I was at a service when a group got up to sing. It was a trio of people who had sung together for a long time and they were doing a medley. The first song started off with no accompaniment, just the voices. It sounded great, nice tone and good harmonies between the three voices. Then, the piano joined in and there was a moment of clash, as the voices had started off in the wrong key! I couldn’t tell until the piano joined, but then it was obvious and the voices had to change to match the piano. Once they adjusted, the rest of the song went on the way it was written.

In the book of 2 Timothy, Paul writes this about the Scriptures, Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work. (vv 16,17) God has given us a revelation through which we may know him and his will. This is necessary because we are here living our lives in ways that make sense and yet the narrowness of our perspective is not sufficient to see the bigger picture. Just like the singers, we start off in a way that sounds right and we can even make it sound beautiful, but when we see the teaching of the revelation, we realize we need to correct what we are doing, if we wish to line up with what God is doing.

As the introduction of the piano caused some clash between where the singers were and where they should have been, often the Scriptures reveal that kind of disharmony in our lives. In the end, however, the lives that have accepted the correction of the Scriptures are those who live in harmony with God’s plan.