Heaven's Note

“Shout praises to the Lord! Shout the Lord’s praises in the highest heavens.” Psalm 148:1

A sheep rancher in the remote mountains of Idaho discovered his violin was out of tune. He tried to make it sound the way it should, but without a tuning pitch, he was unable to get it right. A frequent listener to a radio station in California, he wrote the station concerning his problem.

After the opening paragraph detailing his situation, his letter asked if the station could, at a certain hour and minute of a certain day, strike the right note for him. And they did! They stopped everything else, silenced all other sounds for a moment, and struck the note.

Waiting in his shepherd’s hut in the distant mountains he heard that sound. From the single note he tuned his instrument once again. Separated by miles of space, that note sounded through the air giving him the exact bearings by which to bring his violin strings to their perfect pitch.

That is what praise does. It is a special moment when we truly get in touch with God. It is our connection with the “perfect note” of heaven, and helps us adjust our own earthly lives to heaven’s pitch. We need to listen, we need to tune our hearts to hear the praises “in the highest heavens.”

Our lives get out of tune so easily that we even sometimes think our personal prejudices are actually the music of heaven. We need to carefully allow our heart to be moved by the compassion that God showed us in Christ, otherwise we simply become parrots of the most popular teaching or propaganda we hear. None of us “tune in” perfectly, but we must be even vigilant to hear the perfect note sounded in Christ.

We need to remind ourselves that not everyone mentioning God or invoking Scriptures is sounding that pure heavenly note. Our hearts will make music based upon what we have used for our own tuning fork. We will “sound” like heaven to the extent that we have actually listened for God and His love with all diligence.

Remember, the Pharisees thought they were tuned right in to the proper music. They knew the rules people should live by, supported them all with Scripture, and were scrupulous themselves about those same rules. But Jesus called them white-washed tombs full of dead men’s bones. They were not singing the “praises of highest heaven.”

What do people hear when I express my heart? Do they hear the grace of heaven, or am I on a soapbox about how terrible all the “illegal immigrants” are? Do they hear about radical love that changes from the inside out, or am I making others feel like God is constantly angry? Does the song from my heart reflect Heaven’s desire for everyone to be reconciled to God, or do I sing a hopeless dirge that says the world is doomed?

The greatest love song ever written begins with the words, “God so loved the world…” When I tune myself to the notes of heaven, my song will have the same theme. The mercy of God will fill my music; His tenderness to the outcast will permeate the melodies and His grace, His forgiveness delivered to all humanity through Jesus Christ will be the chorus of every song I sing.

Shout praises to the Lord! Sing to Him, highest heaven and let us hear the chords of grace fill the amphitheater of our hearts. Let me be moved to tears by the love song of a God who hears the cry of the humble every minute of every day.