“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 96:1–2, ESV)
The Verse of the Week for the next couple weeks will focus on Psalm 96. It is a Psalm about worship. As we go through this Psalm, I want to encourage you to take part in our memorization challenge and memorize the Psalm together with us.
Verse 1 challenges us to sing to the Lord a new song. I am sure many of us love to sing the old songs. They are oldies but goodies (How Great Thou Art; Holy, Holy, Holy; Praise to the Lord, the Almighty). These hymns have stood the test of time. They are hymns of faith that have been around for hundreds of years. And one hundred years from now, while many of the new songs will be long forgotten, the Church will still be singing the beloved songs of old.
Psalm 92 tells us to sing a new song to the Lord. Singing new song will stretch us. We enter into an experience that we are unfamiliar. At first, we may stumble upon the words and the notes. We might not get it right at first. But as we become more familiar with the tune and engage the lyrics, we are opened to a new experience of worship.
One thing that I have learned about God is that there is always more. There is a greater and fuller experience that he desires for us. But often we miss out on that fuller experience because we get trapped in what we are accustomed and familiar. Experiencing greater abundance often comes from stepping out from that which we know into something new.
There have been many times where I sing a new song that I wasn’t sure about it. But as I grew familiar with the song, it became one of my favorites. I’m sure that has happened to you.
The point is to be open to a new experience. You never know what God is up to. When we close ourselves off to the new thing, we easily miss out on the greater things!
What new experience is God challenging you to embrace?
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