Tuning with the E String (1 Samuel 23:1-14)
For a couple of years in high school, I played around on my mother's guitar and then took a guitar class in college. Musical gifting is not one of my strengths, so the skill did not develop like I had hoped. One useful thing I remembered, though, was that I could tune the E string to a standard, and then tune the rest of the strings according to that one accurate pitch. When the low E string was tuned to the standard, I could descend down the other five strings, tuning each accordingly. Should the reference pitch be off and my E string be out of tune, I won't be able to reproduce good music.
As a reminder, do you remember Saul in one of his first acts as King (1 Samuel 13)? He was to wait for Samuel to offer a sacrifice before God prior to going to war. As stress mounted and the Philistines gathered in mass quantity for battle, Saul's men began deserting him. Saul chose to reject God's instruction to wait, offering the sacrifice himself impatiently. Saul's internal heart strings were not tuned to an accurate E pitch. Without God as the accurate reference pitch, his actions were out of tune and the nation would falter.
In contrast, David was also surrounded by stress in 1 Samuel 23:1-14. He had lost his home, was daily on the run for his life with 600 men depending on his leadership, and had come into knowledge of Keilah's (a city) need for defense from a Philistine attack. David approached God to inquire what to do. In those moments, David was using God as his reference pitch. He was tuning his low E string by which he would be prepared to tune his others decisions as a leader. As tuning goes, you tighten and loosen the string to find the correct pitch. It's not an immediate find. David similarly was tuning his heart to God. It was not a perfect first try, but as the relationship was growing, David was learning life with God.
With a heart accurately tuned, he led his men into battle against their will, trusting that God's sovereignty and power would act on their and His own behalf in victory.
What is your reference pitch? Are you, like David, able to daily tune your heart to the solid truth of Scripture and active, prayerful relationship with God through Christ? Or, like Saul, are you depending on your own actions and flesh to deliver you through the day, thus tuning your heart to an out-of-tune pitch that will affect all other parts of your life?
Tune well, my friends. Find the reference pitch that is accurate, beautiful, and immutable. 2007
As a reminder, do you remember Saul in one of his first acts as King (1 Samuel 13)? He was to wait for Samuel to offer a sacrifice before God prior to going to war. As stress mounted and the Philistines gathered in mass quantity for battle, Saul's men began deserting him. Saul chose to reject God's instruction to wait, offering the sacrifice himself impatiently. Saul's internal heart strings were not tuned to an accurate E pitch. Without God as the accurate reference pitch, his actions were out of tune and the nation would falter.
In contrast, David was also surrounded by stress in 1 Samuel 23:1-14. He had lost his home, was daily on the run for his life with 600 men depending on his leadership, and had come into knowledge of Keilah's (a city) need for defense from a Philistine attack. David approached God to inquire what to do. In those moments, David was using God as his reference pitch. He was tuning his low E string by which he would be prepared to tune his others decisions as a leader. As tuning goes, you tighten and loosen the string to find the correct pitch. It's not an immediate find. David similarly was tuning his heart to God. It was not a perfect first try, but as the relationship was growing, David was learning life with God.
With a heart accurately tuned, he led his men into battle against their will, trusting that God's sovereignty and power would act on their and His own behalf in victory.
What is your reference pitch? Are you, like David, able to daily tune your heart to the solid truth of Scripture and active, prayerful relationship with God through Christ? Or, like Saul, are you depending on your own actions and flesh to deliver you through the day, thus tuning your heart to an out-of-tune pitch that will affect all other parts of your life?
Tune well, my friends. Find the reference pitch that is accurate, beautiful, and immutable. 2007
Hair in the Popcorn (1 Samuel 6)
One night during my high school years I was at a movie theater with my friends. I purchased a bag of popcorn to eat during the movie. At that age I was a serious long distance runner and did not have much concern for the gallon of fatty, fake butter that was poured over my corn. It was a delightful mouth of salty butterness. Some time into the show, I froze. Danger. Very serious danger was in my mouth! Trying to keep composure of both my outward reaction and my gag reflex, I began to pull a very long tangled mess of popcorn and hair out of my mouth. Even worse was the fact that I had unknowingly swallowed part of it though it was still attached. Extracting it was NOT fun.
At that point, what do you do? You can complain to the manager, but none of that theater's popcorn is going to make its way back into my mouth. The ordinary (someone else's hair) had already mingled with the holy (my popcorn). May it never be!
The closing of 1 Samuel 6 is quite similar if you think creatively about it. The Ark of God was holy. And God intended for Israel to also be a holy nation. ("You shall be holy as I am holy." Lev. 11:44-47) On the contrary Israel mingled with the ordinary, Godless nations around them. It affected how they treated the Holy God.
For example, Israel saw the Ark being carried home by two milch cows pulling a cart and made a burnt sacrifice is made from the cows and the cart. As I read I think, "They've got it. They are using the ordinary to honor God." Yet, ignorant and enjoying idolatry, Israel forgot the holiness of God. Men curiously peered into the Ark as if it were ordinary, but God had instructed them otherwise.
By their sin these men fell to death at the hand of a holy God. What is holy was not intended to be mingled with ordinary, Godless elements. Holiness is meant to define the ordinary, but in our sin we use the ordinary in rebellion against God. Like a hair in the throat of God is our ignorant mingling of the holy and the ordinary for selfish pursuit.
To apply this principle, I find myself convicted of worshipping the image in the mirror as if it defines who I am and what I will be worthy of, but God has instructed me to find my worth and my value in Him. He is the source of my worth and my very body is called a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19). By letting the ordinary define my life, I will have a failing standard to judge by. But keeping my heart tuned to the Holy One allows me wisdom and help in removing the unholy hair from my popcorn. 2006
