We are all guilty of it…singing hymns at church without connecting our thoughts with the author’s intent.      And like eating cotton candy, getting taste without nutrients, so goes our singing without comprehending.     Thoughtless thoughts…and praiseless praise.

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.”

We tend to wander out of tune with the Lord.

It was time to buy a set of strings for the second octave of our harp.   Having received them (thanks UPS) I went about changing them.    Having removed the old, the process then began of threading each new string through the sound board, up to and through the pedal discs, and then connecting and wrapping onto the tuning pins.   Using a tuning fork (okay, I used my iPhone) I then tuned each string to proper pitch.

Then the wandering began.

New strings take a while to gain their muscle memory.     It takes 2-3 days for a new string to begin to retain a close resemblance of its proper pitch.     So for 3 days, it is a matter of tightening, tuning, waiting, tightening, tuning, waiting, tightening…

Like strings that drift out of pitch, the author of Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing knew the wayfaring tendency of the human heart.    And when he penned “tune my heart to sing Thy praise”, he thoughtfully admonished himself, and us, to stop the drift.

We have to purposefully tune our hearts to the things of the Lord.   Nobody drifts toward holiness.   Our meander is always towards the yonder.

David also showed that he understood this tendency of the heart when he penned…

Teach me Your way, O Lord; 
I will walk in Your truth; 
Unite my heart to fear Your name.
Psalm 86:11 (NASB95)

And why would the heart need to be united?    Because it is not.    The interests of the heart are disjoined.   Yes, prone to wander.

So, next time we gather to sing corporately, let us engage.   Add intentionality to our praise, and comprehensive to our vocals.    Yes, let us tune our hearts, unite our hearts,…and sing His praise.   Both in song, and in our daily living.    

Rod

S.D.G – 17

Verse 1
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the Mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.

Verse 2
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His Precious Blood.

Verse 3
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Verse 4
O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy Lovely Face;
Robed then in blood wash-ed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Gather with Your arms and carry
Me to joys of endless day

Come, Though Fount of Every Blessing
Robert Robinson