Do you have an ear for music? When you sing are you on key or off key. I love music but I cannot sing. I simply do not have the talent for it. My friend Kristin, however, has a magnificent voice and I could just sit and listen to her sing all day long. When I get to heaven, I want to be able to sing—on key and well. Come to think of it, I’m sure God wants me to be able to sing on key and well!!
Did you know that God is a musician and He plays all His songs in the same key and He desires for us to sing in that key as well. Don’t believe me? Listen to what He says in Psalm 119: 4-6:
“You have charged us to keep your commandments carefully. Oh, that my actions would consistently reflect your decrees! Then I will not be ashamed when I compare my life with your commands.”
Sounds to me like God sings in the key of ‘C’, which stands for commands or laws AND He expects us to sing in that same key. The Psalmist is asking God to help him keep the commands of God all the days of his life so that he will not have regrets or be ashamed.
In Dr. David Cooper’s devotional book, Timeless Truths in Changing Times (p189-190), he relates a story that illustrates this point beautifully. Dr. Cooper says that he once had the privilege of hearing Dr. Condoleeza Rice share her testimony at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, DC.
“She grew up in church. Her father was a pastor. As a young adult, she got out of the habit of going to church. One Sunday morning she was shopping at the Lucky Grocery Store, when she said, “I should have been in church.” She ran into a man in the aisle. He told her he was shopping for a church picnic that afternoon. He asked if she played the piano because they needed a pianist at their church. She said, “Yes.”
“She shared at the breakfast that she was shocked at just how far God’s hand could reach—all the way into the Lucky Grocery Store. So she started playing piano for this Baptist church, but she had a hard time with their music, having been raised Presbyterian. She was trained in classical, but they were singing gospel music. The pastor would start singing in a key that didn’t exist, and the musicians had to follow along.”
“She called her mother, who also played in church, and asked, ‘What should I do to keep up with them when I can’t find the key they are singing in?’ Her mother gave her great advice: ‘Just play in the key of C, and they’ll come back to you.’ Dr. Rice added, ‘God always plays in C, and even though we may drift from Him, we will always find our way back.’”
The Psalmist knew that God never wavers from the key of ‘C’, even though you and I may. God knows that the key of ‘C’ is where He has blessing upon blessing awaiting us and so He just keeps singing in the same key and waits for us to join Him. Are you singing in the same key as God? Are you following hard after Him in every part of your life? If not, why not start today?
