Singing A New Song Series

OPEN with song: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjF_xGUS6X8 gives example of melody)

“Sing unto the Lord a new song, sing unto the Lord all the earth (repeat); For God is great and greatly to be praised (repeat).

OPEN: Years ago, I was at a Christian camp, where the Dean of that week challenged the Hi School campers to think of a popular song that was entirely instrumental. Just instruments… no words. AND they couldn’t think of a single song. He then pointed out that most people can’t think of a top-100 song played on the radio that had NO WORDS in the song.

Now, I did a little research and I’ve found a few you might know. The theme from Hawaii 5-0 by the Ventures; Green Onions by Booker T and the MGs; Telstar by the Tornados; Jessica by the Allman Brothers; Wipeout by the Safaris.

But out of the 1000s of popular songs played on the radio, a very small percentage that have no words. Words seem to be important in popular music. And that’s probably why the Bible admonishes us to sing! Not just listen to music… but to actually sing stuff.

Ephesians 5:19 tells us we should “speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.”

Colossians 3:16 “Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

And, of course, in our text today, David tells us “(God) put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God” (Psalm 40:3) David was given a song… a reason to sing!

ILLUS: Several years back, a group of missionaries spent 25 years translating the New Testament into the language of the Chol Indians. Today the Chol Church is thriving - more than 12,000 believers. What’s interesting is that when the missionaries first came, the Chol Indians didn’t know how to sing. But with the coming of the gospel they became known as “the singers”. “They love to sing now, because they have something to sing about.” (George Sweeting “Psalms of the Heart”) They HAD A REASON TO SING… and so they sang.

Someone once noted: Singing is not JUST for singers, singing is for believers. (Leadership, Vol. 3 no. 1)

If you have a song in your heart, then you’ll sing. If you don’t… you won’t. You won’t sing because you don’t have a song worth singing. So, the question is not, ‘Do you have a voice?’ The question is ‘Do you have a song?’ (Donald Hustead)

Because God created us to sing.

ILLUS: According to Vitality Digest June 1995 “Singing helps reduce stress because it forces us to breathe deeply and use our lungs to full capacity. It relaxes the body and helps lower your blood pressure. (Roger Thies, Associate Professor of physiology University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City)

Another article noted that burn victims who were encouraged to sing while having their dressing changed experienced less pain. And cancer patients saw the levels of STRESS hormones in their bodies drop by as much as 25% and their immune systems get stronger.

Part of the power of music power comes from its ability to relieve anxiety. Music, especially singing takes a person’s mind off the suffering & soothes tension. “By helping patients relax, music eases pain and may even speed recovery,” (Richard Fratianne, professor of surgery at Case Western Reserve University in an article by Peter Jaret in Reader’s Digest 9/01)

Why? Because God created us to sing.

Now, that brings me BACK to our text today. David wrote: “(God) put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God” Psalm 40:3

You know, David talked a lot about “new songs” in his Psalms. Psalm 33:3-4 “Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.”

In Psalm 96:1 David wrote: “Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.”

Psalm 98:1 declared “Oh sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things!”

Now, did David mean we ought to write a new song for God? If you could do that that would be cool! I mean if you write a special song for someone they appreciate it.

ILLUS: For example I’ve written a couple for my grandson Benjamin (I sang a couple samples). Benjamin loves those songs because they’ve been written for him. They’re my gift to him. And if you like to write songs, writing a song about God is a great gift to give God. But the David says SING (not “WRITE”) unto the Lord a New Song.