It happens every 7 days! It's Tuesday ya'll!!! Ya know what that means? Well, yeah it means that there are only 3 days till the weekend. Okay, we'll give you the fact that it isn't Monday too! But the best thing ever? It's time for Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!
This is your weekly dive into groovy tunes, and great tales! It is the plunge that takes you into terrific riffs and tantalizing reports! It is the submergence into the deep refreshing waters of thoughtful lyric and thankful limerick! It is the...okay, you get the idea! It's the best day of the week with your favorite blog about music and The Message.
So let's get it started! Hooray, it's Tuesday!!! (Ok, I promise that was the last exuberant outburst...)
There's a reason for a sense of familiarity with the title of today's Musical Notes. We featured a different song with the same title on May 26, 2020. (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Cry For Help" (Hometown)) The title of the featured songs isn't the only similarity you may find with today's Notes. Before we get to all of that, let's push play on the video of today's song that features Rick Astley and Andre' Crouch's choir...
The first single from Rick Astley's third studio album, Free, would be the last of his top ten hits on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart. It peaked at #7 and saw the "Never Gonna Give You Up" artist fading as the decade transitioned. That hasn't stopped Astley as he has produced 6 albums since Free, the most recent being 2019's The Best of Me, which featured a reimagined version of "Cry For Help".
Ok, yeah we just did that...
Rick Astley remains relevant thanks to songs like "Cry for Help". However, the internet has propelled the artist's longevity by taking his previous #1 smash, the aforementioned "Never Gonna Give You Up" and turning it into a viral sensation meme called a "Rick Roll". The Story of the Best Meme EVER: "Never Gonna Give You Up" & Rickrolling
Our focus today however is on "Cry for Help". It's a song that expresses the frustration that the singer feels as the woman he loves won't express her own emotions to him. He feels helpless as the stoicism of his love overwhelms their relationship and he doesn't know exactly where he stands. Have you ever felt that way in relationships? Perhaps there have been seasons with the folks you interact with that make you feel like they are distant and won't truly express how they feel. Maybe you are the one holding back as you navigate the relationship. Regardless, we all have times where we want to be seemingly so introspective that those around us feel like we are sending up a cry for help. This isn't a new aspect of relationships. It's been going on since before prophets roamed the earth.
In our previous "Cry For Help" we found the nation of Israel in bondage to the Egyptians as they cried out to God for deliverance. God was faithful and provided Moses as the leader that would take them from their slavery into the freedom of the Promised Land.
In today's focal passage we once again find the nation of Israel at their wit's end as they have been conquered by a neighboring land. In this instance, they have lost the Ark of the Covenant (made at the time of Moses, and no it is NOT in a warehouse somewhere today...) to the Philistines and have seen their societal degradation begin to cause their downfall. They have become so internally focused and selfish that they have followed after the gods of the surrounding nation. They have shut the God who brought them to this land completely out and followed a path of seclusion from Him. And like the subject of our featured song, their seclusion shouts out as a cry for help. Then the real shouting begins as they realize the error of their ways. They begin crying out for help with their voices and not just their actions. God answers in the form of the prophet Samuel.
The priests of Israel, Hophni and Phineas, were killed in the battle where the Ark was taken by the Philistines. When word of their deaths came to their father Eli (who had raised and trained Samuel) he was so overcome with grief that he fell over backward in his chair, breaking his neck. Thus fulfilling the prophecy God had given to Eli about the priesthood being taken from his family.
The Philistines soon learned that the God of the Hebrews would not contend with them as the presence of the Ark wreaked devastation on their land and idols. They began their own cry for help to their diviners and priests and decided to send the Ark back to the Israelites.
Everywhere the Ark would go, its reputation and devastation to the enemies of God surrounded it. The folks who encountered the Ark cried for help as they shut down their desire for it to be in their presence.
As the Ark gets returned to Israel, Samuel calls for a revival meeting. He had been raised amidst the corruption of Hophni and Phineas and the lackadaisical parenting of Eli. God however had protected Samuel from these influences as a part of the blessing on Samuel's life that he had since his birth. Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Trying to Love Two Women" (The Oak Ridge Boys)
Samuel tells the Hebrews that they must repent and return to God. They must strip away all the vestments of idol worship they had garnered and worship God and Him alone. They must stop the selfishness and the isolating themselves from God in their lives that had permeated their society. In this case, their cry for help involved action as much as it did pleas for assistance.
God was once again faithful and saved Israel from the hands of the Philistines...but we soon see that Israel is unfaithful and they return to the wickedness that is even worse than at Samuel's day. More on that in the days to come...
Have you ever been at a point in your life where you just don't know where to turn? It seems that your best efforts never seem to be good enough or pay off the rewards that you anticipated. You feel like you are the only one who can handle your problems and you don't seem to be doing a very good job of it? Today's Notes are meant to be a message of hope to you.
No matter how you may have shut down to those around you there is a God who awaits your cry for help to Him. Your remoteness from friends, family and even God is your cry for help as you navigate your life. The Bible attests to the myriad of times that God was faithful to people and nations who cried out to Him, repented or turned from the evil they were doing, and lived in obedience to His precepts. He saved them from their travails and restored them to a life of abundance. Perhaps this is a lesson that my country needs...perhaps this is a lesson that your country needs...but I digress.
Maybe that is where you are right now. You are crying for help, but you're not sure where to focus your pleas. God is waiting. He hears your cry. And He's waiting to mend the relationship between you and Him... He sent Jesus into the world as THE payment for the bad things (sin) you have done. Jesus was tortured and died in the most horrific way ever invented so that our cry for help to God can be heard and our relationship with Him can be restored. Believing that Jesus did this is the ONLY way to heaven, despite what you may hear.
Today will you let your cry for help manifest itself by looking in the Bible? Start with Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They describe Jesus and the way to restoration. If you are more of a visual learner, stream the television series, The Chosen. Regardless of how you cry out, do it today. Don't continue in the malaise of singing...
"...a cry for help is all I need, all I need is a cry for help..."
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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