We are not very good in Church life at acknowledging lament, even if that lament needs to be couched in hope. But it is an important element of life for us since all of us go through hard times, some of which are very difficult to comprehend. There are several folks we know who, in recent times, have had difficult and life-changing experiences that are lamentable in the strict sense of the word.

As some of you will know, I’ve been discovering a bit more about my favourite Dutch contemporary worship group, Sela ( www.Sela.nl ) and I noticed that the songs I like best, which appear to be very popular in the Netherlands as well if YouTube is anything to go by, have this mixture of lament and hope. I wondered why that was, and in digging a bit deeper I think I found out. Their first main female vocalist was a lovely singer by the name of Kinga Bán who, for much of the time she was in the band, was fighting a losing battle with cancer. An experience of sharing together in this most sorrowful of life situations, and doing so in faith, resulted in a creativity that can speak to the whole church through their songs.

One of Kinga’s last recordings was of a song called Ik zal er zijn, “I will be there.” It is not only reflective of her own experience but draws on one of the most foundational stories in the whole of the Bible – that of Moses meeting God at the burning bush. On being told by God to go back to Egypt and lead the Israelites Moses says if the people ask who has sent me, what shall I say. What is your name? God says, ‘Say I am has sent you,’ and elaborates further by saying, ‘I am who I am,’ or ‘I will be who I will be.’

There has been much ink spilt on what this name means, with some thinking it refers to the eternity of God, which may well be part of it. But the most illuminating interpretation I’ve come across I first met in the work of John Goldingay, who thinks it is a name of assurance to the people that conveys ‘I will be to you all that you will need me to be for you’ – or, as we might say, ‘I will be there for you.’

This is not just a word to Moses or the Israelites, but for all who follow in their steps of faith – for us, even in the darkest of times, God says, ‘I will be there for you.’ It is this story that the title of the song comes from, and the song communicates that message very well.

If you want to listen to it you can catch it at this YouTube link: