Psalm 98
(For us today)
As
believers we are called to sing to the Lord in praise and adoration of the
marvelous and divine works God has done.
We are invited to join with all of creation in singing about the
greatness of our God and the salvation He has made available to us. I have a hard time understanding
how individuals do not get excited about salvation. My mind is boggled when I talk to individuals
who say they have a relationship with God or are believers in Christ and
yet they have no apparent joy and their commitment to God seems to be more of a
burden than an act of worship to the one who has given literally everything to us
for our enjoyment and His glory.
Maybe
I am naive but I don’t understand how singing praises to God can be such a
dividing factor within the body of Christ.
Sure, we all have preferences of styles of music but we often look past
the message of a song or hymn and base our worship experience on whether we
prefer a certain style or not. I
admittedly confessed that I hate country western music, but I also am not so narrow
minded to think that God cannot be glorified through that STYLE of
music. If I went to a backwoods country
western church and they broke out the banjo, washboard, upright bass and 50
gallon cowboy hats and led the congregation in God glorifying praise then I
would join in with the band of believers and worship God joyfully. The same goes for organ music, rock music,
acoustic etc. I hear people talk
about the old hymns and refer to them as funeral dirges or lifeless songs that
are wordy and confusing. That is just as
narrow thinking as mine is when it comes to country western praise. With hymns like “A Mighty Fortress is Our
God” by Martin Luther which is a hymn so filled with praise, inspiration and joy that
I cannot sing that song without being brought into the presence of God.
I digress…
If
we are to step back for a moment and look at how Psalm 98 can apply to us today
we can ask three questions.
1)
Since we have salvation this is a cause for singing and
celebrating; so what shall we sing? The
answer: a new song. What does that new song
look and sound like? It is a song that
is sung with a new heart and with joy because you have experienced the life
altering grace of God.
2)
How should we sing this new song? JOYFULLY with our voices and with
instruments. You may not be a musical
person by nature; but as a Christian (one who has been redeemed by the saving
power of Jesus Christ) by nature you are now joyful. Sing (whether in tune or out of tune) with a
joyful heart.
3)
Maybe I don’t like singing; so why should I? Because our joy in salvation can often not be
expressed in words and through music we can express our gratitude to a God who
has given everything to us so sing with your heart and express your joy in
following Jesus. If that isn’t convincing
enough then we should sing because God’s Word tells us to. In this Psalm the writer doesn’t say, “If you
feel like it or are talented enough then sing to the Lord a new song.” Sorry, it doesn’t read like that. It is a call to all of the nation of Israel,
the nations of the earth and all of creation to SING joyfully and noisily unto
the Lord because He has given us reason (SALVATION – victory over death and
evil) to celebrate and sing to Him. My wife and I were talking to a dear friend one time about singing praises and my wife said, "I don't have a good singing voice." He responded, "God gave you your voice so he has to listen to it." So don't hold back in singing to God... Sing with all you have!
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