Re: Tune

Albert Bogle January 02, 2025 4 3

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Listen to this daily worship

Psalm 81 (NRSVA)

1 

Sing aloud to God our strength;
    shout for joy to the God of Jacob.

2 

Raise a song, sound the tambourine,
    the sweet lyre with the harp.

3 

Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
    at the full moon, on our festal day.

4 

For it is a statute for Israel,
    an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

5 

He made it a decree in Joseph,
    when he went out over the land of Egypt.

I hear a voice I had not known:

6 

‘I relieved your shoulder of the burden;
    your hands were freed from the basket.

7 

In distress you called, and I rescued you;
    I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
    I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Selah

8 

Hear, O my people, while I admonish you;
    O Israel, if you would but listen to me!

9 

There shall be no strange god among you;
    you shall not bow down to a foreign god.

10 

I am the Lord your God,
    who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
    Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.

11 

‘But my people did not listen to my voice;
    Israel would not submit to me.

12 

So I gave them over to their stubborn hearts,
    to follow their own counsels.

13 

O that my people would listen to me,
    that Israel would walk in my ways!

14 

Then I would quickly subdue their enemies,
    and turn my hand against their foes.

15 

Those who hate the Lord would cringe before him,
    and their doom would last for ever.

16 

I would feed you with the finest of the wheat,
    and with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.’

There is an old joke that we singer songwriters use in between songs, distracting the audience as we tune our instrument. “See this guitar, it was in tune when I bought it.” Of course every time you play the guitar or any stringed instrument you have to check that it is in tune and re-tune it. The temperature of the room, the humidity of the moment, all add to the change in atmosphere, which means you have to re-tune if you want to sing in harmony.

Knowing God on a daily basis calls for a daily re-tuning of ourselves because we too, like the strings of an instrument, expand and contract and these changes mean we are often out of tune and certainly not in perfect pitch with God’s orchestra. We all too easily, allow ourselves to be tuned to the culture around us, rather than to the voice of the Spirit in the scriptures and the world around us. 

Psalm 81 is what I call an “if only” psalm. The writer is aware of the joy of a human soul in tune with God, singing his praises, in tune because they have been re-tuned to experience and feel the extravagant love of God. Re-tuned to know that all will be well. 

Let’s start each day afresh this year tuning our ears and our thoughts into the voice of God as he calls each of us by name and we reply ‘Good morning Father.”

Prayer:

Father God

Lord of all Creation

Forgive our ill manners

And our lack of awareness

We tune the dial of our lives

into signs and sounds that make us tone deaf

to the beauty  and praise that surrounds us

Extolling your name and gracious love and concern for us

We do not sing loud praises to you

Because we don’t know how to do it

We have tuned our voices 

From praise to ridicule

From joy to bitterness

From hope to fear 

The noise of ingratitude

Is like a cacophony of terror

A resounding discord

From which we long to break free

Open our mouths and our lips will shout your praise

Tune our hearts to love and banish fear

Restore our song within creation’s songbook