Sing It Again

By Brenda Black

In Music City, USA, there is a saying: “It all starts with a song.” Nashville hopefuls aren't the first to understand the power of music and lyrics combined. The Patriarch Moses penned his own composition with hopes that it would pierce the hearts of Israel and turn them back to God. Like songs from childhood that hover in the recesses of our mind until needed for comfort or conviction is Moses haunting anthem.

“Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he.

“They have acted corruptly toward him; to their shame they are no longer his children, but a warped and crooked generation. Is this the way you repay the Lord, O foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you?” (Deuteronomy 32:1-6)

Moses' lyrics from centuries ago go on to aptly depict the divine provision of God for our nation as well. “He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye...The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him...” (vs. 10-13)

And like Israel, America has “abandoned the God who made [her] and rejected the Rock [her] Savior. They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols. They sacrificed to demons, which are not God – gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your fathers did not fear. You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.” (vs. 15b-18)

The result for Israel and the fallout we are seeing today in America: “The Lord saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and daughters. 'I will hide my face from them,' he said, 'and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.'” (vs. 19-20)

On the very day Moses recited the verses, the Lord told him of his imminent death. Moses' parting words to a stiff-neck people: “They are a nation without sense, there is no discernment in them. If only they were wise and would understand this and discern what their end will be!” (vs. 28-29)

Singer-songwriter Tom Waits may like Moses' masterpiece for he says, “I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things.”

But better that we think like author Sarah Dessen and believe that people will come to their senses for she contends that “Music is the great uniter. An incredible force. Something that people who differ on everything else can have in common.”

The alternative to heeding Moses' musical message is weighty. “I will take vengeance on my adversaries and repay those who hate me.” (vs. 41b)

But for the faithful few, Moses' saves a final verse. “Rejoice, O nations, with his people, for he will avenge the blood of his servants; he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people.” (vs. 43)

Praise God, the remnant will always sing! Not songs of disaster and doom, but of life and liberty! “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” (Revelation 5:13b)

If music, as Maria von Trapp believes, “acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed hearts open,” then I pray that Moses' song penetrates this present darkness. You who belong to the remnant, sing it again! Our nation needs to hear it.  

Bracket Busters and Other Troubles

Bracket Busters and Other Troubles
By Brenda Black

Take one spring weekend in the middle of March. Mix in, basketball upsets, a foot of snow and historic votes and what do you get? Failed dreams, frozen tundra and bum-fuzzled fans and citizens. Brackets busted and hearts broken. Spring fever escalated and snow plows shoveling. A country divided and more and more fear and distrust for anything that has to do with government.

Hello, spring! Not quite its typical entrance, but then, what is normal any more in America. Actually, the March madness–turned–insanity is a fairly good picture of our country these days. A blizzard on the tail of 70-degree sunshine is pretty zany. But accusatory slurs, screaming oppositions and a vice president who whispers profanities into the ear of our nation's president in front of the media very near a microphone is absolute stupidity! No wonder so many natives are restless and feel ashamed of the way our nation is headed. If the high offices can overlook simple respect and decency when the world is watching, who knows how badly they misbehave off-camera.

And speaking of poor judgement, how about this comment from a radio DJ this weekend. The radio personality was quizzing his guest about a legal incident. His question: “If a guy wearing a ski mask and carrying a gun goes into a convenience store to rob it, but since the attendant is not there, he aborts his plan, is he still guilty of attempted robbery?” The law student defended his answer of yes and then the DJ proceeded to enlighten his listeners with this idiotic advice. “If you're going to rob a store, at least do it right or don't do it at all.”

Did he just condone robbery as long as you do it “right”? What's the right way to hold up a clerk? Shoot first, ask questions later. Take all the money and a hostage? Good grief! This is just another example of March madness to the nth degree!

In case any of the people in Washington are listening, we have bigger problems than any sweeping, uncertain health care reform can fix. Our society is sick from the grotesque and growing disease of selfish disrespect and careless indifference. America's cancer can't be fixed with chemotherapy. It has to be healed with humility.

This spring, a few things need cleaning to alleviate the madness that is escalating – the heart of man needs to be swept of selfishness. And the mind of man must be cleared of rubbish. It's time to get back to the basics of human decency and good manners. It's time to act with integrity instead of shoving our own policies onto others. It's time to deny ourself and see the bigger picture.

I have a terrible spring fever not only for sunshine to warm the air and daffodils to bloom. I have a maddening need to believe that this land of the free and home of the brave is not ruined.

I'm glad Easter is upon us soon. Maybe, just maybe, we'll look to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and be reminded what real leadership looks like. Love at all cost. Humility and heart. Christ set the example that breaks all brackets of sinful selfishness. It casts all votes for what is best, not what pleases the elite. The Lord's sacrifice blazed a trail to the throne of grace. It did not leave us out in the cold with no hope.

Easter is the perfect time to take a good, long look into the heart and search the mind. Because if ever we needed a Savior, it is at this moment in our history, when men are as arrogant and rude as those who spat upon Jesus and cursed Almighty God. We are crucifying Christ all over again in America. He died once for all time, but unless we repent, each one in honest humility, we are without a future or standing.

When Jesus looked down upon his tormentors, he pleaded compassionately, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34) We know better today.