Break Forth into a New Song!

“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.  Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!  . Splendor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.  Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!  Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name; bring an offering and come into his courts!  Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; tremble before Him all the earth!  Say among the nations, ‘The Lord reigns!  Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.” Psalm 96: 1-3; 6-10  (ESV).

With great exuberance the writer of Psalm 96 invites readers (and hearers, for this is a hymn-psalm used in worship) to sing a new song unto the Lord.  On worship days believers still meet in many congregations throughout the world, wherever the Word of the Lord is proclaimed.  A usual part of worship is singing songs of praise to God—Creator, Sustainer, Father, Savior.  This psalm invites worship in new and adoring ways and in recognition of God’s omnipotence.  We sometimes recoil as “new songs” are introduced into our orders of worship in churches.  We like the old, the familiar.  We are often resistant to change and dubious when hymns which we may not have heard before are introduced into worship.   Yet God’s Word commands us in many places, not just in Psalm 96:1, to “sing to the Lord a new song’—and that admonition is extensive, including “all the earth.”

One of the check-points I do almost every Sunday is to read from the hymnal who wrote the words and composed the music of the hymns and spiritual songs we sing.  I recognize these contributors to our worship and thank God for the talents they employed to add to our experiences of worship.  I think, when our talented keyboardists (organist, pianist, other instrumentalists) play the prelude, postlude or offertory, how many people have contributed to this phase of our worship.  Those who are the faithful presenters of the music are offering their dedication in years of study and preparation to play flawlessly and worshipfully their sacrifice of praise.  They, in turn, owe gratitude to the teachers who taught them fundamentals of music and how to be facile in the execution of a piece of music set before them.  Beyond the pieces of music are the composers, likewise whose talent was a gift from God, and whose inspiration and writing of the piece was God-initiated.  Apply these same points of talent, inspiration, study and production of the music to each hymn we sing, each song that inspires us and we have a virtual army of people who are offering up a sacrifice of praise to the Lord God.  Is it any wonder that the English Standard Version of the focal passage verses today use exclamation marks to denote the exuberance and wonder of this whole process of bringing “a new song” before the Lord in worship?  What a wonder it is, indeed!  We are not alone in offering up new songs to the Lord, our Redeemer!

As we gather for praise, worship, adoration and proclamation, may we picture peoples from all nations and tongues raising a mighty chorus of praise to God.  We are in the midst of that great throng!  This is prelude of a future promised time and place when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (see Isaiah 45:23, Romans 14:11, Philippians 2:10).  I choose from Psalm 33 verses that reiterate the joyous experience of praise:

                “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…(Ps. 33:1-3)

                The earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord! (Ps. 33:5b) [From ESV]  Amen!

A Call to Americans on the Nation’s Birthday

“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” –II Chronicles 7:14. (NKJV)  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people whom He has chosen as His own inheritance. The Lord looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men.  From the place of His habitation He looks on all the inhabitants of the earth; He fashions their hearts individually; He considers all their works.”  -Psalm 33:12-15 (NKJV).

The context of II Chronicles 7:14 is exciting.  King Solomon had just led in a masterful prayer for the people.  It was the occasion of the dedication of the magnificent temple in Jerusalem.  Solomon had offered sacrifices on the altar and fire had come down from heaven and consumed the offering, and “the glory of the Lord filled the temple” (II Chron. 7:1). The people worshiped, feasted and celebrated for seven days.  And then they left Jerusalem to return to their respective villages and homes.  We are told in II Chronicles 7:11 that “all Solomon had planned to do in the house of the Lord and in his own house he successfully accomplished.”  That night in a vision the Lord came to King Solomon  and told him that during times of draught, pestilence, locusts and other calamities, He would hear from Heaven and be attentive to their prayers.  The message of II Chronicles 7:14, written by the chronicler in the annals of the King of Israel, was a message from God Himself.  And here in the twenty-first century, in America, it is still a message from God to be heard, heeded and acted upon:

“If my people who are called by May name will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”  What are the conditions?  Humility before God.  We can do nothing in our own power.  “My (our) help comes from the Lord.” (Ps. 121:3). I read with what humility the founders of America approached the major task of building a nation.  They pledged “their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor” and with humility proceeded to do what they could under God’s power to form a nation.  Now we cannot mention God’s name lest we offend some.  God help us to return to humility and dependence!  The next requirement is to pray.  The great poet, Alfred Lord Tennyson wrote, “More things are wrought through prayer than this world dreams of.”  By returning to God and seeking His face in sincere prayer, America may yet have an opportunity to be healed.  It happened during the periods of America’s Great Awakening, the spiritual revivals that swept our country at a time of great need. Prayer sustained a nation during the crisis of World War II.  God told Solomon two more requirements:  seek Gods face and turn from wicked ways.  Repentance is necessary; then we can truly seek God’s face after we admit our wrong-doings and rebellion.

The rewards of humility, prayer, seeking God, confession and repentance are that God will hear from heaven, forgive our sin and heal our land.  The Psalmist in 33:12-15 adds emphasis to the word of the Lord to King Solomon:  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, and the people He has chosen for His own inheritance.”  Our founding fathers considered this nation to be blessed and chosen of God.  Can we regain that spirit of purpose and destiny for our nation?  Is it too late to fulfill God’s requirements and turn again to the Sovereign Lord for direction and blessing?  The Psalmist recognized that God sees from Heaven and knows the affairs of men on earth.  He is not remote and uncaring.  “Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear Him, on those who hope in His steadfast love, that He may deliver their soul from death and keep them alive in famine.”  On our nation’s birthday, and in all subsequent days, may we remember, as did King Solomon, the God who is our Sovereign Lord.  If we meet His conditions, then He will hear from Heaven as He promised, and heal our land.  May we sincerely pray to this end, meet His conditions (for they are indeed for our best good), and anticipate His healing and blessings upon America.

‘Turn to Me and Be Saved’ God Pleads

“Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, you survivors of the nations!  They have no knowledge who carry about their wooden idols, and keep on praying to a god that cannot save.  Declare and present your case; let them take counsel together!  Who told this long ago?  Who declared it of old?  Was it not I, the Lord?  And there is no other god besides me, a righteous God and a Savior, there is none besides me.  Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other.  By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return:  To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.”-Isaiah 45:20-23 (ESV).

This compelling  passage in Isaiah is predictive prophecy.  In chapter 45 of Isaiah, the prophet is forthseeing that Cyrus, king of Persia, will conquer Babylon where the Israelites were in bondage and exile.  The prophecy was written years before the actual historical events predicted.  Isaiah began to prophesy in 740 B. C., the year that the honored and aged good King Uzziah died as recorded in Isaiah 6.  Cyrus began to rule in Medio-Persia about 550 B. C.  His famous decree which we read about in 2 Chronicles 36:22-23 and Ezra 1:1-4 set the captives in Babylon free to return to their own countries.  Among them were the exiled Israelites.  By the best computation of history, this restoration occurred in the year 539 B. C.  They had been taken captive in 587 B. C.  The Israelites were allowed to return to rebuild the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.  Cyrus also restored some of the treasures of the Temple taken in exile.  Ironically, some of the Jews, who had fared rather well in Babylonian captivity, did not want to return to war-ravaged Judah.  From those staying in Babylon, Cyrus exacted a tax to help finance the return and the rebuilding.

In today’s focus passage, Isaiah 45: 20-23, Isaiah is consoling his discouraged people in exile.  He first asks them to assemble together to hear the word of the Lord.  It is important for believers to assemble.  Hebrews 10:25 admonishes that we should not “forsake the assembling of ourselves together...and so much so as you see the day (of the Lord) approaching.”Isaiah reminded the exiles that the people who worshiped ‘wooden idols’ had no knowledge of the true God and those they called gods could not save.  “There is none beside me” declares God, “a righteous God and a Savior” (v. 21).  But notice the invitation extended through Isaiah from the one true God:  “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!...To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” (vv. 22, 23)

Josephus, Jewish historian in his Jewish Antiquities, 11:5-7)  records that when Cyrus the king became cognizant of the prophecy written by Isaiah years before his reign began, he was very strongly impressed to follow the prophecy and fulfill it.  In the providence of God, a pagan emperor became the “shepherd” of the Israelites and allowed them to be restored to their land.  “I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other.”  (Isaiah 45:5b-6).  We stand, centuries later, in a troubled time in our own nation.  Many deny the sovereignty of God and want vestiges of “one nation under God,” and “in God we trust” removed from usage.  What hope does the predictive prophecy of Isaiah hold for us today who see our nation departing from its stand as a nation “blessed…whose God is the Lord”? (Psalm 33:12).  As Isaiah of old tried to encourage his people and remind them of God’s promises, so we need a major return to the God who holds all nations within His own power.  We cannot forget God  and His statutes and principles.  In every age and nation they hold true.  We know for surety that one day “every knee shall bow and every tongue swear allegiance” to God.  Until that “terrible day of the Lord” when He pours out His judgment, we still have opportunity to turn to Him in confession and allegiance.  The plea made by Isaiah in his day is a paean cry for our day:  “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!  For I am God, and there is no other”  (Isaiah 45:22).