“And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (John 3:19-21 ESV)
There is an old secular song which was written in 1963/64 by Paul Simon which is called, “The Sound of Silence,” which has been open to many varied interpretations over the years, with regard to its meaning. Well, the Lord has had that song going through my head yesterday and into today, and so he had me look at the song’s words and phrases from a spiritual perspective in relation to this passage of Scripture in John 3. So this is NOT an independent interpretation of what the author meant, but how God wants me to see it.
“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.”
If someone is “in the dark,” that person is in a state of ignorance about something, which could be deliberate ignorance, i.e. a willful shutting out of the truth (the light). Biblically speaking, the word “darkness” is often used in reference to sin, so if you walk in darkness, you conduct your life (behaviors, thinking, speaking, attitudes, actions) in sin (wickedness, immorality, etc.). So, if the darkness is someone’s “old friend,” this would indicate someone who is trapped in sinful addiction of some nature, often of a sexual nature.
Now this “vision” could be many different things, but if we are speaking here of someone trapped in addiction (slavery) to sin, who is preferring the darkness over the light, I would suggest that this has to do with fantasizing unreality, perhaps sexually immoral situations, and for obvious purposes. And it could also have to do with watching fantasy on TV, the internet, and via videos, etc. which feeds the addiction to sin, which then remains planted in the brain within the sound of silence (while kept secret from anyone else).
“In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.”
This person is sleeping, i.e. in a state of inactivity, unresponsive, insensitive, and desensitized to what he is taking into his brain. And he is concealing what he is doing from anyone else, which is why he is walking alone, for he is not reaching out to anyone for help. [And although I am using “he,” this also includes females who are in the same condition.] He is restless and agitated, for he knows what he is doing is wrong. So he has to stifle his conscience and become hardhearted in order to continue in his sin.
Now a person’s eyes can also be his insight, discernment, and judgment. So his discernment has now been penetrated by this “neon light.” But this is a fake (artificial) light (truth, righteousness, the gospel) which is superficial and multifaceted in order to appease human flesh and to not require death to sin and walks of obedience to our Lord as included in the gospel of our salvation. And that artificial truth dilutes the seriousness of sin and calls it something else so that the sinner can continue in sin and remain secretive.
“And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one dared
Disturb the sound of silence.”
“Naked” can mean different things, but in this context I am thinking of Adam and Eve and how when they sinned against God they realized that they were naked, no longer clothed with righteousness, purity, and godliness, but now with wickedness, immorality, and shame. So this is a sinful light being spoken of (a false gospel) where thousands and perhaps millions of people are making professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but it is lip service only, i.e. talking without speaking, for their faith has no biblical response to it.
For they are also people who hear with their ears but they aren’t really listening to the truth of the gospel and to Jesus Christ who they claim to believe in. For they are not responding to the truth with biblical faith which dies with Christ to sin and walks in obedience to his commands, for they are preferring the darkness and the fake light to the true light. And, again, they keep hidden what is going on inside of them, and what they are doing and thinking, because they don’t want anyone to know where they are.
"’Fools,’ said I, ‘You do not know
Silence, like a cancer, grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you’
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells, of silence.”
There are those of us who have come out of the darkness into the true light whose eyes have been opened to the truth, and not just to biblical truth, but to the truth of where we are as a people, and as a nation, and with regard to what is actually going on all around us, which so many people in my nation, anyway, are blinded to because they are following many false lights (false teachers, preachers, politicians, newscasters, etc.). And so they will not receive the truth because they have been trained to reject the truth as a lie.
And so God has called some of us to be his messengers to get the truth out to the people and to warn them that not everything called “truth” is the truth, and that not everyone tells the truth, for lies and liars abound in the church, in the government, and in the media, etc. And we must not bury our heads in the sand and refuse to even look at the truth, for then the lies grow like cancer, and the multitudes end up believing the lies and not the truth. But all too often people don’t want the truth. They want what sounds good.
“And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And whispered in the sounds of silence.”
This is speaking of idolatry and of making other humans and the media and preachers and politicians and false gospels our god instead of us following the one true and only God – Father, Son Jesus Christ, and Holy Spirit. And this engages professing Christians literally shutting out the truth of the gospel as taught by Jesus and by his NT apostles, because the truth requires that they surrender their lives to God and that they submit to him as Lord and forsake their sins and walk (in conduct) in obedience to his commands.
And they also refuse to hear anything that contradicts what they have always been taught or what their idols are telling them is the truth. And so they are like sheep following after wolves in sheep’s clothing who are “Pied Pipers” leading the people to their deaths. But the people stop up their ears and they cover their eyes so that they can hold on to their lies and continue to live the way that they want to live. But the truth is still out there. And it can be found by those seeking after truth and righteousness and God.
[Matthew 7:21-23; Matthew 24:9-14; Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:35-58; John 8:31-32; John 10:27-30; John 14:15,21,23-24; John 15:1-11; Acts 26:18]
*This lyric interpretation was for illustrative purposes only.*
You can listen to the song “The Sound of Silence” here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-J7SNo9nI
Caution: This link may contain ads
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