[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Tuesday, June 24, 2014

[Paul]

Hello and good day to you all.  I hope and pray that, by God's matchless grace and His providential care, that you are having a good day today.

Before I give you the chosen article I've picked out, here is the answer to Sunday's weekly Bible trivia game.  It is I John 2.

Pastor Michael "Mickey" Dobbins of Minnesota contributes today's article entitled "Music of the Spheres," rendered as follows:

Psalm 98:1 "Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things!"

Music is a universal language, isn't it? Just about everyone likes some kind of music.  Of course, we have varying tastes.  Some people like rock music, some jazz or rap, or country music.  Some people like the blues or classical music and many of us enjoy Christian music.

But even with Christian music, and the music we enjoy for worship, there are varying tastes.  Some of us like traditional hymns from centuries gone by and love the sound of the church organ or piano.  Some are more attuned to the more contemporary sounds of praise music, or maybe Christian rock.  Some Christians enjoy good old southern gospel with a little touch of bluegrass mixed in.

Yet there's another type of music that is so inspiring, so powerful and so full of wonder that is transforms all other forms of music.  As goes an old, familiar hymn:  "This is my Father's world, and to my listening ears all nature sings, and round me rings the music of the spheres."  Yes, the glorious music of the spheres, of God's love, of God's creation.  In the words of Psalm 121:  "I lift up my eyes unto the hills--from where comes my help? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!"

Can we hear the "music of the spheres?" Can we hear the music of God in our lives? It truly is a sound unlike any other, but sadly not everyone hears it.  By the way, it doesn't matter if we are hearing-impaired.  That won't keep us from hearing the music of the spheres.  It is only if our hearts are impaired that we can be blocked from hearing the divine melody.

Actually, it's when we receive Jesus Christ, "The Lord of the Dance," into our hearts, that we can best hear and feel the rhythm of God's movement in our lives.  Psalm 98 begins:  "Sing a new song to the Lord!" Why? Because He has worked miracles, because He created you and me, because He has won the Victory.  The Victory over what I call the three D's:  Death, Despair and the Devil.  Jesus died on the cross and on the third day arose so that we have forgiveness, salvation and new life!

This is one of six places in the Psalmody where God's people are encouraged to worship Him with a "new song." We sing a new song because God's victory in Jesus Christ has changed everything.  God has been faithful and His saving power can be seen throughout the earth.  So we need to get excited about it, we need to sing out.  As Psalm 98:4-6 continues:

"Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music, make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets in the blast of the ram's horn, shout with joy before the Lord, the King!"

We must always be praising our victorious Lord God and how fitting to do so with the multitude of musical gifts that He has blessed us with.  Tune your hearts to hear the Lord's song and then your song will be a natural offering.

And there you have Pastor Dobbins's article for today which I trust was a blessing to you, whether you are merely music lovers or perhaps even church or other types of musicians.  Incidentally, in the early 1980's the late Sir Lawrence Olivier recorded a 12-LP set featuring a condensed reading of the King James Version, Old Testament.  (No, I didn't do the condensing, but perhaps those responsible for the recording did).  As I understand, the whole production was recorded in Israel.  It lasts about an hour.  I don't have it on CD, but perhaps some enterprising company reissued it in that format.  His readings are accompanied by both orchestral music and choral singing.  If any of you still have cassette players or recorders, I'd be glad to record either the disc containing the Psalms or the whole lot.  You would need to send me four C90 cassettes and one C60 for the whole thing.  Unfortunately I have no way of putting these tapes in an audio file and save them in this format, so if you're interested please send me the required tapes, if you have them, in some sort of turnaround mailer and I'll get them back to you as soon as possible.  The Psalms recording lasts for about an hour, so for that a C60 tape only would be required.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Lord willing, tomorrow there will be another daily thought message for you.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul