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Newsletter 12
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| THE ASAPH MUSIC LETTER ENCOURAGING BELIEVERS TO SET AND MAINTAIN A BIBLICAL MUSIC STANDARD To the chief musician and his choir Vol. 3--No. 4--July 31, 2004
(Go easy on your eyes. Print this letter for a more enjoyable read.) “…sing as a harlot.” —Isaiah 23:15 The ancient city of Tyre has an interesting history. In your most far-away imagination, picture a rocky island on an eastern-most area of the Mediterranean Sea. Row your boat ashore (it comes along with your imagination.) As you exit your boat, notice on the large rocks, which make up the island, the nets which fisherman have left to dry in the sun. As the tide begins to noisily come in and the sea gulls noisily go out, you also notice that nothing else is happening. The place is deserted. It wasn’t always so. Thousands of years ago, Tyre was quite the city. In fact, it was two cities: one on the Phoenician coast, and out from that coast, a little island. If you were prince, trader or dreamer, this was a place you had to visit. Tyre was a business capital of the world in its heyday. Isaiah 23:3 says, “…the harvest of the river, is her revenue…” You would think this would be fish of all kinds, and also included a type of purple dye which was somehow extracted from mollusks harvested from the shores near Tyre. These and many other wares brought much wealth and recognition to this naturally-geographically defended piece of earth. Tyre’s greatness, however, was not to last forever. Nebuchadnezzar, the Persians and Alexander the Great all took their turn at conquering Tyre, and that incredulously, magnificent city became exactly what God said it would become: “…a place to spread nets upon.” (Ezekiel 26:14) In pronouncing judgment upon Tyre, Isaiah’s prophecy reads, “And it shall come to pass in that day, that Tyre shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king: after the end of seventy years shall Tyre sing as a harlot. Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.” (Isaiah 23:15,16) What is the song of the harlot? The song of the harlot just might be the same “song” of Job when he “sang,” “Oh that I were as in months past…” (Job 29:2) The harlot could go back to the time “in months past” when she was pure. Oh, she could sing then! She could “sing many songs” and “make sweet melody” for she was clean. We too can go back to the time when we were first pure, when we first came to know the Lord. That time should bring many songs and sweet melodies always to be remembered. LOOKING FOR CHRISTMAS MUSIC? http://www.asaphmusic.com/catalog.asp?searchtype=Keyword&keyword=christmas NEW FROM THE ASAPH MUSIC COMPANY… Ladies Be Joyful, Volume 2 (CD) http://www.asaphmusic.com/description.asp?Item=WLD-TWS0497-CD Ladies Be Joyful, Volume 2 (Choral Book) http://www.asaphmusic.com/description.asp?Item=WLD-MB121 Living Hymns – Orchestrated http://www.asaphmusic.com/description.asp?Item=ASM-LH02 |