Have you ever had the sense that you have been here before? Sometimes it's a good sense, other times it can be an overwhelming foreboding that something wicked this way comes. Regardless, there is an eeriness that history is replicating itself, sometimes to a perfect nuance of what has gone on before. The term for this sensation is "Deja Vu"
The great baseball player Yogi Berra is ascribed to having said the funny quote, "It's Deja Vu all over again!". Here's a great article that breaks down the quote and attributes it to several sources: "It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again" - quoteinvestigator.com
As you read today's musical notes, you may have that sense of Deja Vu happening. You see we not only have used a song by this title once but 2 times before. Hear for your reading pleasure is one of the rare instances whereby Tuesday's Musical Notes has repeated a song... has repeated a song...
To our knowledge, this has only happened one other time. We'll let you be the arbiters of discovering just what other song we've repeated. That's right! Archives to the left...now go!!!
We make every effort to ensure that your Tuesday's Musical Notes playlist includes very few repeats (Hey Sirius XM are you listening?), but on occasion are led to utilizing the same song. I guess since we write the blog each week, and you haven't complained, we can write how we're led...it is Our House anyway... (tongue planted firmly in cheek, please forgive if the tone seems arrogant, certainly not our intent. A literary device intended to segue to the video that normally appears at this time and hopefully you're smiling now so we'll just press play...)
"Our House" peaked at #30 on Billboard's Hot 100. It comes from the Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young 1970 album Deja Vu. Hmmm...that title seems a bit familiar here in Tuesday's Musical Notes land. If you are having that weird sensation we talked about above... Could be because we have visited this album before. Deja Vu had 3 singles released from it. "Our House", "Woodstock" and "Teach Your Children" (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Teach Your Children" (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young)) Yup!!! That's it! I feel so much better now.
Deja Vu was the first collaboration between the folksy CS&N and the Avant-Garde Neil Young. The album is certified 7X Platinum, making it the highest-selling record of any of its band members. It is ranked at #220 in the 2020 edition of Rolling Stone Magazine - "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" (2020)
Graham Nash penned the lyric to this classic CSN&Y hit. He wrote it after a morning breakfast excursion with singer/songwriter Joni Mitchell (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Big Yellow Taxi" (Joni Mitchell)) on Ventura Boulevard in Los Angeles. The couple spotted a vase in an antique store and upon arriving home decided to put it to use immediately. While Mitchell gathered flowers, Nash sat at the piano and says that "Our House" was ready to go in an hour. (Read further quotes about the song from Graham Nash here: "Graham Nash Has 'Wild Tales' To Spare" - npr.org (2013)
"Our House" has become a culturally iconic symbol of a more innocent time as reflected in its usage in movies (My Girl 2), commercials (Target, Eckrich), and television (The Simpsons, Cheers, and This is Us ("Our House" (This Is Us, NBC/Universal)) and has been covered by the likes of Helen Reddy, The Onyx, Sheena Easton, and children's entertainers Sharon, Lois, and Bram.
It is a song that describes the beauty of how a home can be made from a building. That seems to be another one of those popular themes we've heard somewhere before...we've heard somewhere before...
While we don't hear about any cats in the yard, the final vision of Ezekiel describes a house that has the potential to be a home to everyone who enters. 25 years have passed since the kingdoms of Israel have been taken captive. According to the prophet Jeremiah (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Welcome To My Nightmare" (Alice Cooper), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Hooked On A Feeling" (Blue Swede/B.J. Thomas), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "September Song" (Willie Nelson),), the nation has another 45 years left in this captivity. As we see the final vision unfold, at just the right time, God provides hope. Hope in form of a building that is so specifically described, there is little left to the imagination about its dimensions, yet much to be imagined about its splendor.
As the measurements of this city are given to Ezekiel, we see at the foundation of it is the temple of the Living God. Everything in these chapters has as its perspective the temple in this city. There was enough familiarity with the temple that those who would hear the prophecy could grasp firmly something they had lost and pay close attention.
I confess that my building skills are lacking. I'm the guy who brings the supplies and materials to the craftsman who can ply their trade and make wonderful buildings. That being said, some of the language used in the last chapters of Ezekiel makes my head swim, even more than a sense of Deja Vu. But, after all of the building jargon, comes clarity.
You don't have to be a building craftsman to understand God coming and going from a place. In earlier chapters (8-11, Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Can't You See" (The Marshall Tucker Band)) Ezekiel describes God departing the temple as a sign of Israel's demise from their disobedience. In Chapter 43, we now see God returning to the new temple as He sets up His dwelling place among mankind to forever love and reign as King of all kings. The perfection of this city and its temple are awe-inducing and difficult for us to imagine. One can only ponder how the Israelites to which Ezekiel ministered viewed this prophecy.
After having been in captivity for 25 years, one could imagine the joy the captives felt at having the hope of restoration, especially in a city as described by Ezekiel's prophecy. The nation of Israel had enjoyed God's presence among them a couple of times before. God was with them in the wilderness wanderings after they exited Egypt (Exodus 40:34-38 NASB/AMP/KJV)
What about you friend? Does it matter to you where God's presence dwells? The Bible says that because of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection (which we just celebrated), God's presence can dwell in us in the form of Holy Spirit. Maybe you have had a season whereby it has been difficult to sense Holy Spirit and you think that He has left the building. Trust me when I say, Holy Spirit never leaves us once we have accepted Jesus. Yes, there are times when that communion between Holy Spirit and you is difficult, but it is still there. If you have never experienced God's presence in your life (your temple) you need only cry out to Him. Greg Laurie - "How To Have A Relationship With God" After this, you can praise God as He dwells in you and you sing together...
"Our house, is a very, very, very fine house...a very fine house..."
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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