Right around the end of November, the discussion in our church worship planning session gets around to the question of “When should we start singing Christmas carols?” People love singing Christmas carols. But is it too early to sing only Christmas carols on the first Sunday of Advent? Maybe we should go with 50/50 at least until week 2 of Advent. Let’s at least get into mid-December.
Then there is the question of Christmas Eve. Should our musical selections on Christmas Eve be limited to the old traditional carols? Should we attempt to introduce a new carol? People come to our Christmas Eve worship service specifically because it is traditional.
As we continue our study of Psalm 98 this week, the psalmist, in verse 1, describes God’s salvation as something we sing should new songs about. That’s a great idea, to sing new songs, except when you actually try it.
Last weekend our family went away for the weekend, something we’ve been doing five years in a row now. My wife left early with our third son and his girlfriend, so they could get the cabin ready for the rest of the family. Our oldest son and his family arrived next. Our second son and his wife around dinner time. My daughter and I traveled in the afternoon once school was out. My daughter and I have traveled together many times, and when we’re driving she loves to introduce me to her music. I know almost none of it. She’ll ask me after almost every song, “Do you like it?” And I’ll say, “Uh…it’s okay…” Some of it I like, but some of it I don’t like. It’s new to me. I’m not used to it.
I sometimes ask her to play my music. My songs. I grew up in 80s and 90s, so most of the music I like is from that era. But there’s a funny thing that happens to me, even with my favorite band. As I have told you many times over the years, I love the band U2. But what I really love is their old songs. Those old songs I know best, and they move me.
Don’t get me wrong, I get very excited when I hear U2 are coming out with a new album. Right now at the end of 2023, it’s getting to be about the time when they release a new album, because they haven’t created a new album since 2017. I’ve heard that they’re working on a new album, and I’m hopeful for some great new songs. But what usually happens when they come out with a new album is that I start listening, and I am almost immediately disappointed because the new songs don’t sound as good as the old songs.
We all have songs that we like because we’ve been singing them all our lives. Maybe they have special meaning. Maybe their lyrics move us. Maybe we enjoy them musically. But new songs rarely speak to us like that. I recently listened to a podcast episode about a church plant where they purposefully played new songs as often as possible. That meant most Sundays most people in the worship service didn’t know any of the songs. Imagine how uncomfortable that would be. Is the psalmist is wrong here in verse one? Maybe singing new songs to God is a bad choice?
Except that singing new songs to God is actually a good thing. Why? Because there is no end to the praise and worship and glory that we can sing to God. His salvation is so marvelous, we need new songs, and then we need more new songs. If your church’s worship leader teaches you a new song, and you are struggling to learn it, and you feel those awkward feelings we all feel when we’re experiencing something new, you should contact them and thank them for doing exactly what the Bible says we should do! Sing a new song.
God’s salvation is so amazing we should regularly be singing new songs to him. The old songs are great too. We should sing them as well. But we should be dwelling on God’s amazing salvation in Jesus, that there should be new praise songs, new hymns, new Christmas carols. They old carols cannot possibly cover all the richness of the salvation we have in Jesus.
This means we need to make time in our lives for Jesus. To sit with him, dwell on who he is and his salvation. We need to think about him. Think new thoughts. Write new songs. New prayers. New conversations with him. Maybe this new year you can consider adding a short period of reflection in your time alone with God.
Photo by David Beale on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 