What do a symphony and a church have in common? At first it could seem that they don’t have anything in common at all. One is professional and performative. The other is voluntary and communal One (probably) makes much better music than the other. And yet, they both have thisin common - they follow the conductor.
In Psalm 81, God shares his longing for a people defined by their ears; a responsive people, an attentive people, a listening people who follow only him.
Such a people would eat honey from the rock, they would know deep satisfaction, and they would move as one through the world. What would that look like? It might look like a symphony.
By itself, a symphony is just a collection of soloists. Each person plays well by themselves. But under a conductor those individuals become more than what they could be on their own. They become a symphony.
In the painting "The Conductor" John August Swanson portrays a symphony, instruments at the ready, all eyes turned to the conductor whose arm extends unusually long over them. It's an image of church, a community of people whose own lives have been disciplined into the service of some greater music, under the direction of a great King.