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.
James 1:6b uses the imagery of the sea to describe unbelief: “For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.” Deliverance from this distress is the theme of “Throw Out the Life-Line [or Lifeline]” by the Reverend Edward Smith Ufford. He wrote this song after watching a life-saving drill from a rescue station near Boston. He was particularly moved when he heard the leader shout out the order, “Throw out the lifeline!” The message of this old hymn (published in 1888) is that, after we have been rescued, we are to help others to be rescued. We will listen to a version by the Fairhaven Baptist Church Men’s Choir.