Off Key

Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.

Psalm 119:29 (NLT)

There are a ton of reality television shows these days, featuring tons of ordinary people trying to make it big by competing in front of an audience of millions. One show, which has been on television for over a decade, called American Idol, promises those who can sing an opportunity at some serious cash and a recording contract.

As you can imagine, this appeals to millions of people every year who audition for the show. Some of them have amazing singing voices and can move up and down the musical scales with ease. Then there are those who can’t hold a tune if their life depended upon it. They are off key the whole time, they can’t figure whether to go up or down in their vocal range, and their timing is always early or late. In other words, they can’t sing.

It’s this latter group that is a head scratcher to me. Nearly every time they are voted off the show by the judges, it comes as a shock. They can’t believe that the judges (all of whom are professionals in the music industry) can’t recognize their talent. Arguments ensue, tears are shed, and basic tantrums are thrown, all because the person who can’t sing truly believes that they can – that they are the best. They have been lying to themselves so long that they can’t accept reality; which is that they aren’t good enough to make the cut.

The psalmist captures this concept perfectly today when he wrote, “Keep me from lying to myself; give me the privilege of knowing your instructions.” In other words, we are only fooling ourselves if we think we can live a life worthy of eternity apart from God.

When we believe that we don’t need God’s instructions for life because we’ve got it all figured out, we are arrogant. We are singing off-key. We deny the wisdom of an eternal, all-seeing, all-loving God because we’ve convinced ourselves that we know better than Him. We don’t need His instructions, His judgments. They just get in the way of what we want in life.

However, when we realize that we aren’t perfect, we can’t become perfect, we begin to realize our need of a Savior. We come to the understanding that we need His directions in our life to fully experience this time on earth, and the eternity to come. In short, we must realize that His instructions are perfect, holy, and good.

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