“Oh, the flowers of indulgence and the weeds of yesteryear
Like criminals, they have choked the breath of conscience and good cheer
The sun beat down upon the steps of time to light the way
To ease the pain of idleness and the memory of decay.
I gaze into the doorway of temptation's angry flame
And every time I pass that way I always hear my name
Then onward in my journey I come to understand
That every hair is numbered like every grain of sand.
...
I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the sea
Sometimes I turn, there's someone there, other time it's only me
I am hanging in the balance of the reality of man
Like every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.”
- From Every Grain Of Sand by Bob Dylan
This has to be in my opinion Bob Dylan’s finest lyrical moment. We all know the temptation, it calls our name. We all know the isolation, the seeming distance from God. We all know the indulgence, it has us by the throat. We all need to confess our mistakes and admit our hanging in the balance of faith and life. From there all we can is trust.Hymn-like in its use of language and image, it is subjective to every pilgrim’s spiritual walk and as the Psalmist ultimately comes down to trusting God so Dylan paraphrases Jesus himself with his “every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand.”
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