"KEEPING LIFE IN TUNE!"

Written and preached by David P. Nolte



PSALMS 9:1-11

Use some American Idol worst auditions for intro. Boy. Talk about Friday night at the cat fight. That was discordant. What amazes me is that nobody cared enough about those people to say, "You know, this is not your thing. Don't embarrass yourself." The second song, by Carrie Underwood, was pleasant and melodious. It was in tune. We need to keep our lives in tune. Our lives ought to be a song to Jesus. To keep life in tune we need to:
  1. SING THE RIGHT SONG:
    1. In the Psalm, David said, "I will sing praises to your name, O Most High." He knew how to sing the right song; one that would honor and please God.
      1. The right song is a song of praise, adoration, and worship.
      2. The right song glorifies God and tells of His wonderful deeds.
      3. The right song is optimistic, hopeful, courageous and celebrative.
      4. The right song is not downtrodden blues or forlorn dirge or gangsta rap or another "somebody done somebody wrong song."
      5. It is not "I've got the big, fat, ugly, leech onto me worry blues."
    2. The world doesn't know the right song. The world's song amplifies sex and violence and rebellion. To keep life in tune we need to sing the right song and it is one that expresses purity and peace and submission to God.
    3. I'm not talking about songs that emanate from our lips alone. Not just lip songs, but life songs. Our life ought to be the right song to God.
    4. A few years ago, I was leading songs in Molalla. It was in the days before "hi-tech" stuff like video projectors. So I picked up a hymnal and announced hymn #25. Others opened their hymnals and we started. It sounded like a cacophony rather than a concert. Everyone was using the same hymnal - except me. I got one that had somehow found its way there from the Nazarene church down the street. I was singing the wrong song. It sounded horrid. To keep life in tune, sing the right song.
  1. SING IN THE RIGHT TEMPO:
    1. In my Bible, there is a statement, "Quiet interlude" right after verse 16. Some versions say something like, "Selah" at that point. There is a break, a rest, a time not to just keep singing ahead of the music. If you've been watching American Idol, you have noted that several times the singer has been told, "You were singing ahead of your music." But to keep in tempo we must not sing ahead of or behind the music.
    2. Sometimes in life's song we lag behind Jesus.
      1. He says go and do and we stay and wait.
      2. We delay getting into a deeper devotional life.
      3. We put off witnessing to others around us.
      4. We make serving in the church a priority for somewhere down the road a few years.
      5. Mañana is the menace of managing this moment.
      6. Procrastination is the enemy of progress.
      7. Putting off until another time frequently means never getting it done at all.
    3. Sometimes in life's song we run on ahead of Jesus.
      1. He says, "Be still and wait!" and we chomp at the bit to make things happen.
      2. So, impatiently, we head off our own way, mindless of His restraint, until we find ourselves going the wrong way at the wrong time doing the wrong things.
      3. It may be we are too impetuous in quitting a job just when Jesus is about to bless it
      4. It may be we are too hasty in dropping out of Christian service because we are discouraged. We get out of harness just when Jesus is about to prosper our work. Don't get ahead of Jesus in your song.
      5. Impetuosity is the ruination of reason.
      6. Looking before you leap is the way to failure.
    4. Once I sang in a quartet. We were going to sing "Springs Of Living Water" and "Streets Of Glory." Three of us practiced together and the fourth was absent. But we let him sing with us anyhow, so on the night of the performance, or rather the disaster, he was about two beats behind the other three of us on "Springs Of Living Water." We sweated through it. Then We sang "Streets Of Glory." Afterward, a lady said, "Streets of Glory was beautiful - but Springs Of Living Water STUNK!" She was right - we were not all in tempo with the music. To keep life in tune, sing in time with the music, Jesus' music.
  1. SING FOR THE RIGHT REASON:
    1. David sang to commemorate, to bring attention to, and to celebrate God and all He has done.
      1. He wrote in another Psalm, "I will sing to the Lord because He has been so good to me." Psalms 13:6 (NLT).
      2. And in another place we read, "You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy, that I might sing praises to You and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give You thanks forever!" Psalms 30:11-12 (NLT).
    2. Some sing songs to express defiance and anger. Some sing songs to protest what they perceive to be some injustice. Some sing songs to pour out self-pity over a lost love. Some sing songs to urge an intended lover to reciprocate their love. But to really keep our lives in tune, the right reason to sing is to express our faith, trust, love, gratitude and praise for God.
    3. Some sing to showcase their talents and to demonstrate how gifted and wonderful they are. You hear that phrase "showcase my talents" a lot from some of the Idol wannabes. I knew a lady in Albany whose motive in singing was show. She said, "The reason I am such a good singer is that I have developed my voice, so why would I thank God for that?" But to keep life in tune, let your song be praise to Him.
    4. We sing "Happy Birthday" to express our love and best wishes. That's a good reason to sing. At Christian Memorial services we sing songs of hope and faith, "Amazing Grace," "In The Garden," "Beyond The Sunset," and so on because we are celebrating the home going of a loved one. That's a good reason to sing. To keep life in tune, sing for the right reason. That's to shed light on, and to magnify God.
  1. SING IN THE RIGHT KEY:
    1. You can't help but realize that David is singing in the major key, not the minor key. Lamentations and dirges are written in a minor key to express depression and heaviness. But David sings with joy and pleasure and praise.
    2. Not only do we need to be in the major key but we need to be on key. Some sing flat and some sing sharp and some sing somewhere in between. Being right on key makes things sound a lot better.
    3. I want to say that we need to sing on key, and in the major key.
      1. We are in the right key when we follow His commands and yield to His leading. We are in in tune with His will or we are not in tune. Unless we are in tune with Him, our lives are discordant and pitchy.
      2. We are in the right key when we eliminate the whine and whimper and complaint out of the song.
    4. I have a niece just 14 months younger than I. As children we spent a lot of time together. Now, I was a perfect child, needless to say, but she was a whiner. If she got in trouble or was being reprimanded for something, she always started whining. Every time and without fail, she'd point to her arm and say, in a tweaky, squeaky, whine, "My mosquito bite hurts." It might be in the dead of winter when the skeeters were dormant, or it might be that six months ago she got bit. But that bite was her recourse every time. And her whine was totally out of tune. To keep life in tune, sing in the right key.

Let your life be a song sung to Jesus in praise and to the world in witness. Resonate with the heart and will of Jesus. Let Him be the maestro and you the musician. Find ways daily to let your song be praise, and testimony and a joy to Jesus. Remember how old TV shows had their own distinctive theme song? You could know what was coming by the song you heard. Andy Griffith, Different Strokes, Gimme A Break, Ozzie and Harriet all identified by a theme song. What is your theme song? What will Jesus, the world, your family know is coming up in your life by the song your life sings? You don't have a song? He will give you one and you can say with David, "He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what He has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the LORD. Oh, the joys of those who trust the LORD," Psalms 40:3-4 (NLT). Oh the joys of those who trust the Lord. If you trust Him, sing for Him. If you have not trusted Him before, trust Him now. He will make your life a melody. He will make your life a song. He'll give you a new song. Sing it for Him.

Return To Old Testament Sermons

Return To Archive

Return To Home Page