybe. Maybe not? I do know that all empires, kindgoms and super powers have fallen, so it’s highly likely that the United States will eventually end up on the ash heap of history. That said, I am hopeful that, considering that our country is unique in history, perhaps the Lord will allow us to last a bit longer than other nations have. But, like I said, for that to happen, we are in desparate need of reformation and revival. Utimately, I know that God is sovereign and His kingdom will grow and fill the earth (Dan 2:35), and as the bible says, “the interpretation is sure” (Dan. 2:45). So, I am hopeful for our nation. I am hopeful for reformation, for the tearing down of satanic idols, and for the establshing of a new Christendom. I am hopeful because, first and foremost God is faithful, but also because for as much unfaithfulness as the American church has produced, there are still many, many faithful ministers, fathers, mothers, brothers, sister, sons and daughters devoted to the cause of Christ and seeing him glorified in the earth and in the United States specifically. So, it is because of this hope that I have that I can agree with the last line of Merle Haggard’s song which says,

“The best of the free life is still yet to come and the good times ain’t over for good.”

- Merle Haggard

Until next time…Fight on!

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Da 2:44–45). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Da 2:34–35). (2016). Crossway Bibles.

Duguid, I. M. (2008). Daniel (R. D. Phillips, P. G. Ryken, & I. M. Duguid, Eds.; p. 39). P&R Publishing.