The Alcoholic Hymn (The Spirit Bears the Curse) by Derek Webb

I’m not sure I want to post this, so when I take it down tomorrow you’ll know why.

It’s a new song by Derek Webb, an artist I’ve enjoyed for many years. Speaking from his own personal struggles, he pens a beautiful hymn to alcohol.

It’s everything my addictive brain once believed and I’m learning to debunk.

For most of the song you could imagine this tune played in a trendy Nashville church service. Then in a clever twist, the real object of adoration is revealed.

Alcohol dependence is a theme running throughout the album as the artist deals with his own marriage breakdown and struggles to keep faith in God.

Sounds a little like my life : (

Here are the lyrics:

help me to forget
all of my regret
i know you’re strong enough to do the job
you go by many names
forever stay the same
your promises i claim
you’re all i’ve got

we gather here because we know
there’s nowhere else that we can go
where we can be really free

so we raise our voice
we raise an offering
would you come near
and quench our thirst
oh, lift our hearts
as the spirit bears the curse

oh, we depend on you
we know that you’ll come through
we feel it instantly when you move
it’s more than chemistry
more than community
you enter into me
you’re in my veins

you bear the weight of all our grief
uncertainty and unbelief
oh, you restore our sanity

so we raise our voice
we raise an offering
would you come near
and quench our thirst
oh, lift our hearts
as the spirit bears the curse

now my knees are weak
my speech is slurred
oh, the things you shake
oh, the things you stir
i am calling out the only name
that delivers me from my guilt and shame

oh, alcohol
alcohol
oh, alcohol
we raise our voices for alcohol
alcohol
an offering for alcohol
alcohol
oh, alcohol
oh, alcohol