Sing A New Song

The church has an ancient tradition of choosing certain lessons to read and meditate upon for each Sunday of the worship year. Consequently, as I prepare my sermon for the second to the last Sunday of that year it is important that you and I look at those lessons. They were chosen for a reason and have been reviewed again and again.

The first of those four lessons for this Sunday is Psalm 98:1-9. The Psalm begins with worshippers inviting one another to sing a new song.

I do and I don't like new songs. I don't because then I have to learn a new melody and new words and it is much easier to keep on singing the old songs. They can be so nostalgic, bringing back old memories of good—and sad—times, places and people. That's true with hymns. For instance, singing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God," the Lutheran hymn of the Reformation, always brings back memories of my years at both Concordia College, St. Paul and Concordia Seminary, St. Louis. On cold Reformation Day mornings, October 31, we would gather at 6:30 a.m. before a statue of Martin Luther to sing that hymn, listen to a meditation and pray. That's a fine tradition, but in northern climates in can also bring memories of shivering in the cold when you are barely awake.

Psalm 98 says, "Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him." 

Undoubtedly this is a song to celebrate God's new work of salvation. There was an old, familiar song that celebrated God's acts in former days. That song was the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:1-8.

"I will sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea."

The LORD kept his promises to his people. He brought them out of slavery and put them into a new land of prosperity, a land flowing with milk and honey. Psalm 98 invites us, however, to sing a new song. There was another time in Israel's history when they were enslaved by the Babylonians for 70 years. For those who returned to the Promised Land, there was good reason to sing a new song. Thus when the exiles returned and finished the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem their musicians led them in singing a new song with gladness and thanksgiving (Nehemiah 12:27-30).

For us, however, that's an old song, like the hymn of the Reformation, familiar, good to sing, filled with many memories of our LORD's mighty acts, but an old song nevertheless. What new song shall we sing? What new wonders working salvation and revealing his righteousness have we to sing about? At this point we remember who this LORD is. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the long awaited Messiah who revealed his righteousness in the sight of all nations of the world. That righteousness revealed is his holy life and his bitter suffering upon the cross of Calvary. By those wonders the Son of God removed the righteous judgment of God upon the children of men. He offered his life for ours. He was forsaken that we might never be. In this way "he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel" and "the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God" (Psalm 98:3).

But wait, the song is not yet ended. He who came once is coming again. Now there is something to get worked up and excited about. As we think about it, we realize that the entire creation is waiting on tip toes for this to happen (Romans 8:18-25). Everything in creation is in bondage, just like old Israel was. We who are part of that old creation see it all around. Corruption, decay and death abound on all sides. We ourselves are wasting away, day by day. With God's people of old we cry, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun? A generation goes, and a generation comes, but all is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2-11).

What new song have we to sing? Will it always be this way, the same old same old? Oh no! Our LORD has done a new thing. Christ is risen! Say it with me. He is risen indeed! That's the seal of our salvation. The Father has accepted the sacrifice. His death is our death. His life is no our life and we too shall rise with him. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him AND for us.

"Let the rivers clap their hands; let the hills sing for joy together before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity."

In these last days of the church's year of worship we remember that Christ is coming again—soon! And so our hearts are filled with a new song.