Boiling Guitar Strings, Tuning Hearts

“Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy grace…”

As I sat in church this morning, I was struck by a thought:  How do we tune our hearts? 

The Bible is full of verses about praising the Lord – and one of my favorites is below:

·         “It is good to praise the LORD and make music to your name, O Most High, to proclaim your love in the morning and your faithfulness at night.”  (Psalm 92:1-2)

Psalm 150 mentions praising the Lord with the trumpet, harp, lyre, tambourine, dancing, strings, flute, and cymbals.  In fact, everything that has breath is encouraged to praise the Lord in verse 6. 

So, just like I wouldn’t want to play an out-tune-guitar to praise the Lord, how do I make sure that my heart is in tune so that I can more fully praise Him?  **

Because Robert Robinson penned the words to “Come Thou Fount” in 1758, it would be next to impossible to ask him what caused him to use the phrase “tune my heart.”  However, I know that when I heard the words, I immediately thought about how you tune any instrument…and the following is the result of my research this afternoon:

“Musical instruments are not all tuned in the same way. Some, for example, need to be tuned by tuning specialists. So, you would generally have your piano tuned by an expert piano tuner. Other instruments, however, can be tuned by their players. So, a violinist, for example, would be expected to keep their own instrument in tune.

The way that you tune an instrument depends on the type of instrument that you play. For example:

·         String instruments -- string instruments are tuned by turning the pegs at the end of the strings. This alters the actual tension of the string which affects the notes that can be played on it.

·         Keyboard instruments -- keyboard instruments tend to be tuned by expert tuners. Again, this is generally about changing the tension of the strings that produce the notes when keys are played on the keyboard.

·         Drums -- drums come with taps or pegs which, when turned, change the tension of the drum head itself.

·         Wind instruments -- wind instruments are tuned in various ways usually by adjusting the position of one or more joints on the instrument.”

It appears that the producing of in-tune music is always about adjustments and frequently about tension.  The lengthening of ‘barrels’ or joints in wind instruments (or even the shape of the player's mouth or amount of air blown), the valves in brass instruments, and the tension of strings or drum heads all are necessary to produce beautiful music.  If the temperature or humidity changes, a skilled musician knows that he/she needs to perform even more adjustments because the sound could be affected by those things as well. 

Because I am in the process of learning to play the guitar, I thought I knew all there was to know about guitar tuning.  But I looked it up anyway.  And although the general concepts were not new to me – let me tell you what I gathered:

1.       Guitar strings can be tightened or loosened to match the correct sound.  (duh.)

2.       Guitar strings can be made of nylon (classical/folk guitars), steel/nickel (electric), or bronze (acoustic).

3.       The tensile-strength of a guitar string is necessary for good sound…and over time, a guitar string can lose its sound and need to be replaced.

BUT WAIT!  Did you know you could boil guitar strings?  I know.  Crazy.  Here’s the deal:

·         Old guitar strings can be boiled to cause them expand and release oil and dirt, vastly improving the sound.

·         New guitar strings can be boiled to allow for better stretching capabilities, tone and tension. 

·         The time spent in boiling water depends greatly on the specific string (composition, thickness)…

·         And there are risks:

o   If a cheap string – it’s not worth boiling.  Go buy a new one.

o   Most strings should not be boiled more than twice.

Okay – so admittedly, I was excited by this discovery - not only because it’s awesome (and my guitar strings are 8 years old…yikes), but because of the neat connection to tuning hearts.

Guitar strings are made of very different materials, but all need to be stretched and put through tension to make beautiful music.  Guitar strings can experience “boiling” for better sound early in their lifetime, or guitar strings can go through that hot water later in their lives to remove the built up oil and dirt…or both! 

How like our hearts!

We humans are very different from each other, but our hearts are all in need of a pull from the Savior.  And when we come to Him, Jesus “stretches” us in new experiences and sometimes allows us to experience “boiling” in order to be better able to praise Him.  (and to match our sounds better to His key  J).  You could say that when we go through trials, He’s in the process of tuning our hearts – either for cleaning purposes or better stretching purposes.  AND – just as such effort is not wasted on a cheap string, but on one with promise, Jesus stretches and provides us with tension in our lives because He knows that someday because of it, we will make beautiful music. 

Have you ever thought about what heaven will be like?  Imagine Christians gathered together from all across the globe, having had their heart tuned by the Master Musician.  Can you imagine millions of people praising God together?  We won’t all be the same and lose our individuality.  Even the instruments in an orchestra are different.  But just as an orchestra tunes to the same note, the heavenly orchestra will take their cue from the Master Musician and together produce richer, fuller music.

It reminds me of a quote by C.S. Lewis:

“But it is also said, ‘To him that overcometh I will give a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.’ [Revelation 2:17].  What can be more a man’s own than this new name which even in eternity remains a secret between God and him?  And what shall we take this secrecy to mean?  Surely, that each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can.  Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently?  And this difference, so far from impairing, floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another, the communion of the saints.  If all experienced God in the same way and returned to him an identical worship, the song of the church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments played the same note.”  (from The Problem of Pain)

Heart tuning.  Instrument tuning.  Boiling guitar strings.  Richer, purer music.  Heavenly sounds. 

I’m not quite sure that Robert Robinson had all this in mind when penning those beautiful words.  But I know that the next time I sing “Come Thou Fount” I will have a better picture of what it means for the Lord to tune my heart to sing His grace.

**As a side note – for those of you thinking:  “But it says make a joyful noise!  We don’t have to be in tune!”  Although Psalm 95 and 98 both say to make a joyful noise, and God appreciates worship from our heart – the Bible also says in Psalm 33:1-3 to sing joyfully and play skillfully.  I really do think God appreciates excellence... J