December 10: Words of Life
♫ Music:
Day 13 - Friday, December 10
Title: WORDS OF LIFE
Scripture: Luke 1:54-55; Deuteronomy 30:15-20
“He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever.”
“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.
Poetry:
Our Land
by Langston Hughes
We should have a land of sun,
Of gorgeous sun,
And a land of fragrant water
Where the twilight is a soft bandanna handkerchief
Of rose and gold,
And not this land
Where life is cold.
We should have a land of trees,
Of tall thick trees,
Bowed down with chattering parrots
Brilliant as the day,
And not this land where birds are gray.
Ah, we should have a land of joy,
Of love and joy and wine and song,
And not this land where joy is wrong.
WORDS OF LIFE
We long for life, not mere existence. It’s how we were created, by the hand of a good Creator. But now we live “east of Eden” (Genesis 3:23-24), in a broken world where, all too often, “joy is wrong”—in the words of Langston Hughes.
Yet this is not the end of our story. Our good Creator is also our good Redeemer, One who breaks into history to bring blessing and restore joy. He revealed Himself to Abraham, promising to bless him and his family, in order that through Abraham and his descendants all peoples of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12:1-2). In our selection from Deuteronomy God promises the blessing of life to all His people who follow Him in faith and obedience—a blessing found most of all in God’s presence, “for He is your life and the length of your days.”
God is life, and where He is, is life—life that brings courage and strength to His people: “Be strong and courageous, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”
How utterly devastating, then, for God’s people, at the time of Jesus’ coming, to have been so long east of Eden in a land where joy is wrong. Four hundred years of silence had elapsed since God had spoken through the last of the prophets. Where is God? What has happened to His promises of life and His presence? Has He forgotten His mercy? Is He no longer our good Redeemer?
But God breaks the silence. He once again brings words of life.
Mary concludes her canticle by joyfully proclaiming the good news that God is indeed faithful to keep His promises. He has not forgotten His mercy, but has intervened in history to bring blessing once again. He has helped (“He hath holpen,” in the older language) His servant Israel once again.
The title of Bach’s beautiful setting of Luke 1:55 comes from the first three words of the Latin text: Sicut locutus est—“just as He said.” God has shown up, just as He said. Though not in ways His people anticipated.
Who could have guessed that God would bring His blessing of life like this? Who could have imagined that the Creator of the universe, the Redeemer of humanity, would bring His presence into our broken world as a baby born into poverty and need?
Yet Mary saw. She recognized that God was doing “just as He said.” He’s making joy right.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, You are faithful. You always keep Your promises, though so often not in ways we expect or even imagine. We so easily distrust You, forget You, and look to sources of “joy” and “life” other than You. But we find, once again, that they do not exist apart from you. In Your presence is fullness of joy (Psalm 16:11), and You alone have the words of life (John 6:68). Lord, may we, like Mary, have eyes to see Your faithfulness and ears to hear and rejoice in Your words of life, even amid silence and brokenness.
Amen
Devotion Author:
Dr. David Horner
Professor of Theology and Philosophy
Talbot School of Theology
Biola University
For more information about the artwork, music, poetry, and devotional writer selected for this day, we have provided resources under the “About” tab located next to the “Devotional” tab.
About the Artwork:
Joshua
Chris Koelle
2017
Digital Illustration
Artist Chris Koelle created this conceptual and symbolic illustration inspired by the Old Testament book of Joshua. The Bible tells us in Joshua 1:9, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” What a powerful reminder that the Lord is with us in the midst of our trials and tribulations.
About the Artist:
Chris Koelle is an American illustrator, printmaker, and designer. Koelle has created artwork and illustrations for dozens of books, graphic novels, and award-winning documentaries, including the Oscar-nominated Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience, as well as numerous album cover designs. His illustrated books include John Piper’s JOB, The History of Redemption, and Bike Snob. His latest illustrated tour de force, The Book of Revelation graphic novel, was recently published by Zondervan. He lives in Greenville, South Carolina, with his wife, Annie, and their two children.
www.chriskoelle.com
About the Music:
“Sicut Locotus Est” from the album Bach: Magnificat in D Major & Unser Mund Set Voll Lachens
Lyrics: Luke 1:55 (Vulgate Bible)
Sicut locutus est ad patres nostros
Abraham et semini ejus in saecula.
English Translation: Luke 1:55 (NKJV)
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.”
About the Performers:
The Netherlands Bach Society and Jos van Veldhoven
Founded in 1921 to perform Bach’s St Matthew Passion in the Grote Kerk, in Naarden, the Netherlands Bach Society has grown over the past century into a leading vocal-instrumental ensemble of national and international importance. The musicians play authentic instruments and are driven by curiosity and the joy of music-making. Since its foundation, the Netherlands Bach Society has been led by Johan Schoonderbeek, Evert Cornelis, Anthon van der Horst, Charles de Wolff, and Jos van Veldhoven. In 2018, violinist Shunske Sato was appointed the artistic director. The Netherlands Bach Society gives more than sixty concerts every year in the Netherlands and abroad. Through their Young Bach Fellowship, they endeavor to train the musicians of the future, coach amateurs in the Utrecht region, and, through their education outreach, bring secondary school pupils into contact with the ever-fascinating music of J.S. Bach.
https://www.bachvereniging.nl/en/about-us
Jos van Veldhoven (b. 1952) is a Dutch choral conductor. He studied musicology at the Rijksuniversiteit of Utrecht, and choral and orchestral conducting at the Royal Conservatory, The Hague. He has been artistic director of The Netherlands Bach Society since 1983. In this capacity he regularly gives performances at home and abroad of the major works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his predecessors and contemporaries. With his ensembles, Jos van Veldhoven has appeared on a great number of national and international radio and television broadcasts, many CD recordings, and has performed at festivals in the Netherlands, Western Europe, the United States, and Japan. He is a regular guest artist with international orchestras, including Das Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Telemann Chamber Orchestra, and the Essener Philharmoniker. Van Veldhoven has made significant contributions in resurrecting neglected and forgotten repertoires. Noteworthy among them were performances of oratorios by Telemann and Graun; vespers by Gastoldi; Netherlands repertoire of the Golden Age; reconstructions of Bach's St. Mark Passion; the so-called Kothener Trauer-Music; and many unknown seventeenth-century musical compositions. Van Veldhoven is the professor of choral conducting at the Amsterdam Conservatory and the Royal Conservatory, The Hague.
http://www.bachvereniging.nl
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos_van_Veldhoven
About the Composer:
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist of the Baroque period. He established German styles through his skill in counterpoint; harmonic and motivic organization; and the adaptation of rhythms, forms, and textures from Italy and France. Bach's compositions include the Brandenburg Concertos, the Mass in B Minor, The Well-Tempered Clavier, two Passions, keyboard works, and more than three hundred cantatas, of which nearly one hundred cantatas have been lost to posterity. His music is revered for its intellectual depth, technical command, and artistic beauty.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Johann-Sebastian-Bach
About the Poet:
James Mercer Langston Hughes (1902–1967) was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. One of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form called “jazz poetry,” Hughes is best known as a leader of the Harlem Renaissance, the flowering of African-American intellectual, literary, and artistic life during the 1920s. In addition to poetry, Hughes also wrote plays and short stories and published several nonfiction works. He sought to honestly portray the joys and hardships of working-class Black lives, avoiding both sentimental idealization and negative stereotypes. From 1942 to 1962, as the Civil Rights Movement was gaining momentum, Hughes wrote a weekly column in a leading Black newspaper, The Chicago Defender.
https://poets.org/poet/langston-hughes
About the Devotion Author:
Dr. David Horner
Professor of Theology and Philosophy
Division of Biblical and Theological Studies
Talbot School of Theology
David Horner has taught at the University of Oxford, Denver Seminary, and served as a Visiting Scholar and Research Associate at the University of Colorado. He has lectured in numerous classrooms and university forums nationally and in Europe, and he has written numerous articles and book chapters on ethics, apologetics, and ancient and medieval philosophy. Horner serves as Research Scholar for Centers for Christian Study, International, an effort to develop intellectual Christian communities within secular university contexts. He also serves as Executive Director of The Illuminatio Project, whose aim is to bring the light of a classical biblical vision of goodness, truth, and beauty into the thinking of the church and culture through strategic research and communication.