We’re so tired of it.
The pandemic?
Yes. “Enough already!”
We get tired of old familiar things too.
Such as “Sing a New Song,” the 1972 Dan Schutte guitar song, that God brought before me recently. I tired of that song twenty years ago for crying out loud.
I sang it in our church contemporary choir for decades. It’s based on Psalm 98. Do you know it?
Sing a new song unto the Lord
Let your song be sung from moun tains high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord
Singing Alleluia.
Dan Schutte, St. Louis Jesuits
When my Lord brought this song before my mind’s eye, my usual routine was kaput. I longed to get it back to combat my IBF (isolation brain fog). Why was He pointing me to “a new song?”
The Psalms help us find solidarity.
David wrote over 70 of the psalms. Often he was on the run and isolating himself for his personal safety from King Saul. We’ve got a few things in common with him now with our own isolation for safety.
I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods;
Psalm 63:5 NIV
with singing lips my mouth will praise you.
It seems one day he’s rejoicing over God’s goodness, singing, dancing and playing the flute and harp. The next day he seeks revenge.
Those who want to kill me will be destroyed;
they will go down to the depths of the earth.
They will be given over to the sword
and become food for jackals.
Psalm 63:9-10 NIV
He vacillates like us, too.
The psalms connect us in solidarity with our Isreali brothers and sisters. They knew our Pandemic-generated mixed emotions and wild ranges of distractions, doubts and dreads.
The act of lifting our voice to God in prayer through song does something to our spirit that most of us need in these dark days and nights of the soul. Whether you have a good voice or it may be one you think is best lip-synced, singing is God’s mysterious way of reviving our spirits.
[bctt tweet=”The act of lifting your voice to God in prayer through song does something to your spirit.”]
Why a new song? What’s there to celebrate?
Why can’t we find a reason to sing a new song? Are we stuck on something God wants us to address?
If we can’t find something to celebrate, we’ve may have our eyes looking in the wrong direction. My friend, Edie Melson, finds it more invigorating to look up at waterfalls that she loves to photograph. Looking down at them is scary. Looking down at our woes and fears scares us, too.
Our souls feel much better when we look to the heavens.
Many Scripture passages tell us to do just this: Isaiah 40:26; Job 35:5; Psalm123:1: John 11:41 to name a few.
I lift up my eyes to the hills– where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.
Psalm 121:1
Why do you think David instructed the Israelites to sing a new song? And how does this apply to us today?
David wanted his people to celebrate how God delivered them from the hands of their enemies. He wanted to create a strong memory of how God reached out to them and helped them.
If God is “making all things new,” perhaps He’s inviting us in a new direction. If so, perhaps we need to be thankful and celebrate BEFORE we get what we’re hoping for. This is what St. Paul instructs us to do to build our faith muscles.
Thanks = Trust
In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
In other words, trust in the dawn when it’s still dark.
Or perhaps “making all things new” means letting go of emotions, or possessions, or selfishness, or pride that’s an obstacle between us and our relationship with God.
John Bartunek, LC, ThD, author of The Better Part, imagines a conversation Jesus could have with you:
Your soul is infinitely more precious to me than the Temple ever was. Your soul is where you dwell and I’m interested in you. I want you to live in intimate friendship with me now, and for all eternity. The sinful world and your own sins have cluttered and defaced your soul. My grace is purifying you, healing you, helping you become the person I created you to be. Trust me in times of trouble; turn to me. I love you too much to be satisfied until you are all you were meant to be.
page 247, The Better Part
What’s the new song God wants to put in your heart?
Could Jesus be using these dark days of fear and isolation to do for your soul what a scalpel in a surgeon’s hand does for your body?
Are you like me? Do you resist God? What was wrong with our old life, our old song, huh? Perhaps nothing. Perhaps He wants something more for us. Do you feel God has you on His Potter’s wheel? I feel His hands on me as the wheel spins.
Can you feel yourself being shaped anew?
What is it about the newness of a song that’s important? What new shift or creative outlet is at work within you?
When the Bible’s exhorts us to sing ‘new’ songs, God’s reminding us He is faithful, creative, and still working on us!
We are not yet all that he created us to be. But we’re getting there.
Are you willing to let him work in your heart?
It’s not easy allowing God to work in your heart. One saying taught me why I need to embrace growth.
You’re either green and growing, or ripe and rotten.
Are you willing to grow a little?
We encounter Christ in Scripture. Let Him doctor your heart, heal your weary soul, find you a new song.
Look through some of the verses below to help you ‘sing a new song’: it is echoed by
- David, who had to wait for God to rescue him and put a ‘new song in [his] mouth’ (Psalm 40:3);
- God’s people, singing as a freewill offering in joy for all he has done (Psalm 144:9);
- and by the Elders and people of God praising the Lamb at the renewal of all things (Revelation 5:9).
I hope they inspire you to find your “new song” and respond to his grace with a willing heart.
Psalm 96:1-2
Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
Psalm 144:9
I will sing a new song to you, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you
Isaiah 42:10
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise from the end of the earth,
you who go down to the sea, and all that fills it,
the coastlands and their inhabitants.
Psalm 98:1-3
Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Psalm 33:1-3
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!
Praise befits the upright.
Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
Psalm 149:1-2
Praise the Lord!
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of the godly!
Let Israel be glad in his Maker;
let the children of Zion rejoice in their King!
Psalm 40:1-3
I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
and put their trust in the Lord.
Source: https://thinkfaith.net/fisch/blog/sing-new-song
Georgina Bartlett
Are you ready for a new beginning?
Are you on the verge of a new beginning? Where in your life are you ready for a fresh start or a recharge?
I’m ready for some reshaping on the Potter’s wheel. Are you?
Click here for more.
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