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Good Morning

I’m going to make two confident predictions about tonight’s Eurovision Song Contest. First, the UK’s ritual humiliation will not be as bad tonight. We have Sam Ryder singing a good song. And also that Ukraine’s entry will be there or thereabouts when the final results are counted.

If any song is a unique combination of lyrics, music and the manner in which it is performed, Ukraine’s offering Stephania – sung in Ukrainian by the Kalush Orchestra is guaranteed to get the goosebumps going and to lift your spirit.

Written before the Russian invasion the song, from the start, has a prophetic aura to it. It’s a hymn of love to a mother called Stephanie, with the refrain
The Field blooms and it turns grey celebrating the mother’s innate wisdom and proclaiming that she probably knows even more than Solomon. Because of the bond between mother and child, the young one always does everything to make sure they are able to return home even if the roads are broken. I challenge anyone not to be moved.

Many of the Hebrew psalms are of course songs: performers, instruments, singing and clapping all feature frequently within them. This week, at a church service, I read Psalm 135 - Praise the Lord for the Lord is good; Make music for it is lovely. The Temple songs gave hope to the faithful. However grim and terrible the situation was, the songs bear witness that there was nothing faith in God, and each other, cannot overcome.

Performed in the midst of a shocking and tragic conflict tonight’s Eurovision song from Ukraine is for me a modern Psalm of hope against adversity. And if you do watch or listen to the song later this evening– be mindful of the young performers’ exuberant confidence and faith in the future.

Temporarily removed from the front line in their homeland they exude brave positivity. They are provided with a stage, for a few minutes, to communicate the antithesis of everything the current conflict is about. And they do it with energy and courage.

If then. the biblical psalms all have elements of life story, personal experience, an appeal to some aspect of spiritual truth and hope for the future, Ukraine’s Eurovision song is certainly brimming with all those things. Especially a desire to finally make it home despite the broken roads. Stephania is my feel-good Eurovision Psalm of the moment.

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