Psalm 96
Sing to
the Lord a new song. It’s the opening
line of Psalm 96. I’m going to try and
put an interesting spin on this. We’ll
see how it works out.
Today I
got to thinking about the “new” part of this line. Why would we need to sing a new song? What’s so wrong with the “old” song? An answer hit me like a ton of bricks. “Because the old song is not the one that God
wants to hear anymore.”
Think
about it. What is the old tired song of
humanity? “Life’s all about me, me,
me.” The tired old song of humanity is a
song born in self-mongerism. Does God
need to hear that tired old song? Does
God need to be convinced of our sinfulness over and over again? Do we really need to give God that old song
about how much we’re missing the boat with respect to what God wants to be
doing with our life? Does God really
need to know just how much our life revolves around ourselves?
Shouldn’t
we be interested in singing to the Lord a new song? Isn’t that what Christianity is all
about? Do we not stress the importance
of repentance? Is not repentance
involved in confessing the old and turning to something new? When I hear this psalm read, my ears hear the
ring of Christ’s call. Sing to the Lord
a new song. Repent. Turn to God.
Quit living for the human agenda.
Do something new! Live for God!
Why do we
sing? We bless His name. We declare His salvation day in and day
out. We declare His glory to the
nations. He is great. He is worthy to be praised. He is to be feared (reverential awe).
It really
isn’t about us. It isn’t about our
desires. It isn’t about us. It’s all about Him. That’s the new song. The new song is anti-humanity. It is a song against the self-monger that is
within us. The new song is a song about
our willingness to step aside and recognize that God is in our life.
The rest
of the psalm is about exalting God. We
are to ascribe to Him many things. Our
ascribing those things to Him should cause us to exult.
This is an
interesting word. To exult in something
means to rejoice. But it also means to
triumph. We are to rejoice in God’s
greatness. We are to take pleasure in
His triumph. Because He is great, we
should swell with spirituality because He is our God. We triumph in His triumph. We triumph – exalt, rejoice, praise His name
– because He is judge.
He is
judge. He is the only fair and righteous
judge that can be. He is amazing. He will look upon us, see our sin, and
although He is righteous He will judge us in faithfulness. Thanks be to God that through Christ we know
that His righteous judgment will come through the lens of Christ’s
faithfulness. We shall know God’s love
through His grace in judging us through Christ’s righteousness.
What
reason do we have to not give Him praise this day?
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