Melodic Mondays
Those of you who know me know that I love music even though I am not musical myself. I listen to good music as often as I can. It is beneficial to the brain, valuable to the vocabulary, and strengthening to the soul. Isaiah 12:2-3 is a lovely passage that includes this soaring statement of surety: “The Lord JEHOVAH [YAHWEH] is my strength and my song.” This could be translated, “God is my mountaintop and my music.” Yes, He is! Each Monday, I want to study this subject and suggest a song to listen to. Anyone reading this devotional has easy access to any song. (I am an exception because I do not go on a computer or other information device.) If you do not like my suggestion (and we all have different tastes), you can think of or search for one that speaks to you. Then, it can become a source of encouragement throughout the week.
When we consider personal disasters, we immediately think of the death of someone we dearly love. Many of our hymns speak in a general way of such loss and the comfort that we can have if our faith is in Jesus Christ. Specific Christian songs on this sad subject are, to my knowledge, quite rare. Johnny Cash’s version of “On the Evening Train,” written by Hank Williams, Sr., is poignant and powerful. Note the shifts in vocabulary from “taking Mama away from us” to “carrying her home,” “it”/”its” to “him,” and “it’s hard to know she’s gone forever” to “ ‘til we meet again.” I Thessalonians 4:13 comes to mind: “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.”