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ОглавлениеWHAT ABOUT THE GOOD NEWS OF WHAT GOD WILL DO THRILLS YOU THE MOST?
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Lesson 2
SING A NEW SONG
Selected Scriptures: Psalm 96:1–6, 10–13
THEME: TRUST, ADVOCACY, AND BOLDNESS
INTRODUCTION
In most ancient Hebrew manuscripts, the psalms occasionally have titles or headings ascribed to them. The inscription for Psalm 96 dates to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, after the people of Israel began to return to the Promised Land following the Babylonian captivity circa 520 BC. The heading gives us a clue as to what the theme of the psalm was intended to signify. It was a new day in Israel’s history. The sins of the past that led God to allow His children to be taken captive had been paid for by seventy years of exile. The deliverance of Israel from exile by God had ushered in a new start with the temple. An old song would not do. A new song of righteous obedience to the will of God was needed.
Revelation 21:1–5 describes that glorious moment when God will redeem all of His creation, finally and forever. Verse five does not say that God is making all new things, but rather that He will make the things that already are new again. In plain words, the earth we know today will not be replaced by some new earth but will be restored to the purity and glory it had when God first created it, before the entrance of sin spoiled its perfection.
KEY VERSE: O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. (Psalm 96:1, NRSV)
This is the idea behind the new song that Psalm 96 calls God’s people to sing. It is not a song that has never before been sung. In fact, you can find Psalm 96 written almost verbatim in I Chronicles 16:23–33, many years prior to when Psalm 96 was adopted. The song we are to sing is about redemption and restoration. It is about salvation.
BIBLICAL TEACHING EMPHASES
I. SING A NEW SONG
The old song of salvation, sung by the people of Israel and by many who make up the Church, was a song of separation. Salvation was found in the absence of enemies, separating some people from the possibility of salvation. But Jesus gave a new commandment to His disciples and to us (see John 13:34). We are to love one another. We are to put our brothers and sisters—even enemies!—before ourselves. If and when we see a brother or sister in need, if we have the ability to meet that need, we are not to hesitate, nor are we to count the cost to ourselves.
The Gospel we preach should be less about choosing sides and more about the wonder of what awaits those who bow before the King. The heavens will rejoice, and the earth will be glad when the day of salvation arrives. The fields will be jubilant, and the trees of the forest will sing for joy. All that defiles creation will be gone, and everything will be remade into the perfection God intends for His creation. There will be no more heartache, no more death of loved ones leaving us grief-stricken and alone, no more senseless murder or tragic suicide. Storms will no longer ravage communities and floods will no longer sweep away our lives. No one will starve, and the color of one’s skin will be a non-issue.
II. SING BECAUSE OF WHAT GOD HAS DONE
DICTIONARY OF TERMS
Sing—to verbally offer the music embedded in one’s heart to God as an expression of thanksgiving.
The people of Israel had just spent about three generations as captives in Babylon. While there, they observed the Babylonians—and then the Persians after them—worship a wild collection of gods. There were gods for fertility, gods for good fortune, gods for this, and gods for that. Most houses had shrines, featuring a primary household deity depending upon what that household sought, surrounded by numbers of other gods just in case. One reason why the Israelites had difficulty during captivity is that the Babylonians were only too willing to bring Yahweh into their host of other gods as just another god. They couldn’t understand why the Israelites took offense at this. Why risk angering a god when it was easy to add one to the collection?
#ShoutAnew Discuss why it is appropriate to give God a “Shout-Out” constantly. Share your thoughts and tag us @rhboydco and use rhboydco.
The psalmist saw the difference between all these false gods and the one true God, Yahweh. While one could offer prayers to a fertility god for sufficient rain to water the crops, that god could not come through because only Yahweh can provide rain. However, if the rains came, the Babylonians thought their prayers had been answered by their fertility god. If drought came, then obviously they had angered the fertility god who was ignoring their cries in order to punish them. Yahweh, on the other hand, had demonstrated His power and glory for all to see. He made the heavens and dwelt in splendor and majesty.
Because we sing to a God who has real creative power, we can trust that He is able to restore us and make us new again. We do not sing to a god who is made out of stone, who sits powerless on our mantle as our prayers and cries bounce off the stone from which it was made. We cry out to a God who has taken flesh upon Himself, who knows that we are dust, and who understands the frailty of our condition (see Ps. 103:14). We cry out to a God who has promised to make His creation new again and who has the power and the eternal patience to carry out His promise. This God delivered Israel from its captivity in Babylon, and He will just as surely deliver us from our captivity to sin. And so, we sing a song of restoration, a song of redemption, a song of deliverance, a song of healing, a song of salvation. We sing a song of newness.
MAKING IT RELEVANT
Compare and contrast Psalm 96 with I Chronicles 16:23–33.
III. SING BECAUSE HE IS MAKING ALL THINGS NEW
It is by God’s will alone that creation is firmly established and cannot be moved. By the right of being King of Creation, He will exercise judgment on all peoples, and His judgments will be true and unassailable. This is not cause for fear and trembling among the peoples, but for joy because His judgment concerns what needs to be done to restore His creation to its intended purity and glory. We can trust that any condemnation will be well-deserved. Those who are condemned are without excuse because God is a righteous Judge and His judgments are faithful.
The people of Israel saw their deliverance from captivity in Babylon as a clear sign of the just nature of their God as well as proof of His power over the nations of the earth. It was by God’s will that the nation of Israel went into captivity, and it was by His will that they were restored. Both actions were just and worthy of the rejoicing of the people and all the earth.
So, it will be for us who wait patiently for the return of our Lord in glory. For now we suffer the pain and trials of life on this fallen and sin-filled earth. For now blessings may come all too infrequently, and it may seem as if God is nowhere to be found. But we sing our song of rejoicing and praise because we know that when restoration comes, when our deliverance from sin and death is at hand, when our final salvation appears, it will all have been worth it. We will be tested by fire, refined by the furnace of life, and made fit for the glory that awaits us at Christ’s return. As you go through your daily life, are you singing the old or the new song? The old song separates, condemns, and judges. The new song is carried on the melody of love and compassion, just as Jesus commanded. The new song seeks to reconcile differences, seeks to bridge the divides that separate people from each other.
JOURNAL IT!
Write your own song of praise to God.
