Sing a new song

One of my favorite hymns is Be Thou My Vision. The entire hymn is fantastic, but I think this is my favorite verse:

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,

Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:

Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,

High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

The really cool thing about this song is that it is old.  I mean really old. Many of you probably already know this, but this was originally an Irish song written in either the 6^th or 8^th century depending on who you believe. Mary Byrne translated it into modern English in 1905. It remains a favorite to many believers today… me being one. 

But its “oldness” is not what makes it a favorite. What makes it so cool to me is its God-centeredness. Just in this one verse I have included you can sense a very strong passion to make God supreme and central to the author’s life. This is what makes great worship music for the Church. 

But at one point this very old song was new. It was new in the 8^th century. It was new again in 1905 when it was translated into English. I am so thankful for whoever wrote this song, for singing a new song to the LORD that I am now able to sing as well. 

Why is it important to sing new songs? Well, the Bible commands it.

Psalm 33:3

Sing to him a new song;
   play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.

Not only are we commanded to sing new songs, but we should have skilled people playing instruments and we should join them with loud shouts! But let’s stick with the thought of a new song for now…

God wants us to sing new songs to Him… Why???

I think there are two reasons each corresponding to these two words: ‘new’ and ‘song.’

Why new? Because God is always doing new things. Every generation of his people has experienced God in a different way than the generation before. And a recurring theme in the Bible is that each generation must teach and proclaim his works to the next (Psalm 71:17-18 and Psalm 78:1-8). So, these old song we sing are invaluable to us because they teach us how God interacted with previous generations of believers. We should ALWAYS sing old hymns in church. Each successive generation needs to learn from the previous one. 

But just as Be Thou My Vision is old today, it was once new. So, we must continue to write new songs about God and the wonders He has done in THIS generation (Psalm 78:4). And we should ALWAYS sing these new songs in church. We proclaim God’s past faithfulness and we proclaim his present faithfulness. 

Why songs? In other words why do we need new songs versus new teachings. Why can’t we keep all our old traditional songs, and just tell kids stories of the new things God has done? Because singing is our primary medium for speaking praise to God. We are to glorify God in all we do. But it is through singing that we explicitly express our praise to God for what He has done. 

Besides, these commands to sing a new song and proclaim God’s wonders to another generation are in the psalms… the song book of the Bible! 

And for whatever reason, we can memorize stories better when we sing them. Songs are musical stories and praise that we pass on to our children.

So, let’s continue to proclaim the wonders of God to another generation through great, old songs like A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. And let’s continue to sing new songs like In Christ Alone…

There in the ground His body lay,

Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day,

Up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory,

Sin's curse has lost its grip on me;

For I am His and He is mine—

Bought with the precious blood of Christ.