April 30

Psalms of Joy and Praise (Continued) - Psalms 29, 33, 65, 66, 67, 68

David Young in the parking lot of the greenway where he rode out the tornado hugging a tree.

The voice of the Lord is powerful;

     the voice of the Lord is majestic.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;

     the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.

*  *  *

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks

     and strips the forests bare.

     And in his temple all cry, "Glory!"

Psalms 29:4-5, 9

This passage in today's reading reminds of events just 20 days ago in our town that we are still digging out from physically, emotionally and spiritually.  

On Good Friday, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, experienced an EF-4 tornado packing winds of between 166 and 200 miles per hour and traveling 23.5 miles on the ground.  It came near our home, but except for a few shingles, part of a tree and one of our gutters, we were untouched.  For so many others it was a far more devastating event.  A Mufreesboro Post article reported that as of April 13th, 794 homes were damaged with 98 destroyed, 227 severely damaged.  In terms of lives, the tornado inflicted 42 minor injuries, 7 critical injuries and was responsible for two fatalities.

One of those injured was a minister at our church, David Young.  David was caught in the middle of the tornado while running on the greenway right behind where a three-story office building on Thompson Lane was reduced to a 1 1/2-story office building.  Hugging the base of a tree, he had the unique experience of watching a tornado surround him and has an incredible story to tell.

I was blessed to lend a hand on small part of the cleanup and was taken by the unbelievable number of large trees that were uprooted, dragged and splintered in the storm.  In telling his story, David Young talks about how the trees exploded around him and what an indescribable sound that is, the sound of a forest exploding.  

Psalms 29 seems to suggest what David heard was the voice of God.

I've struggled a bit with God's role and purpose in the tornado.  I've seen with my own eyes houses completely flattened by the storm while across the street a home not even missing a shingle.  How is it that some like David, running out in the open, but with shards of wood flying all around him when the storm hit, lived to tell their story while one young family of three huddling together in the hallway of their home tragically lost two members? 

While in one respect it's remarkable that there weren't more fatalities given the tornado's size, force, duration and resulting devastation, it only makes it more horrific that the only fatalities are from the same family.  John Bryant, just 29 years old, lost his 30-year-old wife, Kori, and their 9-week-old infant daughter, Olivia, in the Good Friday tornado.  He was seriously injured. Contrary to early reports that had the mother and child in the car outside the house when the storm hit.  The family was actually huddling together in their home.

 I can't imagine it.  I can't imagine what would be in my mind and heart and soul if I were John Bryant or Kori's parents or relatives.  And I pray every day for them.  

When you pass by the Bryant home or the foundation on which the home used to sit, you're immediately taken by the fact there are homes standing around it. They're damaged, yes.  But they're standing.  The Bryant home is completely gone.  Forgive me for saying it, but it's what I feel:  It's as if the fingers of God plucked this one home up.  Why?  

I don't think I will ever know in this life why.  I can only bow and then rise up and help those touched by the storm.  Try to show them that the hand of God is also caring and loving.  That  we reach out to them in their loss because He reached out to us and was willing to save us even though it meant His only Son would have to experience death.  I don't know what comfort that is.  I know only the Lord can provide the comfort and healing needed.

I have seen our community torn apart by the path of a tornado ripping through its heart but I have also seen our community come together in powerful ways to help neighbors and strangers in God's name.

I do not understand tragedy.  But I celebrate the recovery.

Every day my drive to work takes on Haynes to Thompson Lane, passed both the Bryant home and the greenway where David Young rose from the rubble.  Every day I drive by twice, once on the way to work and once on the way home, and each time I pass I can't help but think and wonder and pray.  

I can't know the why in all of this but I do know the One who does.

A memorial fund has been set up for the Bryant family at Bank of America.  You can make donations by visiting any of the bank's locations or by going to this website.  At this writing, the website reports $18, 135 has been raised.  

April 29

Psalms of Joy and Praise - Psalms 8, 9, 16, 19, 21, 24

Google an image of "God Today" and you end up with a number of pics of George Strait.  Hmmmm, some cosmic clue to God's likeness or an earthly appearance or inspirational nod to today's discussion about tune and instrumentation of the psalms?  Nah, just Google acknowledging Strait's song: "I Saw God Today."

For the director of music.  To the tune of, "The Death of the Son."  A Psalm of David.

I will praise You, O Lord, with all my heart;

     I will tell of all Your wonders.

I will be glad and rejoice in You;

     I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High.

Psalms 9:1-2

There are a number of psalms sung to particular tunes but the tunes aren't recorded.  But I'm curious about them and I'm also curious when it designates that a psalm is for stringed or other instrumentation.  It would be interesting to me to sing them to their original tune or with their proper accompaniment.  To honor the intention of the writer.  If God inspired the words, why not the tune and the instrumentation?  God was instrumental, so to speak, in the selection of the choir members and musicians, wasn't He?  Yes, the words are important.  But are words the only thing here that is important?  We seem so right brained in our pursuit of God.  And isn't He lord and creator of both sides of our brain?  

Why does the Bible record tunes and accompaniment?  Isn't it as important as recording the dimensions of the ark?  Why argue over prepositions and not care to sing the psalms with accompaniment? We are not consistent.  We come to the scriptures with preconceived notions and traditions and teachings rather than with belief and faith and a confidence that God still speaks through His scripture and that what He told them thousands of years ago might not be as important as what He is telling us and you right now through those words.  What do we believe about God and scripture?  Does it speak to the individual?  Does it speak to now?  Is it possible that God has different things to say to different ages and individuals through the very same scriptures?  I believe so.

This psalm of praise speaks about God's wonders and how we shouldn't be able to contain our thoughts about them.  For me that means not only talking about the wonder of what God has done for me personally, day by day, and universally what He has done for all of us through His Son, but it also means praising the wonders of His creation.   It's hard for me to take a walk with God on a path in the mountains and not say something about it.  I rejoice in the wonders of God's world.  But it's April and I have yet to take a hike in the Smokys this year and I miss it and I miss Him.  Lord knows.

April 28

Psalms about Righteousness and Wickedness (Continued) - Psalms 76, 82, 84, 90, 92, 112, 115

The Moses memorial on Mt. Nebo.  It seems to suggest Moses staff or perhaps the serpent he set on the staff to save the people.  But instead of the serpent there is the outstretched arms to the Land of Promise.

"The length of our days is seventy years -- 

     or eighty years, if we have the strength;

yet their span is but trouble and sorrow,

     for they quickly pass, and we fly away."

"May the favor of the Lord our God rest up upon us;

     establish the work of our hands for us --

     yes, establish the work of our hands."

A prayer of Moses the man of God, Psalms 90:10, 17

This is such a bitter-sweet prayer.  When was it written?  At what stage in Moses' long life?  It seems to be a reflection on life as he feels it drawing to a close.  He doesn't seem to take much comfort here in all he has accomplished or all that God has accomplished through him.  Here is a great man of God praying that all that had been established by his hands would continue after he was gone.  Given the nature of the people he'd led through the wilderness, I'm sure he could foresee all that he'd been a part of passing away for nothing.  It must have been a terrible thought and one he sought to find comfort from in God.  He had journeyed so far only to wonder would his footsteps be erased?  It is also illustrates for me one of the traps of leadership.  How often during times of transition, leaders fear and assume that no one after them can do quite as well as you.  They will do things differently because the times will call for something different, for a Joshua and Samuel and David and ultimately God's son himself.  Moses began the journey.  Did he have any idea that his path would ultimately take Jesus to the cross?  

Was this prayer composed on the slops of Mt. Nebo as he walked with God for a peak into the Promised Land?  Or, perhaps better yet, was Moses looking into the land and the future and what lay ahead an answer to this prayer?  God wanted him to see where his life's work was headed.  And did he see more than the physical Promised Land?  Was he granted a look into the figurative Promised Land, too, and our future.  Lord knows.

April 27

Psalms about Righteousness and Wickedness (Continued) - Psalms 40, 49, 50, 73

"Play it again, Sam."

"Whom have I in heaven but You?

     And earth has nothing I desire besides You.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

     but God is the strength of my heart

     and my portion forever."

Psalm 73:25-26

So much wisdom, truth and power tucked into the words of the Psalms.  In some ways, the biblical songs touch me far deeper than the narrative.  There's so much left unsaid in the narrative - thoughts, emotions, motives and numerous details we have to guess it.  I like getting into the heart and mind of the people in the story.  The psalms do that for me.  Of course, it's even better still in those rare occasions throughout scripture when songs are interwoven with narrative so you can understand both action and intention.

We know so little about Asaph, who's credited with several of the psalms in this reading.  From 1 Chronicles 6:39 and 2 Chronicles 29:30, we know he is a Levite, one of David's choir leaders and, like David, has a talent in music and as a "seer."

Ironically, having said I enjoy the poetry more than narrative (aren't I a mess of contradictions?  Yes?  No?), I can't help but wonder about the back story to the 73rd Psalm.  Is Asaph speaking from experience, something that happened to him, or in answer to a complaint or question?  My vote is speaking from experience and a truth he discovered for himself.  Perhaps he doubted God because of how nonbelievers appeared to succeed while he failed.  Did his selection to the king's choir answer his doubts?  Or did this happen after he rose to his position in the king's court?  I've learned that circumstances seldom determine how we see things really.  Life is good or bad, independent of our circumstances and dependent on our point of view.  We seldom see how good we have it or what a good God we have.

Play it again, Asaph.  

I have a few questions for Asaph someday.

April 26

Psalms about Righteousness and Wickedness - Psalms 1, 14, 15, 36, 37, 39

"Delight yourself in the Lord

     and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Psalms 37:4

What do I delight in?  Seeing my wife and three kids happy.  I delight in the things that they do and all they have accomplished.  Personally, it's accomplishing a goal in the wild, hiking up LeConte each month for 12 months in winter cold and summer heat and the beauty of each season and now trying to walk each mile of trail in the Smokys.  At work, it's doing something creative that moves people, engages their emotions and causes them to take action.  It's also seeing those I work with succeed and helping them succeed.  

But all of these things will be accomplished if I delight in the Lord rather than in people, experience, accomplishments and things.  I need to change my focus, raise it a bit, look to the eternal rather than the immediate.  He is able to do amazing things.

April 25

Psalms of the Trouble Soul (Continued) - Psalms 120, 121, 140, 143, 144

"Part  your heavens, O Lord, and come down;

     touch the mountains, so that they smoke."

Psalms 144:5

Appropriate Psalm for Smoky Mountain hikers.  And it's why I love climbing the mountains.  For me, they are God touched.  I see God in my body as it travels the trials.  The amazing ability of the body to accommodate heat to sweat and cool itself and to move without the benefit of transportation outside itself.  It's amazing how many miles you can cover in a day in foot and even more amazing what you can see and experience and feel traveling them that way.  Things you can experience from inside a car.  There is no better mode of transportation than on foot if your goal is truly to get there and experience a place and not time.  Our desire to get to the destination rather than to experience has been a great disservice to us in the long run.  There's a reason our journey with God is called a walk.  Lord knows.

April 24

Psalms of the Troubled Soul (Continued) - Psalms 88, 91, 95, 108, 109

"For He will command His angels  concerning you

     to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands

     so that you will not strike your foot against a stone."

Psalms 91:11-12

I like the fact there are angels in the world.  I like even more that God surrounds us with them.  I think, by now, my angel is a frazzled, balding, wide-eyed, chain-smoking winged guy with a nervous tick.  

Sorry.  I don't think being an angel would be an easy job given what they see in the world and in our lives that we just miss.

April 23

Psalms of the Troubled Soul (Continued) - Psalms 70, 71, 77, 83, 86

Me and the folks, July 1958

"From birth I have relied on You;

     You brought me forth from my mother's womb.

     I will ever praise You."

Psalms 71:6

I know this scripture to be true.  It's central to my faith.  It's the reason that every day for me on this earth is good, exceptional, worth celebrating.  Because for me, each new day I awake and live all day long in the knowledge that day is a blessing.  In Vegas parlance, I always have the good feeling I'm playing with someone else's money.

People have often wondered about where my complete confidence comes from.  It comes from one thing:  I know that I am loved.  And I have known this from as long ago as I can remember...maybe from birth.  Let me tell you a story.  My story.

Actually, it's a story about me I didn't know until I was getting ready to go off to college.  I'm not certain why my mother waited until then to tell me.  Maybe a it was her response to a mother's natural trepidation at having a child leave home.  Or to leave certain things unsaid as I left to be on my own was taking a risk she wasn't willing to take.  Or this was her acknowledgement that now I was an adult, someone she could talk to about intimate things, matters of the heart and of private family history.  Or this was simply her way of saying one more time how much she loved me.  

I don't know why that particular moment was picked, but it's a moment I will never forget.

I was sitting out on one of the big rocks that still sit in our front yard.  We were out in the yard together on a sunny day.  It was my last summer at home before going to Lipscomb.  Was this the place she picked?  The day she picked?  Or did it just come up?  I'm not sure how she began...but I remember what she said and how she looked at me when she said it.  

She told me about about when she was pregnant with me and how much she and my dad looked forward to there first child.  They were young and not yet a year into their marriage when they learned they were pregnant.  And then she told me she contracted rubella (German measles) early in her pregnancy.  She wasn't sure what all that might mean to the baby until her next visit with the doctor.  He sat her and my father down and advised them there was a very high chance that there first child would be born with birth defects.  To give you an idea, the March of Dimes website reports that a mother being infected with rubella in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy results in birth defects in up to 85 percent of the time.  Before the rubella vaccine became available in 1969, there was an outbreak of German measles from 1964 to 1965 that resulted in more than 20,000 babies in the United States born with birth defects and another 10,000 miscarriages and stillbirths.

The doctor told my parents there were ways to take care of things.  He set a date for them to come back and things would be arranged to avoid bringing the baby to term.  This was in the days before abortion was legal, but there were doctors that would even back then who were prepared to help people in cases where the woman's health was threatened by a pregnancy or, in this case, where an extremely high probability existed a baby would be born with serious defects.  One website reports that "babies infected with rubella during the first 20 weeks of pregnancy develop congenital rubella syndrome (CRS), in which they end up with a variety of problems, including deafness, blindness, heart defects, mental retardation, growth deficits, and a host of other disorders."  That "host of other disorders" includes behavioral changes, Schizophrenia, diabetes, glaucoma, metabolic disorders, both hypo- and hyperthyroidism and certain physical birth defects.

Is living with any of that, all of that or some of that better than being dead?  But then, you don't get to chose which of those things in the list you'll settle for and what degree of severity is acceptable.  

I don't know how much of the details about all of the potential defects were given to my parents by the doctor then, or what details they allowed themselves to remember, but they knew their first born was in danger and the remedy the doctor was prescribing was termination of the pregnancy.   My parents were young, just 18 and 19.  They'd just finished high school.  They didn't know what to do or even who they could talk to about abortion.  Our traditional fundamental church family has never been known for a listening ear.  I think, I pray, that's changing though.  But back then in the 1950s, this was the sort of thing you didn't talk about.  They were secrets you kept.  So they kept it to themselves, worrying about the appointment day, dreading the decision they would have to make.  How much did they really consider the doctor's remedy?  Mom never said.  I didn't ask.

When the day to see the doctor finally arrived, they were afraid.  They were afraid that if they kept the appointment the doctor would influence them to do the unthinkable.  They didn't want to have an abortion but they weren't so certain of their conviction that they were confident they could say no in the face of a wiser man's counsel.  So what did they do?  They left town on the day of the appointment, avoided having to make a decision.  And never went back to that doctor again.

And now they waited.  Waited and worried and were afraid and prayed.  My mother worried so much that she actually weighted less at the time she was ready to deliver than she did before she was pregnant.  And she wasn't very big before she got pregnant.  They were far away from home on the day there first child's delivery.  They were in Massachusetts.  My father had joined the army and so they were stationed near Shirley, Mass.  Dad says he had a hard time getting to the hospital when he learned on base that my mother was in labor and headed there.  There'd been a train wreck in town that day.  A number of roads were shut down and getting across town was tough going.  I wonder what was in my young father's mind when he raced to get to the hospital?  It was the Fourth of July and people were celebrating.  There was a parade.  But I imagine him somber...his joy subdued...this young soldier racing to get to the hospital to be with my mother.  To be with her, no matter what happened.    

I can't imagine what that day was like for these two kids having a kid.  The worry, the fear, the dread magnified by the fact that this should be a moment of such hope and wonder and joy.  Imagine how they felt with so many happy new parents in the maternity ward and them not knowing if they would be celebrating or coping that day.

My father says when I finally arrived that he must have counted my finger and toes a dozen times.  A fact I played in my mind with the birth of each of my three children and on seeing them for the first time, finding myself focused on toes and fingers.

Dad says simply of my birth, "We checked you over real good."  And to their relief, they couldn't find anything wrong.  But imagined that relief was short lived.  There was still plenty to worry about.  I looked fine, physically.  But things could develop or make themselves known later - heart problems, learning disabilities, severe mental difficulties.

I wonder what they thought about how undersized I was for most of my childhood?  My extreme difficulty learning to read?  Funny now that I write for a living and live to read.  And why was it as a child when a truck drove by I fell down on the sidewalk and cried?  Then they learned why my behavior was sometimes strange in the way I responded to loud noises.  Howtheir hearts must have fell the day they learned I was totally deaf in my left ear...the first real tangible result of my prenatal infection with rubella.  It was manageable.  Nothing really.  But would there be other things?  Deeper difficulties still to be faced?  Some future mental manifestation?

They didn't know then.  I still don't know now.  But what I do know is how good it is to be alive on this earth and how much I am loved.  By parents who have poured so much into me.  And a God who has blessed me with 50 years of a wonderful life and three wonderful children of my own.

"From birth I have relied on You; You brought me forth from my mother's womb.  I will ever praise You."

So let me warn you.  Don't ask me my opinion of abortion.  I'm biased.  And if you're one of my doctors, I apologize in advance that I might not have complete faith in what you tell me or what you advise.  

But there is One in whom I do have faith.  Lord knows.

April 22

Psalms of the Trouble Soul (Continued) - Psalms 61, 62, 64, 69

Sawyer doing one of his many comic impersonations...this time Zoolander.

"Hear my cry, O God;

     listen to my prayer."

Psalms 61:1

I read this and smiled.  It reminded me of a Sunday morning that our worship leader at North Boulevard Church of Christ, John Magnuson, lead us in an almost Gregorian-esque chant-type hymn in which we repeated several times the words:  "O, listen to our prayers."  

Our son Sawyer suspected we'd become a cult and most of the Sunday afternoon chanted "O, listen to our prayer" in a wide-eyed, other-worldly, mock mystic manner...much to our amusement.  

And shouldn't we be so wrapped up in God's things that it inspires our humor and our smiles? Sometimes I think the all-to-serious of us could use a Sawyer.   We're happy to have one.  Along with a John and a Martina -- quite an interesting set of three and we aren't complete without them.  Lord knows. 

April 21

Psalms of a Troubled Soul (Continued) - Psalms 35, 41, 43, 46, 55

Lots of good stuff in today's reading, psalms that touched me heart and mind and soul like only a good song can.

"Blessed is he who has regard for the weak,

     the Lord delivers him in times of trouble." 

Psalms 41:1

 

God has a thing for the weak and so should we.  Seeing the misfits and disenfranchised and "special" people my wife Mariana dated when she was single and those she befriended or brought home after church over the years, I always jokingly told her that she a thing for bringing stray animals home.  Then I realized something.  Ah, I'm one of the strays and misfits she decided to bring home.  Lord knows.

"Send forth Your light and Your truth,

     let them guide me,

let them bring me to Your holy mountain,

     to the place where You dwell."

Psalms 43:3

Ok, so I have a thing for all the outdoor and nature imagery in the Bible.  Think of all the mountaintop symbology in the Bible and all the mountaintop experience.  The ark resting on a mountaintop.  Abraham on the mountaintop to sacrifice his son.  Moses on the mountaintop in smoke and fire with God or seeing the Promised Land from the mountaintop.  The Transfiguration.  The mount of Olives.  Golgotha.  And so it goes.  Every time I walk to the top of Mt. LeConte in every kind of weather - hot, cold, sunshine, rain, snow, hail storms, lightning and thunder, fog and a crystal clear air, in spring flowering time or fall colors, slowly or lingering at every turn and vista.  Each time I walk the mountain I feel I discover another side of God's personality and my own soul.

"Come and see the works of the Lord,

     the desolations He has brought on the earth.

He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;

     He breaks the bow and shatters the spear,

     He burns the shields with fire.

Be still and Know that I am God;"

Psalms 46:8-10

In the midst of the war and economic turmoil and natural disasters of floods and tornadoes and the whirl of activity that is modern society, the Lord calls us to be still and know Him.  To cease all activity and worry and stress and chasing our own course and fighting our own battles and to have real knowledge in Him.

"I said, 'Oh, that I had the wings of a dove!

     I would fly away and be at rest --"

Psalms 55:6

Hmmm.  David tries his hand at country music.

"If an enemy were insulting me,

     I could endure it;

if a foe were raising himself against me,

     I could hide from him.

But it is you, a man like myself,

     my companion, my close friend,

with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship

     as we walked with the throng at the house of God."

Psalms 55:12-14

Wow, I wonder who this so-called friend of David's was that turned him and wounded David's heart?  And could there be any greater betrayal than that which comes from someone close to you?  Someone who  you shared spiritual things with?  Lord knows.

"Cast your cares on the Lord

     and He will sustain you;

     He will never let the righteous fall."

Psalms 55:22

I have to admit.  When it comes to the poetry of Psalms, there are times I actually prefer the language of the KJV.  And this is one of them (along with the 23rd Psalms and most of Psalms and Proverbs for that matter).

"Cast your burden upon the Lord,

     and He shall sustain thee:

     He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."

Psalms 55:22

A more poetic language.  I like that some venture that Shakespeare had a hand in translating a portion of the KJV.  Probably not.  But, hey, I'm a romantic at heart.

April 20

Psalms of the Troubled Soul (Continued) - Psalms 13, 17, 23, 26, 28, 31

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

     He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

     He restores my soul.

He guides me in paths of righteousness 

     for His name's sake.

Even though I walk

     through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil,

     for You are with me;

Your rod and  Your staff,

     they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me

     in the presence of my enemies.

You anoint my head with oil;

     my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and love will follow me

     all the days of my life,

and I will dwell in the house of the Lord

     forever

Psalm 23

What is it about the 23rd Psalm that makes it such a powerful and popular song of comfort?  When Billy Graham preached in a Russian Synagogue the 23rd Psalm was his subject.  It is perhaps one of the most often quoted scriptures at funerals.  

It's poetic images of a Good Shepherd who cares and provides for us, the natural images of green pastures, quiet waters and paths are all calming and warming.  The promise of sitting at God's table with overflowing cups and dwelling in His home are so simple and basic and, therefore, powerful.  

In a book titled, "A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23," Philip Keller, a Canadian agrologist, explains the meaning of "lying down in green pastures" from the shepherd's view and says the only time sheep will lie down is if the following four conditions are met:

1.  The sheep must be free of fear,

2.  The sheep must be free of torment by flies or parasites,

3.  The sheep must have a full stomach, and

4.  The sheep must be in harmony with their fellow sheep.

This is what we all want as people - to be fearless, free from torment, full and our needs satisfied and our lives at peace with others.  Only God provides these true luxuries of life.  It's this simple promise and focus on what's truly important in life and God's hand in that, I believe, that makes this psalm so powerful. 

How powerful?  Here are some references to the psalm in popular culture (taken from Wikipedia entry on Psalm 23):

Song

• Ace Hood - song Bet On Ace from album All Bets On Ace
• Alice in Chains - song Sickman from album Dirt
• Anti-Flag - song Shadow of the Dead from album The Bright Lights of America
• Buju Banton - song
• Coolio - song Gangsta's Paradise
• Dirks Bentley - song Distant Shore
• DragonForce - merchandise
• Dream Theater - song In the Presence of Enemies from album Systematic Chaos
• The Eagles - song Long Road Out of Eden from album Long Road Out of Eden
• Good Charlotte - song The River from album Good Morning Revival
• The Grateful Dead - song Ripple from album American Beauty and the song We Bid You Goodnight sung at the close of many of their concerts
• Kayne West - song Jesus Walks
• Mago de Oz - song Gaia (Spanish)
• Medicine Show - song Along the Southern Coast
• Megadeth - song Shadow of Deth from album The System Has Failed
• Ministry - song No W
• Marilyn Manson - album Holy Wood (In the Shadow of the Valley of Death)
• Notorious B.I.G. - song You're Nobody (Till Somebody Kills You) from album Life After Death
• The Offspring - Hammerhead on their album Rise and Fall, Rage and Grace
• Orphaned Land - song Aldiar Al Mukadisa from album Sahara (Hebrew)
• Pink Floyd - song Sheep from album Animals
• Shlomo Carlebach -song Gam Ki Elech (Hebrew)
• Strawbs - song Lay Down
• Peter Tosh - Song Jah Guide from album Equal Rights
• U2 with Bob Dylan - song Love Rescue Me from album Rattle and Hum

Film and Television

• Bruce Almighty - 2003 film
• Deep Blue Sea - 1999 film
• The Elephant Man - 1980 film
• Gallipoli - 1981 film
• Jarhead - 2005 film
• Liberty Heights - 1999 film
• Lifeboat - 1944 Hitchcock film
• Lost - TV series
• Love and Death - film
• Oz - TV series
• Prison Break - TV series, Season 1, Episode 13
• Pulp Fiction - film
• The Scarlet Pimpernel - 1982 BBC movie
• Sister Act - 1992 film
• Supernatural - TV series
• Titanic - 1997 film
• Van Helsing - film
• Varsity Blues - film
• The Vicar of Dibley - TV Series (used as theme)
• The War of the Worlds - 1953 film
• We Were Soldiers - film
• The Wicker Man - film
• X2: X-Men United - film

Fiction (many references but here are a few)

• Terry Brooks - novel The Gypsy Morph
• Donovan Campbell - memoir Joker One
• Alex Garland - novel The Beach
• Stephen King - novel Salem's Lot and novel The Stand
• V - novel V for Vendetta
• Kurt Vonnegut - novel Cat's Cradle

Miscellaneous 

• George W. Bush - address following September 11, 2001 attacks
• Patti Smith - poem psalm 23 revisited in 1994 book Early Work
• West Bromwich Albion F.C. - football anthem
• Virgin Megastores - 2007 advertising campaign
• Eager Allan Poe - poem Eldorado (line 21, 4th stanza)

Note:  Until we get to October, I won't be linking back to "last year's posts on this date" because, although I read through the Daily Bible last year, there was a lapse in my posts.

April 19

The Book of Psalms - Psalms of the Troubled Soul - Psalms 5, 6, 7, 10, 11

Music and man goes back a long time.  This is a whistle or flute that dates back a reported 100,000 years ago.

"For the director of music.  For flutes.  A Psalm of David."  Psalm 5

"For the director of music.  With stringed instruments.  According to sheminith."  A Psalm of David.  Psalm 6

Music and song were so central to David's life.  His harp and songs eased the spirit of King Saul.  He named a family specifically dedicated to the music played to empower prophecy and thank and praise the Lord.  And here are his songs and prayers preserved and part of the holy scriptures.  Music is important.  These are the songs that helped comfort David's troubled soul as he sought to continue to follow God.  Songs set for flutes and stringed instruments and "which he sang to the Lord."

I don't know why my tradition has let non-instrumental music define us.  I think it started as more of a reaction against high church and the status quo rather than a consider devotion to scripture.  Though I don't doubt the sincerity of those who hold the doctrine as dear.  It's just that instrumental music is such a powerful part of scripture.  And, today, it's such a central part of our culture.  I wish we could claim for God what is truly God's and part of His word rather than fight over it.  I wonder if God mourns over this?

I owe it to those who might read hear another opinion.  Here's one and you can google others.

My post last year on this date.

April 18

The National Convention (Continued) - 1 Chronicles 26:12-32, 27:1-34, 28:1-23, 29:1-22

All the stuff...it's God's stuff.

"O Lord our God, as for all this abundance that we have provided for building you a temple for your Holy Name, it comes from your hand, and all of it belongs to you."  1 Chron. 29:16

Truly living in the knowledge that everything we have and everything we give belongs to God is a life-changing experience.  It's all God's.  That should take some of the stress away - let God worry about His stuff instead of our worrying about it.  This is such a freeing thought if we can ever realize it completely and let go totally, unclench our clutching hands and step back from the stuff cluttering our houses and garages and lives.  There's no more comparing what we have to what others have when you realize it's all God's and not ours.  

And our real stuff, our treasure?  Well, God's keeping it safe for us.  Again.  No worries.

Note:  I wrote this today before my son, Sawyer, and I went and worked in our town on tornado cleanup.  We live in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, were the Good Friday F-4 tornado hit a week ago Friday.  Sifting through the debris today and throwing away so much stuff, the contents of so many houses plucked up and strewn over miles and realizing the only thing that matter in that moment were the lives of the owners and not what was owned.  So many people blessed just to have survived and thankful to have us there to help them throw things away.  It really helps to put things in perspective.  Especially on the way home driving by the lot at the corner of Sulphur Springs and Haynes where the Bryant family lived and two of them perished.  All that remains is the foundation and a memorial of flowers.

In away, no one in this town was untouched by the Good Friday Tornadoes.  Most of us have been victors because of it and not victims.

My post last year on this date.  

April 17

The National Convention - 1 Chronicles 23:1-32, 24:20-31, 24:1-19, 25:1-31, 26:1-11

See, you prophetic praise harps are readily available on the Internet.

"David, together with the commanders of the army, set apart some of the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun for the ministry of prophesying, accompanied by harps, lyres and cymbals."

Jeduthun "prophesied, using the harp in thanking and praising the Lord." 

1 Chron. 25:1-5

As we see here and we shall see in other scripture, there is some tie between music and prophesy.  A relationship we don't acknowledged - or, at least, the fundamental tradition I'm a part of - today.  Oddly, we do acknowledged the relationship between music and thanking and praising the Lord though we don't extend this to prophesy or music to the using of a harp.  

I say we...but I don't feel a need to restrict God in this way.  I leave God to do what He will do without limitation.  I think our stand on music and miracles is more a historical reaction against the beliefs and traditions of others than a stand on what we believe for ourselves.  Lord knows.  

Did Christ's coming do away with these scriptures?  Or just our sin?

My post from last year on this date.