The Hunger Games OST – “Dark Days”: Love will see us through.

Welcome back to the Gospel According to, where we take all the fandoms in their original context and interpret them through a Biblical lens. This week I was inspired by an amazing sermon from my church’s new pastor and the lyrics of a song from the unofficial-official Hunger Games movie soundtrack. Enjoy!

Fandom: “Dark Days” by Punch Brothers (“The Hunger Games: Songs from District 12 and Beyond)

Verses: Psalm 31, 1 Thessalonians 5:13

Nugget: God’s goodness and faithful love allows us to walk in confidence in every struggle, sorrow and suffering.

The Horizontal View: from one rebel to another

Since this song was originally part of a movie soundtrack, its horizontal, or human-to-human, side is pretty easy to interpret. Based on what we know of Panem’s history, the Dark Days were a period in which the districts were still fighting the oppressive government of the Capitol. We also know that they eventually lost, which gives this song a bit of a darker twist. Nevertheless, for those of us who aren’t rebelling against a dystopian government, it’s a nice sweet message of hope and love that get us through the dark days.

The Vertical View: hope and confidence from God’s faithfulness.

What struck me the most today was the fact that my pastor almost literally quoted this song in his sermon. He was talking about Psalm 31, which describes immense anguish, fear, anxiety, and just overall general suffering that King David was suffering:

“I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away...” Psalm 31:4-5 ESV

But then he goes on to say, “But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.”” Psalm 31:9 ESV

And what the pastor said was, “God’s goodness and steadfast love allows us to walk in confidence even in the midst of our darkest days.” or something like that lol but those words reminded me of Punch Brothers’ lyrics, Our love will see us through these dark, dark days, sister, ’till it lights the way back home. Except that instead of human love, it’s God’s love that gets us through.

“It can turn the whole world upside down/ shake it ’till the sky falls to the ground/ we don’t have to reap the fear they sow…” – Punch Brothers, “Dark Days (Hunger Games OST)

Back to Psalm 31 for a moment. In the rest of the chapter, David describes his enemies chasing him and his friends and neighbors running the other way whenever they see him (verse 11). We don’t know the exact context of when David wrote this psalm, but Israelite history in 1 and 2 Samuel tells us that at one point, before he was officially ruling over Israel, David was running from the jealous former King Saul who was after his life. He surely suffered fear, sadness and confusion at this time because, although God had plucked him out of a life tending sheep and anointed him as king, none of the promises seemed to be coming true yet.

The natural response, the human response in this situation would be to doubt the promises of God, and even His character and heart towards him. But that’s not what David does in this Psalm. My pastor described it to us this way:

David’s formula for trusting God

• Remind yourself of God’s faithfulness to you in the past
• Share your heart with God, let yourself be vulnerable and weak knowing that He is strong and He cares
• Tell Him the circumstances you’re dealing with in the present
• Reaffirm your trust in Him and encourage others to do the same

Because of this formula, David didn’t reap the fear that [the world] tried to sow. In the same way, we as believers “[don’t] mourn as others do who have no hope.” (1 Thess. 5:13 ESV) Yes, we feel the suffering in our own lives and in the world at large. My heart breaks every day if I think too long about… pretty much any part of the world right now. But we don’t give into despair because we know God has been faithful to us before, and He will continue to be as He has always been.

As President Snow said in the first Hunger Games movie, hope is the only thing more powerful than fear (incidentally, I wrote an entire post about that quote that I know you’ll love 😉)

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post in the Hunger Games universe featuring “Dark Days” by Punch Brothers and the but-still-we-persist attitude of the rebel cause. If you did, please let me know what you think! I’d love to know.

Happy fangirling!

Will you stay with me? There’s more to love!

• Finding God in the Hunger Games, Day 3
  Happy November, friends, and welcome to a new series of blog posts! November has always been Hunger Games month for me, mostly because I first read the series over Thanksgiving break in middle school. I found […]
• November 2024 writing goals – the one where it’s time to begin, isn’t it?
  Happy November, friends, and welcome to another writing update! It’s finally time to put my money where my mouth is and start actually writing the story that’s been in my head for months, and I’m really […]
• Coco Moon bullet journal theme – November 2024
  Happy November, friends, and welcome to another of the Year of Owl City bullet journal posts! This month’s inspiration comes from the newest album, Coco Moon, which came out just last year! And I heard it […]
• Make a Katniss dress with me – part 1
  Happy Halloween, friends, and welcome to another make-a-fandom-inspired-thing post! This year, I wanted to do the Katniss Everdeen, the Girl on Fire dress from the first movie, and of course, I looped my MMC in on […]