Stephenie Peterson Ward  (sonfleur@hotmail.com) © 2003

The Master Composer of life has composed a humanly incomprehensible songbook of individuality, passion and perfect timing. This songbook represents the living, breathing, life-songs of every created being. The Composer is Jehovah and the songs are His creatures.

Psalm 139 reveals the true heart and passion that God has for every human being He has formed and His complete and total knowledge of that person. In this verse David says; O Lord, Thou hast searched me and known me. Thou dost know when I sit down and when I rise up; Thou doest understand my thought from afar. Thou dost scrutinize my path and my lying down, and art intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, behold, O Lord, Thou doest know it all. Thou hast enclosed me behind and before, and laid Thy hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain it... For Thou didst form my inward parts, Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Thy works, and my soul doest know it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. And in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them (Psalm 139: 1-6, 13-16, New American Standard).

He knew each one of us and who we would be before we were even physically formed. He has written our life-song in His book. For by Him were all things created, that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him: and He is before all things, and by Him all things consist (Colossians 1:16-17, King James Version). The Amplified version says: For it was in Him that all things were created... and in Him all things consist, and are held together (Italics added). As if to say that our person came from the very Person of God, Jesus Christ. Genesis 1:26; And God said, "Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness." We are a part of Him. So does a song dwell within the composer before it is brought forth and written. There is a resident melody, beat or thought that triggers the composition of a song within the composer. The composer usually hears it in his mind or feels the beat etc., then proceeds to write and arrange the song. So are we in God. He had us on His mind.

The Timing

When a composer writes a song there are some basic elements involved in the composition. The first and main element is the timing of the song. Without a time- signature at the beginning of the song, there would be no order or structure to a song, and it would be impossible to decipher the song melodically. In Psalm 31:15 David says, "My times are in Your hands." I believe that as a person comes into agreement with God’s perfect will; receiving salvation through Jesus and becoming more and more surrendered to Him as he pursues Him in trust and obedience, the timing of his life-walk and the melody of his lifestyle becomes increasingly in tune with the Perfect Song of God Himself.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3:18, King James Version). If my times are "in His hands" than I have simply to surrender and He will lead my life according to His timing. "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6, King James Version). Proverbs 16:3, "Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established".

Those who do not have a relationship with the Creator are "off beat" with what the destined song is for their life. There is very little "life" and substance to their song until they come to Jesus and surrender all. We as Christians, who are to be progressively getting to know the Father, can also get "off beat" out of rebellion, pride of life and selfish gain. This is usually because we have left the place of intimacy with Jesus.

Paul explains the process of intimacy with Christ in the following verses; I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus... I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8-10, New American Standard, italics added). If we make it our determined purpose to know Him, then we will begin to hear the voice of the Lord and have dialogue with Him. We are to listen and obey, I like to call this "Listening to the Beat".

When I was growing up, our family had a drum set that my brothers would often play. Sometimes I would get on that stool, pick up the sticks and give it a try myself. I wanted so badly to be able to play and sound good. However, without the proper instruction and practice, as with all instruments, I was unable to play with skill and coordination. As God’s disciples we must get close to Him and listen, practicing His word and applying the instructions. We are called to be so close to the Father that we can hear the beat of His heart. We have the privilege to live out the rhythm He has destined for us and walk in His timing, in step with the beating of His heart. God is the ultimate Beat - the timing and rhythm that is the pattern of life resident within us. When our life is surrendered to Him fully, He can then continue to write the melody, and create a harmony with those around us who are also surrendered to Him. This brings glory to the Father.

The Melody

A melody is the organized succession of musical tones of given pitches and durations. Melodies are distinguished from one another by several traits [Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation]. Melody represents who we are individually. Our melody is our make-up - our personality, giftings, talents and character traits. Without a melody, a song is just a progression of beats. Our individuality gives life so much more color and exciting diversity that when all the life-songs are combined, they will reveal the awesomeness and surpassing magnitude of the Master Composer and His love for His creation. Jesus prayed to the Father; "that they may all be as one; even as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And the glory which Thou has given Me I have given to them; that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be perfected in unity; that the world may know that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst love Me" (John 17: 21-22, New American Standard Version).

God desires to accompany our make-up with Himself - this accompaniment will lift His Name and draw people to Himself. Every well-written song has an effect on the listener that stirs their emotions, causing them to desire to hear it over and over again. The closer we become to the Lord, the better our life should "sound" to those who are perishing. They will want to know what makes our life (song) so appealing and want to hear more of it.  

The Harmony

Harmony is the combination of notes or pitches that sound simultaneously. [Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation] It could easily be ascertained that the harmony of our song should be: 1.) the combination of our life with Jesus in intimacy with Him and 2.) our unity with believers. But the Lord was talking to me about 3.) the harmony that takes place between the individual’s song when joined with the correlating and compatible song of their God-chosen mate. Pairs of notes are what makes a harmony - it takes two to make a pair.

The Composer is so ultimately sovereign and explicitly aware of each individual’s life and their destiny that He can put the harmony together in perfect timing. Not only perfect timing, but also the perfect placement of every note in the melody of each persons life. His way’s are higher than our ways. Therefore marital status is simply in the hands of the Composer, for when He deems the proper time, He will set the two songs together and bring a unity and harmony that is pure and devoted to the composition.

Jesus is the example, for He was so devoted to the Father in life, that He fixed His eyes on the goal and lived His life-song for Him, cleaving to His will as the absolute. (The Father perfected His song; Jesus simply obeyed). "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary and lose heart" (Hebrews 12:1-3, New American Standard).

The Words

Clearly, our first responsibility and command from the Lord is to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind" and secondly to "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22: 36, 39). When we neglect this responsibility we begin to play our own tune - becoming proud and self-righteous. Eventually our song will lose it’s beauty and the essence of what will draw people to the Jesus within us. Our song will sound more like an obnoxious noise, driving people away. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal" (I Corinthians 13:1). A clanging cymbal may draw some attention, but eventually it will hurt the observers ears and cause them to withdraw and retreat to a less agitating environment and to an environment that better gratifies their emotional needs.

This lack of love and not pursuing the intimacy that is available in and with Jesus demeans the original significance of the composition God has destined for every individual’s life-song. In essence, we usurp the authority of the Composer by demanding that we have control of the movement and rhythm of the song. Our lack of love for God is usually the result of having lost the melody in our hearts to the First-Love song that is to be the thrust of our intimacy with Jesus. This melody is the deep-yearning love that dwells within each Believer for the Lover - Jesus and it has most likely been replaced with love songs to the world. "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world" (I John 2:15, New American Standard, italics added). James 4:4-5 clearly lays this truth before us; "You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility towards God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the Scripture speaks to no purpose, "He jealously desires the Spirit which He has made to dwell in us"? (New American Standard Version). The Amplified version states the last part of this verse more to my point; "The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us years over us and He yearns for the Spirit to be welcome with a jealous love." The integral and most beautiful, sinner-appealing element of our life-song will always be our love for the Father and for the Son. Jesus Himself prayed on behalf of Believers, "these have known that Thou didst send Me; and I have made Thy name known to them, and will make it known; that the love wherewith Thou didst love Me may be in them, and I in them" (John 17:26, New American Standard Version, italics added). The extract of our song should therefore be describable as love - a love-song to and for the Savior. In this very verse, it clearly states that the object of the Master Composer’s love is for His Son. It is the love of the Father for the world that His Son was given to be crucified as the ultimate offering for the sins of the world. This unconditional love-offering has given us the opportunity to join in the life-song of the Savior.

The Master Composer is passionately involved in our life-song and the timing is perfect if we are surrendered to His beat. We were created for His good pleasure and in Him we are to live and move and have our being. Let’s live the destined song!