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.
Since an automobile needs a road, we have songs like “I’m Working on a Road” by Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. The lyrics do not suggest that we can work for our salvation, but rather that we “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12b). Thus, it is both a song of sanctification and invitation. It also emphasizes hope, which is a certainty based upon God’s Word. God has “begotten us again unto a lively [living] hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead” (I Peter 1:3). We can be certain of our salvation through faith in “Jesus Christ, [Who] is our hope” (I Timothy 1:1b), and we are assured that “now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11b).