“From your lips she drew the Hallelujah” surely means that David ceased praising God because his soul was burdened with sin and hiding. She took his open heart away from God. Take another look at the words. They clearly speak of her taking, weakening David. Note that the “she cut your hair” is symbolic of Samson and Delilah, taking Samson’s strength, breaking his devotion to God.
“Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you to a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah”
To cast this as simply a celebration of romantic feelings is to miss the whole story.
[Editor: I believe there is more to this than suggested. Sordid as their union was, it was through this lineage of David & Bathsheba (and the betrayal of Uriah) that Yeshua HaMashiach was born. Ponder this as you read. I have always believed that Leonard Cohen was a poet of immeasurable depth. I do miss him.]
LYRICS FOLLOW (which, btw, Cohen often modified at will whenever he performed it.)
Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord That David played, and it pleased the Lord But you don’t really care for music, do you? It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth The minor falls, the major lifts The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
Your faith was strong but you needed proof You saw her bathing on the roof Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you She tied you to a kitchen chair She broke your throne, and she cut your hair And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
You say I took the name in vain I don’t even know the name But if I did, well, really, what’s it to you? There’s a blaze of light in every word It doesn’t matter which you heard The holy or the broken Hallelujah
Hallelujah, Hallelujah Hallelujah, Hallelujah
I did my best, it wasn’t much I couldn’t feel, so I tried to touch I’ve told the truth, I didn’t come to fool you And even though it all went wrong I’ll stand before the Lord of Song With nothing on my tongue but Hallelujah
F.B. WORSTER – God Don’t Make Junk . (Private Press) . Us . 1974 . (Xian) (Contemporary Folk) F.B. Worster – Guitar, Vocals Ron Ostrow – Percussion
Linda “F.B.” Worster is one of those hippie kind of female folk-singers you can picture sitting on a coffee-house barstool with her sticker-plastered guitar and hair dangling in her eyes. She’s the real thing, too, singing of relationships with deep feelings that run the spectrum from panged whispers to bluesy wailing to impassioned outpourings sung with the conviction of Buffy Sainte-Marie. Fourteen original songs with a simple kind of beauty backed only by her acoustic guitar (the exception being ‘Autumn’s Child’ which adds tabla-like percussion).
Titles like ‘Cemetery Song”, ‘A Jew They Call Jesus’, ‘Hello Cyndy’, ‘Song For You And That Guy’, ‘I Know How Hard You’ve Tried’, ‘A Guy Like You’. Comes in a primitive sepia Folkways-style paste-on cover showing her playing guitar in a field. A second cover variation exists with a different photo and the name Linda Worster. (The Archivist, 4th edition by Ken Scott).