Out of Tune
“Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth…” Psalm 42:10
I have always sung out of tune. I was told in school I sing between keys. Not soprano or alto. Just totally out of tune. I was also told I don’t run in a straight line like others. I run in a zig zag. My first ex-husband called me zag sometimes; I was that out of tune with the world even before following Jesus. I was off the beaten track. When it came to singing in church, or singing anywhere, even happy birthday, I didn’t want to sing in front of people. I sing so off key, it hurts to hear myself sing. One day I found myself on my knees belting out songs at the top of my lungs. I refused to hold back. On and on I sang, and joy filled me beyond imagination. I was singing the new song in my heart, songs of adoration, praise, passionate love, songs I could not contain, to the Lord. Not songs I had heard before, nor songs anyone would ever want to hear, but simple, childlike songs of thanksgiving to my Lord! Then the thought came to me.
God doesn’t see my singing as “out of tune”. He hears my heart. I would never have known my singing was so out of tune if the world had not told me. My singing is out of tune according to the world’s measuring stick, not God’s heart. He wasn’t listening that morning to the song in my heart to judge me by the world’s standards of on or off key. He was hearing one of His children love and adore Him! Oh, how He must delight in this. Don’t we all long to be loved? Imagine how God longs to be loved especially considering how many live with their backs turned to Him! I was totally out of tune that morning, but I was loving God! Have you considered the lengths church choirs go to in order to plan and rehearse their programs so that everything is just right, totally in tune, right on key, everything in order before they line up in their gowns and such facing the congregation to begin their weekly singing? Why, I wonder, do they face the congregation? Why do they rehearse? For God, or for those listening?
Shouldn’t we all be facing God? Should it be about soprano and alto, in tune or out, running in zigs or zags, about the world’s standards, or should it be about turning our faces and voices and hearts and lives to God Creator of the universe? Shortly after belting out my songs to God, I found my heart full of a bad attitude and self-pity about my work with the dogs. Then I repented and remembered to praise and sing – to Him, my Lord! God didn’t create us to be in tune with this world, but to be in tune with Him and His ways.
Are you? Are you praising Him? Repent of anything unholy and live for Him and sing to Him with a pure heart!