Come Thou, Tune My Heart
“Come thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace; Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise!” Tune my heart(strings). And they are in need of constant tuning, because I am “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love. . .”
The tuning fork - a still small voice.
The invention of the tuning fork is attributed to John Shore, a British musician who, in 1707, became Sergeant Trumpeter to Queen Anne’s court. He had parts specifically written for him by George Frideric Handel and Henry Purcell. He jokingly called his invention a pitchfork!
When struck, the tuning fork sets up a vibration and oscillates rapidly between two prongs. As long as the instrument remains intact its accuracy will never change. Modern day electronic oscillators testify as to the faithful consistency of this time-proven invention ( over 300 years now.) Musical instruments, from the smallest to the Concert Piano have been tuned to a standard. The tuning fork has proven itself to be consistent and reliable; unchanging. But it is a still small voice which one should hold in close proximity to the ear in order to clearly discern the tone. But it is essential that one have an “ear for music” in rightly hearing the sound.
I purchased a tuning fork, along with a tuning hammer, almost forty years ago. Not once have I ever needed to enter a music store and ask, Can I get you to tune my tuning fork? I have had various stringed instruments over the years: they all have needed tuning, some more frequently than others.
Heartstrings.
In a symbolic sense, heartstrings are the deepest or most intense emotions and affections. There are phrases which demonstrate these: warmth of love, heat of anger, cool disdain. There may be manifestations of emotional reactions: blushing, shuddering, trembling, etc. An example from the scriptures: “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” James 5:16. Fervent, zelos, heat, zeal, (white hot, as some would define it.) used in a favorable way. Intense (human) jealousy and the heat thereof demonstrates a negative usage. Contrarily we might say that one is ‘cold-hearted,’ perhaps insinuating that the ‘heartstrings’ are rigid and unresponsive.
A still small voice.
Elijah went to Mount Carmel - we should be well aware of the defeat of the false prophets and the victorious display of the power of God; of Jezebel’s decree to find and kill Elijah; of his fleeing. More than forty days later Elijah finds himself on Mount Horeb, and hearing the Voice of God speak: “And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; and after the fire a still small voice. . .” I Kings 19:11,12.
Lazarus had been dead for four days when Jesus called with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” But this call may have been largely for the people which stood by “that they may believe that thou hast sent me.” John 11:42b,43. Jesus had said earlier to his disciples, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awaken him out of sleep” vs. 11. And Lazarus was unable to sleep: he was awakened by the sound of a ringing in his ears. The ringing, perhaps as of a tuning fork; the sound being the still small voice of the Triune Godhead. The Voice is a Standard, unchangeable, without variation, faithfully so.
Unmistakably, the raising of Lazarus prefigures the Resurrection that is yet to come: “Martha saith unto him, I know that he [Lazarus] shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I AM the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. The resurrection? “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God” Is all this to awaken the dead in Christ, to call those who remain alive unto His coming - or largely that the world may hear and know that “Thou hast sent me?” May the Shepherd of the sheep not call out His sheep with a still small voice? Will they not hear His Voice and follow Him? When I was a child, I went with my parents to the homes of friends. The visits lasted many times until late; my Dad would find me asleep somewhere in a chair or on a sofa. Did he loudly call me to wake up, to arise from sleep? No, I would most likely hear a still small voice - time to get up. son; we’re going home now! Somehow, I have come to expect, to anticipate the same from my Heavenly Father. . .
Heartstrings.
“Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee” Psalm 119:11. But in contrast, the psalmist proclaims, “I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart, I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation” Psalm 40:10. “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path” Psalm 119:105. But how shall my feet rightly follow the path unless that same word has illuminated my heart? Things are normally hidden in the darkness - but the Word must needs be hidden in the Light! “Thy word have I hid in the darkness of my heart, that I might not sin against thee?” Nonsense! Where is the Word to be found in the heart? Could it be amongst the heartstrings? If so, then I might expect the deep and intense emotions of my heart to be directly affected by the Word. If the music played upon the heartstrings be fair and goodly, is not the tongue an amplifier that sound? Someone has said that the heart and the tongue are directly connected by ‘heartstrings!’ A quote from F. B. Meyer: “When the heart is full of God. . the tongue is almost obliged to speak of Him.”
Extreme heat and cold will get the strings of musical instruments sorrowfully out of tune. The vibration of heart strings, upon reaching the tongue may very well spell disaster! And self-tuning is nigh unto impossible. A tuning fork, the Word of God, the Voice of God - only these can set the heartstrings to the Standard, the righteousness of God. Metaphorically we might say that the heartstrings correctly tuned to the Standard are in nine keys: the key of love; the key of joy; the key of peace; the key of longsuffering; the key of gentleness; the key of goodness; the key of faith; the key of meekness, and the key of temperance.
In Acts chapter four the apostles were “commanded not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.” “And when they [their own company] heard that they lifted up their voice [singular] with one accord” vs.24. “For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. . .Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need” Heb. 4:14,15. And how is one to come boldly to the throne of grace? “Look to us Lord; observe our accomplishments; what good servants we are!” NO! “Lord, thou art God, which hath made heaven and earth” and they continued to exalt and glorify the Lord of glory! The need and the request: And now, Lord, behold their threatenings; and grant [the request] unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word” vs. 29. There is a double boldness here! A coming to the throne of grace; coming to God; that they may with boldness “speak thy word” for God! Resembles the attributes of a tuning fork, doesn’t it?
Continuing on with this line of thought: “Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God” Romans 8:26,27. Know that the Voice of the Triune is as the tuning fork - it is One Voice, faithful, constant, clear, without variance.
I challenge you to re-read John chapter 17. “That they may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. . .I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one. . .and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” May we reverently suggest that what the Son is saying, likewise the Father! That their communication resembles the tuning fork; that there is an intense vibration; an oscillation; fervent between them; that there is truly One Voice! Notice again the similarities: The two prongs are made one at the bottom in a base. Were one prong to be removed there would be no sound. There must be the two together. God the Father, without the Son? The Son without the Father? Perhaps the Spirit is not included (although we know there is three in one. But He does not speak of Himself: He is there to reveal and glorify the Father and the Son. . .)
The same must hold true in prayer concerning our Lord and we as his children. Prayer is not one sided. In prayer, both are speaking: God is talking to me; I am talking to God. The prayer is to be according to the will of God; there is to be a vibration, an oscillation; One Voice. Oh God! Let it be so! How precious the communion of prayer with our Lord! But if there be communion [communication?] it will happen only as we are willing to listen - if we will hear the Voice of God - then will He listen - He will hear us. . .
“Come thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart [strings] to sing Thy grace!”
