What “New Song”?

Psalm 98:1 “Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things!”

I’ve always wondered, what’s this “new song” psalmists’ frequently refer to? It’s always puzzled me…

My study Bible takes a stab at it; it says, the “new song”, “need not imply a freshly composed song; instead it may mean singing this song as a response to a fresh experience of God’s grace.”

So this “new song”, doesn’t necessarily mean, make God a brand new song, but reflect upon his grace once again and sing that song with a renewed admiration of God’s “salvation” and His “marvelous” works.

I know I’m not alone, but I’m constantly confronted with the temptation to “just sing along” during worship. It is often difficult to renew again the goodness of God’s grace all over again. It would be like responding with the same excitement over receiving a present you received two years ago. Yet, I don’t believe the “new song” is referring to having the same excitement as you did when you were saved…

The “new song”, or new gaze upon the beauty of God’s grace, is not like renewing excitement for an old present (for presents don’t last forever because of loss of sheen and usefulness; and grace is very much a different kind of present), but looking at God’s gift with new insight and new admiration.

In reality, the “new song”, should in fact be more exciteful, more insightful, and more profound than when a person is young, just saved, and with only elementary knowledge of God’s grace.

See, worship is often trite and redundant, not because the song is getting old to us, but because our knowledge of God is not growing. The problem is not the songs redundancy but our mind’s immaturity. If we would grow in our knowledge of God, worship would revolutionize each time we approached it. I pray that, each day, we would renew the “new song” in our hearts, with a constant study and application of the living word which transforms souls from one degree of brightness to the next, until the brightness of full day is unveiled!

Join me, and sing to the Lord a “new song” with a fresh perspective and renewed admiration of God’s grace, with an escalated experience of worship and joyful praise to God each and every song we sing! Amen, “so be it, O Lord”!

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