The importance of new worship songs and a global perspective – Psalm 96, Part 2

Psalm 96 begins with the repeated words: “Sing to the Lord.” Three times we read that in verses 1 & 2.  This is a reminder that there is just something about singing that is special.  Even if you don’t think of yourself as a good singer, and even if you kinda just grunt the words out, my guess is that you probably have some favorite songs.  I recently made a Spotify playlist of songs that I like.  When I’m washing the dishes or driving in the car or even sometimes in the church office, if you catch me at the right moment, I just might be singing those songs out loud. 

What is it about music?  It taps into our emotions.  It gets to our hearts, minds, souls, and moves us.  The psalmist begins this psalm saying, “Let’s sing to the Lord!”  This dynamic is why we include music in our worship services, and why biblical teaching so frequently encourages us to sing to the Lord.  In fact, the book of Psalms is a literal song book.  This collection of 150 songs was like a hymnal for ancient Israel, and plenty of churches have actual Psalters in their pews.  Psalters are simply the book of Psalms put to music. 

Interestingly, the very first line of this psalm encourages us to do the exact opposite.  While the Book of Psalms is 150 ancient songs, Psalm 96 verse 1 says, “Sing a new song!”  So if you ever find yourself in a worship service thinking, “This is a new song.  I don’t know this one,” then please go up to your worship leader after the service and thank them for following Scripture and teaching you new songs! 

We need new songs because there is no end to the amount of praise that we could give to God.  We could constantly write new songs every day and we would never exhaust the amount of material there is for praising God.  There is also a dynamic about new songs that requires us to use our minds.  New lyrics urge us to think about the words more, precisely because we are wondering what we are singing.  Do you know what that is a called, the act of thinking about the words and ideas we are singing about God?  That’s called doing theology.  Psalm 96, verse 1, is a great reminder to us to be people who do theology by writing and singing new songs.

The next phrase is “All the earth.”  The whole earth should sing to God.  Does that start to give you a sense of perspective?  You and I living in the 21^st century have a beautiful vantage point, a perspective that the psalmist doesn’t have.  We live in a time where we can literally see the whole earth.  Maybe you’ve followed the new space race over the past few years, and what is different about the new space race as compared to the space race between the USA and the USSR in the 1960s is that private space companies are trying to corner a brand new market: space tourism.  Just like you pay for a ticket to fly on a plane, we are getting closer and closer to the point where space travel will be accessible to more and more people.  Already people can pay exorbitant amounts of money to fly into space, even to the International Space Station.  Those who have taken short flights into space get to see something amazing.  The circle of the earth.  They all say that it gives them a new perspective on our planet. 

The psalmist didn’t have that view of the globe, but he does suggest that the whole earth should praise God.  This is interesting because ancient Israel could be accused of naval gazing, meaning that they were very self-focused.  God, from his ancient covenant with Abraham, the grandfather of the nation, said that through Abraham’s family the whole world would be blessed.  For the most part, though, Israel did a terrible job embracing that wider perspective.  Instead they believed they were special in God’s eyes.  After all, they were his chosen people.  But they became self-focused, and they lost a global perspective.  They neglected God’s heart of love for all people in the world. The psalmist seeks to restore that correct global perspective.  You and I need a global perspective. 

Also notice, when we sing new songs to God, all nations praise his name.  It is right and good to worship God, using songs with lyrics that remind us that God is holy love, righteous and just, merciful and gracious.  But we need to see that those songs are often written from our cultural perspective. People from all nations also have a story to tell about God.  Not just European or North American people, but African, Asian and South American people. 

We should eagerly hear from all nations because their unique perspective will help inform our own perspective.  We can believe that we have God figured out, or that our own perspective is complete.  But if we are humble and teachable, which all disciples of Jesus want to be, we will want to learn from Christians all over the world.  Christians in Africa for example, because of their unique cultural situation, have a perspective on God that we North Americans need to hear from.  That goes for all peoples around the world. 

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