TITLE: “Singing a New Song”

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our text for this morning is from the Introit based on Psalm 98, as well as the Gospel lesson just read.

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gotten him the victory!

What is this new song which we are to sing to the Lord, and why do we sing it? The church for millennia has voiced her deepest hopes in song, as well has her anguish and the deepest fears. Out of the depths I cry to thee, o Lord; O Lord here my voice, as the psalmist declares. Hopes, dreams, fears, faith, all of these are wrapped up into the song of the church. So what is the new song which the Lord would have us sing?

For some, a phrase like sing to the Lord a new song means that whatever is new and different must be better than the old and stale. In fact, many today would argue that whatever is old must be stale. Our culture is obsessed with the new. New clothes, new hair, a new car, a new recipe, a new wife or husband, whatever is new must be better than whatever is old. It is not much of a stretch to see how the church can get infected with the love of the new and to assume that whatever is new must be better.

This temptation toward assuming that whatever is new is better often infects our church music and hymnody. If a song is new it must be better than the old, the dry, the hymns you grew up with which now sometimes seem boring and uninteresting. For many, this temptation toward the new has led them to abandon everything they ever learned, to toss out the tried and true in favor of the new and exciting. I had one of my shut-ins this week ask me why the TV religious shows never even pray the Lord’s Prayer. The only answer I could give is that the Lord’s Prayer is old, and if its old, it must not be as good. But by throwing out the hymns of the church, and replacing them with ditties and praise songs, with vacuous words somehow make people feel better, what have we thrown out in the name of “sing to the Lord a new song”? Is that really the “new song” that our Lord is speaking about?

If we were to examine Psalm 98 more carefully, and look at this new song which our Lord would have us sing, it is very clear what the new song is all about. The new song, quite simply, is about Jesus. Or more exactly, it’s about Jesus’ victory over sin, death and the power of the devil by His resurrection from the dead. That is the song of songs. Jesus’ work of dying on the cross for you and rising from the dead is the song of all time. It is the eternal new song. Or, to put it another way, it is the song of the Gospel.

For that is what the old and new songs are really talking about. The old song is the way of the Law. Every time you try to reach out to God on your own you are like a broken record, stuck in the same old song that leads nowhere. But with Christ’s resurrection from the dead, we sing a new song, the song of salvation, the song of the One who died for me and rose again so that I might live.

Now the tricky part of this old song/new song stuff is that the words old and new are misleading. Some of the “oldest” hymns in our hymnal express that “new song” of salvation better than any “new song” of today ever could. Take, for example, our hymn of the day, Dear Christians One and All Rejoice. This hymn is almost five-hundred years old, and yet the message of the Gospel in his hymn rings out clearer than just about any other hymn ever written. Hear again a couple of these stanzas:

2 Fast bound in Satan’s chains I lay,

Death brooded darkly o’er me,

Sin was my torment night and day;

In sin my mother bore me.

But daily deeper still I fell;

My life became a living hell,

So firmly sin possessed me.

That is the clearest Law you’ll probably ever hear. You are bound in Satan’s chains, lost in sin and death apart from Christ. But here then the new song of the Gospel:

4 But God had seen my wretched state

Before the world’s foundation,

And mindful of His mercies great,

He planned for my salvation.

He turned to me a father’s heart;

He did not choose the easy part

But gave His dearest treasure.

Now it would be very easy to look at a hymn like this, five hundred years old, and say, “why can’t we sing something new and interesting! Why can’t we sing something that has more meaning for today?” Maybe ten or fifteen years ago there was another hymn that was very popular. I’m sure I must have sung it a hundred times when I was in college. Now compare these words to the old words of Dear Christians:

Engines and steel!

Loud pounding hammers!

Sing to the Lord a new song!

Limestone and beams!

Loud building workers!

Sing to the Lord a new song!

He has done marvelous things.

I too will praise Him with a new song!

The first hymn, Dear Christians, is old and yet sings the new song of the Lord with a clarity and beauty which few can match. The last hymn, Earth and All Stars, tries to sing about the “new song,” but misses the point that the “new song” of the Lord is not about engines and steel or limestone or whatever. The new song of God is the song of eternal life.

Jesus talks about this quite clearly in our Gospel lesson when He says: …when He, the Spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

Christ continues to work through His Church and the Church’s song to bring forgiveness, life and salvation. The victory is won through the work of Jesus Christ. That is the message the Holy Spirit has to give to you this day. So the next time you are learning a hymn, or hear some Christian music for the first time, ask yourself whether it truly gives you Jesus. Is it the new song of salvation or the old song of the Law? Remember the words of the Psalm:

Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gotten him the victory! Amen.

The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in true faith, unto life everlasting. Amen.