Daily Word of Grace # 85 (July 13, 2020)
Recently one of the greatest movie soundtrack composers ever, the prolific Ennio Morricone, died. His many films include the fabled 1960’s “spaghetti western trilogy”—A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966)—The Mission (1986), and The Untouchables (1987). None of these classic films would have been nearly as good without their memorable musical scores. Like a motion picture, each of our lives has a soundtrack, a musical score. This musical score includes your favorite songs through the years—the joyful celebratory songs at the high watermarks of your life, and the sad songs or dirges when your heart broke. The soundtrack of your life may also include hymns or songs of worship and praise that are dear to your heart. Your personal experiences of the grace of God in your life are often associated with such hymns or songs. We see this often in the Book of Psalms: “He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God” (Psalm 40:3); “O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth” (Psalm 96:1); and “Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the faithful” (Psalm 149:1). These psalms, like your favorite hymns and worship songs, are all a response to the Composer of the Universe, Jesus Christ, who during his earthly “mission” included befriending people from all walks of life—“the good, the bad and the ugly”—touching “the untouchables”—and dying on the cross for all of us. Such love and grace calls forth a new song of praise from us and beckons us to join the heavenly hosts in praise to God.
Love and Prayers,
Dave