Sermon Tone Analysis

I love to sing.

And I especially like to sing songs of praise to God.

That hasn’t always been the case.

I can remember growing up singing hymns thinking- these are dull and boring.

I do remember one of the first times that my heart rejoiced upon singing a hymn.

The song was Amazing Grace.

Now I had sung this song countless times before, but during my freshman year at college I believe that God marvelously saved me, and for the first time in my life I began seriously walking in Christ.

Then one Sunday during a service, or perhaps during a chapel hour I sang the song Amazing Grace.

And for the first time in my life I was the blind person, who now saw.

I was the lost one who was now found.

I was the wretch who had deeply and profoundly experienced the grace of God.

And my spirit stirred within my heart and almost with tears in my eyes I sang, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see… Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved.

How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed… When we’ve been there 10,000 years bright shinning as the sun, we’ve no less day to sing God’s praise, than when we first begun.”

In Ps 98.1, the psalmist writes this...

Here the psalmist is commanding the nation of Israel, O sing unto the Lord a new song.

I do not think that the idea is primarily new in terms of content, but rather new in terms of quality.

As my spirit stirred within my heart when I grasped the true meaning of Amazing Grace so we must ever have a new song of praise in our hearts for the Lord.

In other words the quality of our praise or our worship must be genuine.

How often do we fail at this task?

How many times have we participated in corporate worship in our local church- singing in the song service, responding to the preaching of God’s Word, participating in the Lord’s supper- and our worship is at best mechanical / wooden / sterile?

We serve a God that deserves for our worship to be always new / genuine/ of the utmost quality.

So, the question facing us is this, how do we create within our hearts worship that is always new? How do we obey the command to sing unto the Lord a new song?

It is an important question- it effects the very quality of your relationship with God.

The psalmist attempts to answer this question by means of three stanzas of a psalm of praise.

Stanza #1- (vv.

1-3)

O sing unto the Lord a new song; For he hath done marvellous things

This functions almost like a refrain- it sets the tone for the whole psalm.

Sing to the Lord a new song.

Why?

For he hath done marvellous things?

What things has He done?

Well, let me tell you.

His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

Apparently, this psalm was written after an incredible victory in the history of the nation of Israel.

Here God is spoken of in anthropomorphic terms- His right hand- indicates this victory was accomplished through God’s power.

His holy arm indicates God’s perfection- no one or no thing compares with God’s ability.

And God Himself is the one who won the victory- Israel benefited of course, but God alone claimed victory.

We don’t know the exact event referred to here, but it would be akin to such supernatural acts of deliverance like God saving Israel through the Red Sea, or God bringing down the walls of Jericho, or when God delivered Israel from the Assyrians by means of an angel.

Whatever event was behind this psalm, it was clearly a powerful deliverance of the people by God alone.

Salvation here is better the idea of victorious deliverance from some kind of danger.

And this deliverance was very public.

Everyone knew that it was from God alone.

And it was in accordance with God’s righteousness- God was putting right what was wrong in saving His people.

God supernaturally delivered His people, and did so very visibly, so that everyone would know the power of God, and He did all this because of His mercy (hesed), this is God’s lovingkindness or His loyal love to His people.

Because of God’s loyal love and his truth or better faithfulness (He is trustworthy to keep His covenants) to the house of Israel, God victoriously delivered them.

So marvel at God’s deliverance and sing a new song.

The end of v. 3 is interesting.

The psalmist here makes a pivotal statement.

“All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.”

God’s salvation, His deliverance was so wondrous that all the ends of the earth have seen it.

When God caused the Red Sea to collapse upon the Egyptian army I imagine that that news got around.

They didn’t have cell phones or social media, none the less, that event had far reaching ramifications.

It would have reached to all the ends of the earth.

But, the verb for “seen” here could be understood as a “prophetic perfect.”

That means that yes, God supernatural deliverance was great and its effects were far reaching then and there, but the full realization of the “All the ends of the earth” seeing the deliverance of God is still primarily in the future.

In other words this present deliverance is wondrous, but folks you haven’t seen anything yet.

When God fulfills all his promises and fully delivers his people- when will that be?

The coming kingdom.

When God users in His kingdom, and conquers every foe, and delivers His people- then there will not be a corner left on this earth where God’s salvation will not be seen.

And who will be the one that carries out God’s ultimate deliverance?

The coming Messiah, Jesus Christ.

It is also interesting that Mary may have had Ps 98 in mind in her song of Praise sometimes called the Magnificat-

How do we create within our hearts worship that is always new? How do we obey the command to sing unto the Lord a new song?

I.

We dwell richly on the truth that Jesus Christ is our Deliverer!

Now we are not Israel, and God’s covenants with Israel are not for us, but we, the church, are a people of God.

Isreal is a people of God and the church is a separate and distinct people of God, yet often what effects one people of God will effect another people of God.

So we will share in the benefits of God’s deliverance when Jesus returns and establishes His kingdom on earth.

Lately, it seems like we are more and more in need of that deliverance.

This world’s system seems to be exponentially more and more hostile toward Christians.

(Examples)-

Jesus will one day return and set up His kingdom and He will deliver us, he will gain the supernatural victory that will extend to ends of the earth.

Is that not reason to sing a new song?

Stanza #2- (vv.

4-6)

Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth- the psalmist switches here from exhorting Israel to now commanding all the earth, Jew and Gentile, to shout joyfully and to make a loud noise.

The idea here is to cause to break or burst forth, it is the idea of noise that starts abruptly with a high degree of intensity.

One of my greatest joys in life is taking the opportunity to scare my wife.

I don’t know why, there is probably a physiological deficiency in me somewhere.

But for some odd reason it causes me delight.

Back when we were both at MBU, she used to work in the Fine Arts Department and here office was on the top floor of Old Main back were the piano practice rooms are.

One night I went up to here office and, fortunate for me she had just left to use the rest room.

So I waited patiently for here to return, in her office, crouched down behind her desk.

And when she returned, and suddenly and unexpectedly made my prescience known to her and guess what her response was?

She screamed, and I mean it was one of those high pitched girl screams.

She couldn’t help herself, it was almost involuntary.

It just broke forth from her mouth.

That is the idea that the psalmist is trying to convey.

Your delight and desire to praise the Lord should be so fervent that songs of praise and joy just burst out of your lips.

Your worship for Him should be so compelling that you just can’t help yourself.

In vv.

5-6 we have a climatic effect.

First sing with the harp, then with the voice of psalm/song (sound of melody), then with trumpets (metal tubes made with bronze or silver), then with the sound of the cornet (horn- ram’s horn, made from animal horns, often used to signal the divine presence in Scripture).

The idea here is as the song of praise and joy is breaking forth from your lips, it should also be a sound that is worthy of the Lord- you want your praise to be skillful.

So you excellently mix the sound of the harp, with beautiful melody of the voice, followed by deep and rich tones of the trumpet and the ram’s horn- for that is what God is worthy of.

Notice the end of v. 6- make a joyful noise before (in the presence of) the Lord, the King.

How do we create within our hearts worship that is always new? How do we obey the command to sing unto the Lord a new song?

II.

We dwell richly on the truth that Jesus Christ is our King!

Do you remember the last presidential election?