Being a new song

Throughout the Psalms, we are directed to "sing to the Lord a new song."  Why a "new song"? Why not an old, comforting song that God already knows and may like well? The Psalmist doesn't say.

 

Perhaps we are to sing a new song as a new song comes alive in us.  Perhaps the new song is the life that shoots up when we are in joy in God.  Perhaps we ourselves are to be a new song, our lives and our words a hymn to God's glory, majesty, and radiant love.

 

St. Gregory of Nazianzus (4th century) describes the Christian as "an instrument played by the Holy Spirit."  Mechthild of Helfta (13th century) wrote "God plays upon the harp of the Spirit, sounding the strings strongest in love: and to this mystical music, humanity is beckoned to sing."

 

Imagine that you are the instrument for the Holy Spirit's creative musical power.  How would you need to be prepared for that holy song? What tuning might you want to do, in order for Her to make beautiful music through you?  Would today's song be a lament or a praise? And how might humanity be beckoned to sing, through the new song that can only be created through you?

 

 

Today's prayer is Psalm 33. May you be a new song to the Lord today:

Sing joyfully to the LORD, you righteous; it is fitting for the upright to praise him.

Praise the LORD with the harp; make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre. Sing to the Lord a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy.

 

For the word of the LORD is right and true; God is faithful in all God does. The LORD loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of God’s unfailing love.

 

By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of God’s mouth. God gathers the waters of the sea into jars and puts the deep into storehouses.

 

Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the people of the world revere the Lord. For God spoke, and it came to be; God commanded, and it stood firm.

 

The LORD foils the plans of the nations; God thwarts the purposes of the peoples. But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of God’s heart through all generations. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people chosen for God’s inheritance. From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from God’s dwelling place God watches all who live on earth -- God who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do. No king is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear God, on those whose hope is in God’s unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

 

We wait in hope for the LORD; God is our help and our shield. In the Lord our hearts rejoice, for we trust in God’s holy name.

 

May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you.