Music Notes

Today I started my annual Spring Cleaning. I don’t know about you, but I like to clean, and during Spring Cleaning at my house, I like to give everything a thorough cleaning. Some people, including my wife, think that this is a bit odd; but just give me a dusty room, a mop and a broom, and I will have a great day. Windows, floors, even the garage – I like things to be orderly and neat. I’ve also been told that this will no doubt change once I have children. I don’t know if it’s just the fact that I can see results when I am done working, or if it feels like I am doing something productive, but I enjoy the process of cleaning.

I do know, however, that I am not alone in liking things to be clean. In fact, I am in very good company. David, in Psalm 51, cries out in a repentant song to the Lord, asking to be given a clean heart, after having committed adultery and plotting a murder. As we draw close to God in worship, we are often confronted with our own inabilities, sins, and shortcomings as we recognize God’s holiness. The stain of guilt can sometimes leave us feeling dirty, unworthy, and shameful. The great news of the gospel, though, is that God likes to clean, too. Scriptures tell us that God desires to take our sins, which stain us like scarlet, and make us as white as snow – clean! It is God who, through the Holy Spirit, chooses the sinful place of our hearts, and sets up house there.

So if any of you are getting some cleaning done this Spring, know that you, too, are getting a thorough cleaning. As we invite God into our hearts, as we worship with every area of our lives, not just in our singing and music, but even more importantly with our whole mind, body, heart, and soul, He takes those places which are dirty and filled with sin, and replaces them with those things that are good and noble. Talk about an extreme home makeover!