Restoring Biblical Congregational Singing (3)
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Singing is important, why… we’ve been shaped, instructed, necessitated, guided for us to sing. We also learned that it is an powerful and effective tool in our worship of God. God doesn’t need our singing, but we certainly do.
So now that we understand the importance of singing, does what we sing together matter or is it free game on anything.
There is no part of public worship which calls for more serious and intelligent consideration than the selection of hymns.- Arthur Gregory
And he says this is part because we have literally thousands and thousands of songs at our disposal each week. And we rarely sing more than 3 or 4 on a given Sunday service. Everytime we say yes to those few, we say no to the thousands of other songs. So pick them well.
Choosing songs is really tough to be honest. Not only because there are literally thousands of choices available, but your choice of songs actually have a big impact on the people you we lead in worship. Music has powerful effect on people. It always has. Studies certainly affirm this to be true.
But another major reason it is difficult to pick songs is because of it’s seeming ability to divide a church. I and many of music leaders can attest to this. The constant pressure to conform to people’s music desires; not happy with the choice of music that is being sung, and letting out frustrations on the one leading. There is a serious problem with that though. Actually two. For one, our church is full of diverse tastes and interests. To cater to one, is to neglect the other. So at no point can I or anyone else ever please the whole in their own tastes and interest. Even those in certain camps, (say tradition music verses modern church music) you’ll have songs even in those camps that you wont enjoy, that you dislike. So it feels like a no win game. The second problem is now I have become not a faithful leader in worship of God, but leader in worship of men. I would stress each week hoping that everyone satisfied but that never happened. My sole purpose in picking songs became pleasing people. And that’s why I was so stressed. Until God began working in my thoughts and heart to direct me to a clearer understanding of congregational singing as well as what songs should be sung.
Just as God has given the command to sing, He didn’t leave us high and dry about what to sing. God’s Word has indeed given clarity in the word about this matter, one that can give the one leading peace of mind even when there maybe many critics and can give the congregation the right things to long for and desire in music. So it is my desire to share what I have learned from scriptures about this matter to instruct you and allow us to all think biblically about the songs we sing.
Let’s now go to the primary passage we will be in today, and park here as we consider Paul’s instruction to a New Testament church in the matter of musical selection.
Before Paul gets into discussing the music types we sing, there is something far more important to discuss first. Something that we ought to get right if we have any chance to sing the right songs.
I. Preliminaries to our Song Choices
I. Preliminaries to our Song Choices
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
What is the author Paul describing here in this passage. What we are to set our minds and actions on having received the new self. Alot of these actions that are described: compassion, kindness, humility, patience, forgiving, these all have to do with our handling of other people. And that’s important to our conversation even in music because music is divisive. People get pretty angry over little things and even leave churches because of music. Some churches can’t even have the whole body meet because of music. They split there services so that some can listen to the kind of music they want and others can listen to the kind they want. But let me ask, does that sound like the kind of church God wants. Does that really describe the new self Paul is addressing to these believers.
Listen to this verse again
And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
Right before Paul talks about the types of songs we sing, Paul talks about the body of Christ we should be. And what kind of body is that. A united body.
And how are we united? Maybe better question is, what unites us? Music?
A. The Gospel makes Us One
A. The Gospel makes Us One
It is the glue that brings us together
As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Doesn’t that also sound alot like what we read in Colossians 3.
For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.
by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace,
Unity isn’t a goal, it’s a reality. We sing about it. Our God has made us one.
So if we are united, why all the talk and even commands to be of one mind.
I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.
We cannot create unity… because that comes from God. But we can work to maintain it. That is what scripture reveals to us.
eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
And why do we need to work to maintain this unity? Because as sinful man, we are also battling with our own fleshly desires that would seek our own good and pleasure above the good and pleasure of others.
And that reveals itself even in music. And that brings us to this thought.
B. Music doesn’t cause Disunity, Reveals it
B. Music doesn’t cause Disunity, Reveals it
You can read more about that in the book “Theology that sticks” by Chris Anderson. Modern hymn writer- his robes for mine- amongst others. Excellent read for understanding the thoughts of God honoring music and worship and a great tool for helping families sing even at home.
So music then does not cause disunity, it reveals it. Therefore music is therefore a symptom, but not the main problem. Pride, selfishness, rivalry,.... all these are the main problem.
Here’s a great Biblical concept the theology that sticks points out. What divides us is sin, not music. And that’s good news, because if sin is the problem, then the gospel is the answer. Not music- the gospel. Not compromise - the gospel.
If reconciling us to Himself and to each other was worth the blood of Christ, are we really willing too disrupt that unity over music? Or preference? - Chris Anderson (Theology that Sticks)
We mention that music doesn’t divide, sin does. Music doesn’t necessarily unite us either. That’s the gospel. But music can grow, display, stretch, challenge, and celebrate that unity.
Here’s how music can grow and display unity. Through deference.
Deference=
Deference is allowing differences without letting them become divisions. Allowing space for another opinion and even willing to go along with that person’s preferences. This is apart of being the collection of saints. Different but one.
This makes the Gospel message shine even brighter when we defer to other people’s desires and needs rather than demand our own as long as they are rooted in the Bible. If we truly love God, His church, His plans, and designs. We will truly love that He has indeed made us diverse because if handled correctly displays the true power of the gospel to unite. If Matthew and Simon the Zealot could be united because of the gospel, our petty differences in song choice shouldn’t cause disunity either.
C. Only God can Create These Desires
C. Only God can Create These Desires
You might be saying, man I’m all about this. At least I wanna be, I wanna defer to other people and live Christlike but soon find how quickly those desires fade away and give place to another desire, a desire to please self.
How do we battle this?
Well let’s go back to our text.
Two things surround the concept of unity and singing, making them possible.
And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Two things have to dwell and rule in our hearts for this to be a continual reality. Word of Christ and the Peace of Christ. Christ is the benefactor and we are the beneficiaries. So we must run to the source, the well and earnestly seek the things that are above to then be able to maintain the blessedness of being united even in our song.
So even though we should be willing to sing to others preferences, does that mean free reign on any song. That there is no rule or guideline to our selection. That again is false.
II. Principles to our Song Choices
II. Principles to our Song Choices
A. Songs that Teach
A. Songs that Teach
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,
Songs are addressed to whom? One Another....
Btw, that’s a mandate for every Christian. It’s not optional to sing or be present at the singing portion of services. It’s mandated!!!
For the purpose of… Teaching
Falseness of “Come join us this sunday for worship and the word”- worship is singing, expressing love to him, recognizing and experiencing He is near (all feeling oriented). The word is brain food for our intellects, make us think not feel. But both of these two elements shouldn’t be separated as different categories. They are both vehicles of the same thing. Both are worship. Both should cause us to swell up with emotion. Both should cause us to think.
So if our songs are addressed to one another for the purpose of teaching… what then should we make sure we are teaching… Truth
But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.
Why is it so important for us to make sure that what we are singing and teaching in our songs is sound in doctrine?
Hymns (music) plant spiritual time bombs in the mind. Children learn truth even before they understand it but it surely will “go off” in the future.- Collin Morris
We talk about how powerful music is in locking words in our minds thru tunes. We just remember things way better when it is set to melody. That goes back once again to what was said in Deut.
“Careful attention to the selection of hymns and praise songs is important. People learn from everything that happens in a worship service, not just the sermon. Indeed, there are probably many Christians who imbibe more of their theology, for good or ill, from what they sing than from what they hear taught.” - Carl Trueman
but test everything; hold fast what is good.
Confronting error is a biblical duty, and since our songs teach, they too need to be tested and inspected to make sure they are communicating truth.
(of all the 27 NT books, only one doesn’t include any message of warning against false teaching- meaning we should take careful notice of what is false teaching)
Songs like “What a beautiful name” express wrong doctrine. In the second verse, we read...
You didn’t want heaven without us
so Jesus, you brought heaven down.
What does this phrase communicate? That God needed us. That God was lonely. That’s not true. God has always been a God of love but how could God be described as love when people, the world, heavenly beings, or anything that was created, hadn’t existed yet. If He was all by Himself (and He is the pre-existent one- He’s always existed) then who would there have been to love. Himself, a trinitarian love between father son and Holy Spirit. He did not need us.
I picked on a new song now I’ll pick on an old one.
And Can It Be (second verse)
He left his father's throne above,
So free, so infinite his grace,
Emptied himself of all but love,
And bled for Adam’s helpless race.
The writer, even a good writer- Charles Wesley- it’s hard to know exactly what his understanding of the Kenosis- God becoming man, was. Many have debated back and forth on it. But this song has certainly come under fire as being a very contentious song. And rightly so, because it doesn’t do a very good job at given us a good understanding of what God did. It confuses us about how God became man. And at worst, leads us to a dangerous idea that Jesus wasn’t really God.
So with songs like this, we heavily evaluate the authors intent, and clarify each line with what the author actually meant or we chose to sing songs that are accurate in every line. Remember we only have room for 4 or so songs a week. So pick well.
***Our Songs must be held to the same standards as our sermons.***
A consistent diet of shallow, subjective worship songs tend to produce shallow, subjective Christians. So therefore we need songs that explain, clarify, and expound on what God’s Word says.
Too often we can be tempted to choose songs because of the music rather than the theological content. We need to realize that when words are combined with music, we can be deceived. (the getty’s call it a dangerous combination) Music can make shallow lyrics sound deep.
So what does a clearly biblical song look like. One test we give it, does it clearly call out the gospel and true doctrine in such a way that makes it uncomfortable for people to sing.
In Christ Alone:
This song takes us from Christ’s incarnation, to Christ’s substitutionary atonement (doesn’t skimp on why He needed to do this… the wrath of God was satisfied- it begs us to ask the question of God’s righteous wrath), Christ’s resurrection, Christ’s victory and defeat of sin and death, Christ’s return (til’ he returns or calls me home), along with all that Christ’s gift has brought to us as believers.... (no guilt in life, no fear in death, sin cast off, power to stand, secured forever, etc).
So we then should further ask, can a muslim, buddahist, jehovah witness, catholic, “christian” liberal sing these songs along with us. If our music collection is biblically correct than it will be offensive to many in its message.
Several years back, the theologically liberal Presbyterian Church (USA) wanted to include the song “in Christ Alone” in its hymnal, but only if the Getty’s would alter one of it’s lines. Till on that cross as Jesus died, rather than having it read “the wrath of God was satisfied,” they wanted it to read “the love of God was magnified.” Still a very true statement. But why the need for change. The PC(USA) rejects the notion that God is a God of wrath. They also reject that Christ’s death was a propitiation of that wrath in place of sinners. Thankfully, the Getty’s stuck with their lines in the song despite the fact that they had lost a good bit of money out of it because they wanted their songs to speak Biblical accurate truth.
So again, don’t just sing songs that sound good but are fluffy on their lyrics.
However, that doesn’t mean that music and melody are inconsequential. If great words are being sung to terrible music, no one will remember them or want to sing them.
What songs teach us and what songs should we teach to others....
1. Doctrinal Songs:
1. Doctrinal Songs:
-the full expanse of what scripture shares, short on one and will cause a church to be ill-equipped or lacking in a doctrine.... ie… Holy Spirit… check Hymnal
-check hymnal for lists of doctrines
2. Christian Songs:
2. Christian Songs:
Christianity is a Christ-centered religion. And Christian singing should be Christ-centered singing.
Notice again in our text.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
-Let the word of Christ…
-Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus...
-Giving thanks to God the Father through Him.... (who Him, Jesus Him)
overtly Christ-ian!!!
Keeping the ministry of the son at the center of our worship is not an abandonment of the glory of the Father or the Spirit, but is rather faithfulness to the gospel they make Scripture’s focus… - Bryan Chapell.
3. Wording put to Song:
3. Wording put to Song:
A Word-filled life results in Word-filled speech and Word-filled songs. Colossians 3:16 describes a delightful, Word-filled cycle: We think on the Word, we speak the Word, we sing the Word- causing us to think on the Word yet again! - Chris Anderson
Isaac Watt’s mind was saturated with scriptures, that is why you’ll hear many allusions to scripture in his songs. (When I survey the wondrous cross, O God our help in ages past, Alas and did my savior bleed, i sing the mighty power of God, Joy to the World)
Biblical songs enable the word of Christ to dwell in people richly.
Examples of songs that quote the Bible:
Revelation Song
Biblical songs not only use actual Scripture but reflect Scripture’s priorities and categories. They give us the opportunity to cultivate or express scriptural affections. They are clear, undistracting, and contribute to building up the unity of the church
B. Songs that are Varied
B. Songs that are Varied
1. Psalm
1. Psalm
a). Divine songbook
a). Divine songbook
the inspired hymnal, the infalliable worship booklet
Introduction to chapter 8- sing songs that are inspired… “things would have been so much simpler if God had anticipated the worship wars and just inspired a hymnal.”
He did, we just don’t bother to use it.
check hymnal for songs from the Psalms with them
So what is the psalms...
In Hebrew, the entire collection of Psalms is entitled “praises”. The rabbis of the NT era would designate it as “the Book of Praises”. Then some time later, during the time when the Bible was being translated into Greek, it was then labeled Psalms.
It’s interesting word choice by those that translated it into greek. The Greek verb from which the noun “psalms” comes from gives a close association with “the plucking or twanging of strings” so that when we see the word Psalms we would understand that music is to be accompanied with these words.
Psalms include:
wisdom, lament, penitential, royal or kingship, thanksgiving, praise, imprecatory (To imprecate means “to invoke evil upon or curse” one’s enemies)
b). Divine guidebook.
b). Divine guidebook.
The Psalms show us that God welcomes a wide diversity in our songs. They can be short, long, or somewhere in between (Psalms 117; 119; 89). They can enable us to speak to God, others, or ourselves, sometimes in the same psalm (Psalms 86; 100; 62:5–7; 42). We have psalms about God and about us (Psalms 145; 133). And when it comes to first-person pronouns, Psalm 71 contains 58 of them in 24 verses. God gave us psalms that never repeat and others that say the same thing 26 times (Psalms 2; 136).
As you look at alot of the arguments about new music is that it is too repetitive or deals too much with the me issues. Putting down modern songs because there is an abundance of personal pronouns is wrong. The Psalms as our guide show us there is a place in our diet for that kind of music. He is my strength (Ps.28), my rock Ps.18), my Shepherd (Ps.23),my fortress, my deliverer, my rock, my shield, my horn of salvation, my stronghold, my God. That thought should captivate us. That we can call him mine.... Amazing grace is the example.
Some psalms explode with emotion, while others are more doctrinal (Psalms 150; 111). They give us words for rejoicing and reflecting (Psalms 47; 23). They tell us there’s a time to praise and a time to lament (Psalms 96; 38).
Not only do is there wide variety in Psalm but they also deal with a wide variety of human conditions and feelings. Sin (and how we feel about it), repentance, forgiveness, sickness, persecution, discouragement, want, grief, frustration, trials, troubles, loss, death, the afterlife, children, grandchildren, industry, learning, nature, providence, contentment, gratitude, redemption, law, grace, hope, peace, triumph, war, etc.
“The Psalms address, more comprehensively and incisively than any human hymnal ever has, the full range of human sentiments experienced in the life of faith. Israel sang about these things, and according to Paul, so should we. And if our hymnal does not look at least something like the Hebrew psalter, we probably should tinker with it a bit.”
“Christianity is rooted in the objective truths of what God has accomplished in the past. But is is also a personal and ongoing relationship with our God and Savior, every day. There are subjective elements to our faith, as well. The Christian walk isn’t “Just the facts, ma’am.” Its facts and faith. Facts and frustrations. Facts and failures. And yes, Facts and feelings.
Worship is- must be - experiential. Otherwise, no matter how carefully we choose our songs, our worship is dead. God is “wearied” by our letter-of-the-law offerings when they come from legalistic, idolatrous, and bored hearts.
That’s why Martin Luther loved this book more than other other book of the Bible and he was a passionate proclaimer of justification of Faith from the book of Romans. But the reliability and rawness of Psalms is so endearing.
So Psalms must be sung.
John Calvin so much believed in singing the Psalms that he only permitted Psalms to be sung in his church.
Though Calvin did alot of good for the church, he still missed marks. Singing only Psalms is one of those marks because scripture indicates that we are to sing more than just those inspired lyrics. Ephesians and Colossians instructs the believer to sing Psalms, but also hymns and spiritual songs. These of course were guided and governed by the patterns and principles laid out in the Psalms, but were encouragement to sing songs that were not necessarily divinely inspired. BTW, this is a strong argumentation for the purpose of writing new songs. Only the psalms were divinely inspired the rest are inspired by the truth in scripture but are nevertheless instructed in scripture to be sung as long as they are also guided and governed by truth. So use the Psalms to guide our practice of singing other songs.
2. Hymns
2. Hymns
Referring to these the words, "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs," Ralph Martin says,
It is hard to draw any hard-and-fast distinction between these terms; and modern scholars are agreed that the various terms are used loosely to cover the various forms of musical composition. "Psalms" may refer to Christian odes patterned on the Old Testament Psalter. "Hymns" would be longer compositions and there is evidence that some actual specimens of these hymns may be found in the New Testament itself. "Spiritual songs" refer to snatches of spontaneous praise which the inspiring Spirit placed on the lips of the enraptured worshipper, as 1 Corinthians 14:15 implies. (p. 47)
Paul’s audience in the book of Ephesians are Greek Christians who may not be as familiar with the Psalms as a Jew would be. However, when Paul speaks of hymns, he refers to a type of music Greek Christians would recognize. In pagan cultures, hymns were often used to eulogize their gods, while Christians would use hymns to exalt the name of Christ. In his commentary on Ephesians, New Testament scholar Harold Hoehner defines a hymn as “generally poetic material that is either recited or sung, many times in praise of divinity or in honor of one of the gods.” That’s similiar to what Scott Anoil found in his search.... “a common term in culture denoting poetic expression of praise to deity, an ode”.
We can apply that definition of a hymn to what Paul describes in Ephesians 5. He is not suggesting that we should be singing or reciting anything to anyone but the One True God. However, we can see that Paul is telling the Greek Christians that they can use songs from their culture to exalt the name of Christ and recognize the glory of God.
You might find that hard to believe but that was the practice of the early hymn writers. They would write lyrics and then find tunes and melodies to match the lyrics too.
John MacArthur further weighs on this...
Majority agree that hymns were commonly used for rehearsing doctrinal truth,
whereas the next category, spiritual songs, focuses more on believers personal responses to God.
3. Spiritual Songs
3. Spiritual Songs
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Consequence with Ourselves: Singing
Spiritual songs were probably songs of testimony that covered a broad category that included any music expressing spiritual truth.
Examples:
Ephesians: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Consequence with Ourselves: Singing
In the church today we could classify renditions of Psalms 23 and 84 as psalms, “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” and “The Old Rugged Cross” as hymns, and “O How He Loves You and Me” and “I’d Rather Have Jesus” as spiritual songs. The intent of the writer here, however, is simply to give latitude for all kinds of musical expression to exalt the Lord.
Why the need for variety...
Now there is a reason for different kinds of music. The main reason is that God is infinitely varied in his beauty and he relates to us in profoundly and wonderfully different ways. If you experience God in the death of your four daughters and your wife, in the sinking of a ship, you may write, "It Is Well with My Soul." If you are overwhelmed with the truth of the incarnation at Christmas time, you may write "Joy to the World." If God meets you simply and quietly in your prayer closet, you may write, "Father, I adore you, lay my life before you . . ." If you are stunned at the marvel that you are saved, you may write "Amazing grace! How sweet the sound . . ." If you area Sunday School teacher longing to teach your students profound things in simple ways, you may write, "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. . ."- Chris Anderson
John Piper
God meets us in high and holy ways. He meets us in lowly and meek ways. He meets us in thunderously glorious ways; he meets us in quiet, intimate ways. He meets us in complex ways and simple ways, furious ways and merciful ways. There are aspects of God's character and relation to us that can only be expressed with high and fine expressions of music like Handel's Messiah, and there are aspects of God's character and relation to us that can only be expressed with more common and folk-like kinds of music like "Amazing Grace" and "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," and "The B-I-B-L-E."
But there is one other command about what songs we should sing. In fact, this word, this adjective is used with the word sing more than any other word. What songs should we sing....
BONUS: Songs that are New
BONUS: Songs that are New
Ps.33:3, Ps.40:3, Ps.96:1, Ps.98:1, Ps.144:9, Ps.149:1, Is.42:10, Rev.5:9, Rev.14:3
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.
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.
and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.
HEBREW- ḥāḏāš (khaw-dawsh') = Fresh (fresh of the year), unheard of
GREEK- kainos (kahee-nos') = Recently made, fresh, unused, of a new kind, uncommon, unheard of
Of the 50 commands to sing, almost 20% of the commands to sing, encourage and promote that we include new songs in our singing. That’s how important it is.
But I’m unaware of any command in the Bible to “sing old songs.” It’s not disobedient to sing old songs; it simply isn’t something God needs to remind us to do.
Why
New songs of praise are appropriate for new rescues and fresh manifestations of grace. As long as God is gracious toward us, as long as he keeps showing us his power, and wowing us with his works, it is fitting that we not just sing old songs inspired by his past grace, but also that we sing new songs about his ever-streaming, never-ceasing grace.- article on desiring God
And this isn’t just true for today, but for eternity. God will never cease to inspire awe in us about the breadth and depth and height of who he is and his mind-boggling love for us in Christ, and we get the joy of continuing to create and sing new songs of praise to him for it.
Look at the worship in the book of Revelation, and see that this is what they are constantly doing.
In Revelation 15:3, we’re told that “those who had conquered the beast” sing “the song of Moses” — which is an old song, from Exodus 15 or Deuteronomy 32 — but they also sing “the song of the Lamb,” a new song. Not just the angels get in on singing a new song, but all the hosts of heavens, and elders and mighty creatures get in on this. In Revelation 14:3 and in Revelation 5:9, the four living creatures and 24 elders “sang a new song.”
Forever God will continue to “show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7), and as he does — for his glory and for our joy — we will keep singing new songs.
It’s a beautiful thing when we get a start on that now.
Chris Anderson says that if we don’t sing and write new songs would be to imply that God is no longer working in men’s hearts to motivate and write enduring songs that inspire and grow our relationship with him. All his work is already done in the past hymns. Yet that isn’t true. God worked in men like Watts, Weasley, Newton to write incredible true and powerful songs. They were new then, and God is still at work moving men to write songs today that about his mercy that is new each morning. “Remember anew what the Lord can do.”
Very similiar to how a familiar passage can continue to instruct and teach us even after the 100th time of reading it. And for that, we must continue to openly declare the awe of God and wonder of who He is in our words and in our songs.