Day 43 ~ I Miss Rich Mullins

I'm sitting on my back porch tonight. The little black kitten is long gone, off to another new home. The weather seems to have turned toward fall. My tulip tree in the back yard has dead rust colored leaves clinging to the branches. It turned quickly over a couple of days. I saw several tulip trees a bit smaller at the Hutson's during the Home Fellowship bonfire on Saturday and they all had their green leaves. I'm thinking ours might be dead or dying. I hope not, it is the only good sized tree in the back yard before you get to the woods. I hear lots of sounds...crickets, a motorcycle, cars, the neighbor's toddler crying, dogs barking, footsteps on the stairs inside the house, a vacuum, a combine... Given the peaceful setting, and the fact that I don't stop for much in Psalms, I'm going for two nights reading tonight!

• Psalm 51 - David has been caught in his sin, and he doesn't lie or deny his guilt. However, in verse 4 he says he has only sinned against God. I'm not sure that Uriah would agree with that statement. I don't think I do either.
• 51:15-16 - God desires a broken and contrite heart above a burnt offering (we'll see this thought again in 60:31-32.
• 53:1 - also in 14:1 - the fool has said there is no God.
• 55:6 - reminds me of Jenny from Forest Gump - when young Jenny says "Dear God, make me a bird. So I could fly far. Far far away from here" Wasn't that an awesome movie?
• 56 - does your Bible version have an opening descriptor to most of the Psalms? Mine does, I think it is part of the scripture, not the commentary. Anyway, many of them say "set to" and then what appears to be a melody title, in this case "The Silent Dove in the Distant Lands". There are also "melody" songs listed in Psalm 9, 22, 45, 57, 58, 60, 69, 75, 80, 88 (I stopped at 89, cause I made it through two days!). Some of them are listed more than once, like "Do Not Destroy" and one with "Lilies" in the name. So, are these titles rythyms, or melodies or tunes? Do the Jews still know the tunes and use them?
• And what is Michtam? listed in the describing sentence in Psalm 16, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60.
• 62:1, 5 - Truly my soul silently waits for God.

Rich Mullins break here. Psalm 63:1 reminds me of him. I love Rich Mullins' music. I remember being at weeks of camp with him way before he became famous (with a group named "Zion" and at Cincinnati Bible College), one at Rainbow Christian Camp as a teenager. He kept singing "Jenny, Jenny...867-5309" - do you remember that song? The last time I saw him was at Taylor University in September 1996, a year before his death in a car accident. If I remember correctly, I went with Gino & Deb Small, Alicia & Eric King, Jay & Julie St. Peters. I cannot hear a Rich Mullins song to this day without getting a tight throat or crying. And I'm not much of a cryer. If found a youtube video of a concert about 6 weeks before his death that is very similar to the concert that I went to, however at Taylor he played the Dulcimer on this song, which was awesome to watch. Anyway, Psalm 63:1 instantly reminded me of his song "Sometimes by Step". I strongly recommend his CD "Songs" - one of my all time favorite CDs. Here's the song on Rhapsody: Rich Mullins Sometimes by Step: "1. Sometimes By Step - Rich Mullins ". Here's the song with a video and the words on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-b7TQMoZsM

• Psalm 71 - the Elderly believers psalm
• 72 is from Solomon (the first one I think). He'll have a whole book of songs later. The psalm ends with "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended." That's kind fo weird. What does it mean? Will we have any more Psalms written by David (yes, 86).
• 72:20 - "The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended" - what does this mean? Will we have any more from David?