I don’t know the name of the hymn. I’ve never been good at remembering titles or melodies. All I know is that when I was driving back to Dallas from Fort Worth a few Saturday afternoons ago, religion started to make sense again.

I don’t think I realized how much it had become an irritant until I heard the soft, gentle hymn wafting out of the radio. I wasn’t paying particular attention to Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion.” The show was kind of background noise. But when the cast started singing, religion jumped from the bitterness of the political campaign to the reason some people believe in the first place.

As we all know, religious values assumed an exalted role in this year’s presidential race. I happen to think religion and politics mix. Both involve values like justice and compassion. But, man, after reading, listening and, yes, writing about it for a year, the clash between these two forces can wear you out. Big, big, big time.

For one thing, the religionolitical discussion can seem so polarizing. Gay marriage. Abortion. Stem cells. It often seems like a discussion between true believers and elites on the left and right.

What do such hot-button issues have to do with understanding God? The divisive topics we’ve grown to associate with religion, particularly the Christian faith, don’t touch that spot within our hearts that cries out for healing, tenderness, love. Never have. Never will.

But that hymn, it went to those depths. That’s probably because music reaches us in ways that words, ideas or paintings cannot. “The stirring of the soul that comes with music is not accessible in any other way,” says my minister, the Rev. William J. Carl III. “There’s almost a sense God is musical,” says the Presbyterian pastor, who was trained in both theology and music.

The centrality of music in religious faith explains why Psalms occupies such a big place in the Old Testament. Sure, those songs have their fair share of blood and guts. But many of the songs evoke a profound reaction between man and God.

Listen to the Psalmist extolling God’s glory in Psalm 150:

“Praise the Lord,

“Praise God in his sanctuary,

“praise him in his mighty heavens …

“Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,

“praise him with the harp and lyre.

“Praise him with tambourine and dancing,

“praise him with the strings and flute.”

Talk about your musical imagery. That’s because God’s a music lover, the late Presbyterian theologian Elizabeth Achtemeier explained. In fact, God made his creation because he is a music lover, she once told a Davidson College audience. “The response of the creation to its Creator is to be a thankful praise, a ringing hallelujah for the good of life that God through his son has made,” the Rev. Achtemeier declared.

That’s what’s going on this week at Christmas services across the world, when the faithful dip low into “Silent Night” or reach high into the “Hallelujah Chorus.” Faiths are being reborn, one person at a time, in some unfathomable way.

That’s not happening because of some political campaign, that’s for sure. Nor through some direct-mail effort or television ranting. For that matter, it’s not through electing the right leader, finding the correct judge or passing a particular law.

Rebirth comes through something far more mystical, yet nonetheless real. For me, it was that unknown hymn. Once I sensed the beauty of the transcendent moment, and realized the last stanza was over, I wanted to hit a rewind button. It’s been a long year. And the crusaders can make faith seem so hard and distant.

Thank God, literally, that it isn’t so. Just turn to the Psalms for a reminder. Or listen deeply this week to hymns such as “Joy to the World” or “O Come All Ye Faithful.”

Something’s going on within the soul of the faithful. It’s hard to explain. It doesn’t fit into a political party. It simply connects creature to Creator. After the last year, I’ll take it.

William McKenzie is an editorial columnist for The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is wmckenzie@dallasnews.com.