Because Jesus, also known as Yashua, said in John 14:15, “If ye love me, keep my commandments,”  I began to see the importance of having the Ten commandments memorized.  I opened my Bible to Exodus 20:1-17 and began the slow process of making melody to fit the words, rather than forcing the words to fit one melody.  Trying to force scripture to fit a melody is impossible because it isn’t written in poetic form and there is no meter.  Scripture forced to fit a melody in this way never sounds good.  So, I started trying different melodies one phrase or sentence at a time.  If I liked the melody, I would sing it over and over to get it in my mind.  I didn’t record my songs back then as I was writing them.  If I couldn’t remember the melody the next day, I would pray and ask God to help me to remember it, and if the melody didn’t return, then I knew it was meant to have a different melody.  When I got to verse 17, I realized that it made for a pretty dull ending.  What could I do for a better ending?  I prayed and then searched in my concordance and found Lev.  22:31-33.  it made a perfect ending.    Here are the words to the song:

Exodus 20

1 And God spake all these words, saying,

² I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

³ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

⁶ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

⁷ Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

⁸ Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

⁹ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

¹⁰ But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

¹¹ For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

¹² Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

¹³ Thou shalt not kill.

¹⁴ Thou shalt not commit adultery.

¹⁵ Thou shalt not steal.

¹⁶ Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

¹⁷ Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbour’s.

Leviticus 22

³¹ Therefore shall ye keep my commandments, and do them: I am the Lord.

³² Neither shall ye profane my holy name; but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel: I am the Lord which hallow you,

³³ That brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the Lord.

Now for the musical accompaniment, it had to have the sound of the awful grandeur of being in God’s presence.  The music is based on the following verses.

Exodus 19 

¹⁵ And he said unto the people, Be ready against the third day: come not at your wives.

¹⁶ And it came to pass on the third day in the morning, that there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the mount, and the voice of the trumpet exceeding loud; so that all the people that was in the camp trembled.

¹⁷ And Moses brought forth the people out of the camp to meet with God; and they stood at the nether part of the mount.

¹⁸ And mount Sinai was altogether on a smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire: and the smoke thereof ascended as the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mount quaked greatly.

I asked the talented Ritchie Carbajal to start the song with trumpets.  His first attempt was sounding like a fox hunt.  I asked him to try again and what you will here is what he came up with.  I liked it.  The verses said that there was a lot of thunder, so I asked if he could put thunder in the song.  He had a program on his keyboard that could make thunder.  Each key on the keyboard had a different sound of thunder.  The lower notes sounded more like a hippo than thunder.   Finally, we found some that sounded real.  I  chose places throughout the song for the thunder to clap.  I also asked him to use my favorite drum set, the kettle drums, or tympani to add grandeur.  Now, you have some background on how this song was made.  The track was made and I sang along with it for my album.  I had accompaniment tracks, but they are missing, so I had to sing along with myself.  I hope you will enjoy it.  

A digital download of my song is available at this link.  https://tamaraluevano.bandcamp.com/track/the-ten-commandments

It is so important to teach our children to also memorize the scriptures and God’s Ten Commandments are important to know.  My daughter grew up listening to my recorded songs, so she had a lot of them memorized.  One day, we were enjoying ourselves at the Santa Margarita Creek in Fallbrook only about half a mile’s walk from our home.  I had my underwater camera with me and we decided to sing some songs and record them in the beauty of nature.  I started the video underwater and then coming out I had to deal with water on the lens causing some blurring.  This was all impromptu and no practicing, so it won’t be perfect, but I love this song because it reminds me of a happy time when my daughter loved me and God.  Sadly, she moved out to live with a nonChristian and says she no longer believes in God.  She has also pretty much cut herself off from family and friends.  Please join me in praying that she remembers this song and will return to the God of her youth.