Making a Differencewith Pastor Phil Erickson

Apr 2nd, 2022 What Are You Listening To? – The Saturday Morning Post

Today’s Passage – 1 Samuel 15 – 16 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers also read – Matthew 3 – 4; Proverbs 2; Psalms 6 – 10)

Read the “0402 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

“But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him. And Saul’s servants said unto him, Behold now, an evil spirit from God troubleth thee. Let our lord now command thy servants, which are before thee, to seek out a man, who is a cunning player on an harp: and it shall come to pass, when the evil spirit from God is upon thee, that he shall play with his hand, and thou shalt be well. And Saul said unto his servants, Provide me now a man that can play well, and bring him to me. Then answered one of the servants, and said, Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing, and a mighty valiant man, and a man of war, and prudent in matters, and a comely person, and the LORD is with him. Wherefore Saul sent messengers unto Jesse, and said, Send me David thy son, which is with the sheep. And Jesse took an ass laden with bread, and a bottle of wine, and a kid, and sent them by David his son unto Saul. And David came to Saul, and stood before him: and he loved him greatly; and he became his armourbearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying, Let David, I pray thee, stand before me; for he hath found favour in my sight. And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.” (1Samuel 16:14-23)

Good morning. I got saved late in life, so I have a lot of ‘baggage’ with me. One of those bags is music. In our passage today, we see that Saul was oppressed by an evil spirit. But when David played, Saul was refreshed. He felt better, and the evil spirit left him. Back in my day, music could say one thing when played normally and say another thing if it were played backwards. This was called backward masking. Now, if a singer wants to say something, they blurt it right out.

I could not find the correct live version of When Electricity Came To Arkansas by Black Oak Arkansas. When played forward, in the middle of the song, it sounds like the lead singer is speaking in tongues. However, when you play it backwards you can clearly hear the singer say, “satan, satan. He is god, he is god, he is god.”

Even the Beatles used backward masking. But they also said things straight out. In their song: The Ballad Of John and Yoko, they used the LORD’s name in vain five times.

Norm Greenbaum, in his song Spirit In The Sky, said, “I’ve never been a sinner, I’ve never sinned. I have friend in Jesus.” But the Bible clearly says that…”

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God…” (Romans 3:23)

That’s everybody. These are only three of the songs I remember from my generation. There are others. Black Sabbath has a song called After Forever. Here is the first verse…

Have you ever though about your soul
Can it be saved?
Or perhaps you think that when you’re dead
You just stay in your grave
Is God just a thought within your head
Or is he a part of you?
Is Christ just a name that you read in a book
When you were at school?

And to song ends with this statement…

Yes, I think it’s too late.

It’s never too late, unless you close your eyes in death without Jesus as your Saviour. What are you listening to?

Peace.