Scripture clearly commands us to sing, but modern culture has influenced many Christians today to conceive of singing as very man-centered. In this message, Scott Aniol will demonstrate from the Psalms how God ordained singing that will bring glory to Him and form believers into daily worshipers who will glorify God and enjoy Him throughout their lives. 

I'd like to ask you to turn with me in your Bibles to Psalm 96 this morning. Psalm 96. It is a true joy and honor to be back here at this conference this year. This is one of my family's favorite conferences. It is always a joy to gather together for good Christian fellowship and good preaching of God's Word.

I'm very thankful for Scott as well. You will notice that we are good friends and I have never even pulled on his beard so you know that there's something to that. But really I've enjoyed friendship with him over the years. Josh Virgil and I are very thankful for the partnership that we have at G3 Ministries with Church and Family Life. We're looking forward to Scott speaking at our national conference in September and just a joy to be here.

We hope that you will stop by our exhibit there in the back. We'd love to meet you and chat with you and encourage you to look at many of the resources that we have. We've published many books through G3 Press over the last year that you'll want to take advantage of, a 40-day devotional book through Philippians, a wonderful book on Sarah Edwards and her marriage to Jonathan, family worship resources, and then my newest book on the Psalms which is of course directly connected to our topic this morning. It has always been a characteristic of God's people that we are a singing people. This was Paul's admonition when he commanded Christians in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 to sing.

Early Church Father John Chrysostom emphasized the power of singing when he said, nothing so arouses the soul, gives it wings, sets it free from the earth, releases it from the prison of the body, teaches it to love wisdom and to condemn all the things of this life as concordant melody and sacred song." Ambrose of Milan, a fourth century pastor known as the father of Latin, him that he said this, a psalm is the blessing of the people, the praise and glory of God, the joy of liberty, the noise of good cheer, and the echo of gladness." And this emphasis on singing to the glory of God continued then through the Middle Ages and into the Reformation. Martin Luther said, we have put this music to the living and holy Word of God in order to sing praise and honor God in our music. We want the beautiful art of music to be properly used to serve her dear Creator and his Christians. He is thereby praised and honored and we are made better and stronger in faith when his holy word is impressed upon our hearts by sweet music." And then Jonathan Edwards continued this emphasis when he said, the best, most beautiful, most perfect way that we have of expressing a sweet concord of mind to each other to the glory of God is by music.

And yet God's people have also recognized that since music can be abused, we must always look to Scripture to guide us in understanding how we can be sure that we are glorifying God in our music. There are many places in Scripture that give us principles that ought to inform our practice of singing and music, but there is perhaps a no better source of such guidance than in the God-inspired collection of songs in Scripture, the book of Psalms. This is why despite the fact that most Christians in church history have written and enjoyed newly written songs, all Christians have emphasized Old Testament Psalms as the source and standard for all that we sing. These songs have been given to us by God as the supreme source and example and model for music that glorifies God. And so it is through a Psalm this morning that I would like to direct our attention as we seek to answer the question, how can we glorify God in and through our music?

We could look really to any one of the Psalms to help us to understand why we sing and it's the certain principles to guide our singing, but I'd like to direct us in particular to this Psalm, Psalm 96, which poignantly models for us glorifying God in our music. Let's look at this Psalm together. David writes, 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, for great is the Lord and greatly to be praised he is to be feared above all gods for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols but the Lord made this made the heavens 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.

Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar and all that fills it, let the field exalt and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord for he comes for he comes to judge the earth he will judge the world in righteousness and the people's in his faithfulness Psalm 96 was placed by the editors of the Psalms in a series that are united by a common theme and structure. Psalms 92 through 100 are often referred to as Enthronement Psalms since their central message is affirmation of God's kingly reign over all things. And this Psalm in particular is an Enthronement Psalm originally written by King David on the occasion of bringing the Ark of the Covenant to the tabernacle in Jerusalem. Do you remember that story?

You'll recall that the Philistines had captured the Ark years earlier and it was only now during David's reign that he successfully returned the Ark to its proper place in the tabernacle. 1st Chronicles 16 records the service of dedication that Israel held in honor of the event and David appointed musicians to play and sing during the service and verse 7 of 1st Chronicles 16 says, then on that day David first appointed that Thanksgiving be sung to the Lord by Asaph and his brothers. And then in the following verses, verses 8 through 36, we have a record of this song of David and after that dedication service, David then apparently took that song that he had written and rearranged it into a couple of different songs that Israel regularly used in its worship. Portions of David's song from 1st Chronicles 16 appear in Psalm 105, Psalm 106, and the song appears almost verbatim here in Psalm 96. And what's also very interesting and instructive about this Psalm is that the Greek translation of this Psalm indicates that this Psalm was also used at the dedication of the rebuilt temple after the Hebrews returned from Babylonian exile.

Now think with me for a moment about the context of those two events. The dedication of David's tabernacle after the Ark had been returned to Jerusalem, and the dedication of the second temple after the Israelites returned from exile. In both of those cases, it makes sense that this psalm would be used as an expression of praise and glory to God, an affirmation of the sovereign reign of God over all things, particularly over the pagan nations and their gods. The structure of this hymn is often classi... This psalm is often classified as a hymn.

We often think of those as two separate categories but really some of the Psalms that we have are hymns. A hymn is simply a song of praise in response to the nature and works of God. And you can see that clearly in the structure of this hymn. Look with me again at the beginning of Psalm 96. Verses 1 through 3 are calls to sing to the Lord and then verses 4 through 6 describe the reasons we ought to sing to the Lord.

That marks the first stanza of this hymn. A similar pattern is followed in the second stanza beginning in verse 7 and the third stanza beginning in verse 11. In each stanza, this song is an expression of worship, an expression of glory and praise in response to understanding truth about God. And understanding that structure of this psalm will help us to discern how this song glorifies God and indeed how all of our music ought to glorify God. There's no question of course here that Psalm 96 is a call for us to sing to the Lord.

In fact, David emphasizes this fact by repeating the call to sing three times right at the beginning. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless his name. We'll look more in a moment at what this phrase, sing to the Lord a new song means, but first I want you simply to notice the nature of the singing in this Psalm. What is it? What are we doing when we sing to the Lord?

Well, David communicates something of the nature of our singing very clearly and how he develops the ideas of the psalm. The psalm opens with three commands to sing, sing, sing, sing, followed by three verbs, three actions that are set in parallel with the three commands to sing. We find sing sing sing followed directly by bless, tell and declare. You see David is poetically developing what it means to sing with this additional set of three verbs. To sing is to bless the Lord.

To sing is to tell of his salvation. To sing is to declare his glory. In fact, David uses verbs grouped into threes in this psalm a couple of more times to continue to develop what it means to sing to the Lord. What singing to the Lord that glorifies him will be like. Do you see the next grouping of three verbs?

Look at verse 7. We find a scribe, a scribe, a scribe. To sing to the Lord is to ascribe to Him something that He deserves, namely in this psalm, glory and strength. The glory that is due His name. Where is the next grouping of three verbs?

Keep reading in verse 8. Bring an offering, worship the Lord, tremble before him. This is what we do when we sing in a way that brings glory to God. Where's the next grouping of three verbs? Look at verse 11.

In the English we read let, let, and let. The second let at the beginning of verse 11 isn't actually there in the Hebrew so this is another set of three verbs three commands but in this case these commands are not given directly to us but they're given to others in this case the heavens and the earth and the sea and the field, but still we have here a grouping of three verbs, three actions, that explain the nature of the command to sing in a way that brings glory to God. It says here, be glad and rejoice, roar and exalt. You see, David is intentionally giving us these groupings of three verbs to expand and explore the kind of singing that brings glory to God. His use of parallel groupings of three reveals that these are not just separate commands.

He's not just commanding us to sing at the beginning of the psalm and then separately commanding us to bless and tell and declare, etc. As if these are just a list of separate things that we ought to do. No, in expressing these commands in parallel groupings of three, David is developing one central thread of interconnected ideas. Singing that brings glory to him blesses him. Singing that brings glory to him tells of his salvation.

It declares his glory. It ascribes to him the glory and strength that is due his name. We rejoice and we exalt and we express praise to the Lord when we sing in such a way that brings glory to him. In other words, when we sing to the Lord we're not just making music. We're not just doing something pretty or enjoyable.

These verbs in groupings of three reveal that when we sing to the Lord, profound things are taking place. We are expressing profound affections of our hearts to the Lord, joy and exaltation. We are magnifying God's glory and strength. We are proclaiming what he has done. In fact, Singing helps us to express these things and to glorify the Lord in ways that would not be possible if we didn't have music.

We certainly should bless the Lord and thank the Lord and and tell of his salvation in just words. We can and certainly should glorify the Lord and declare his glory with just words alone, but music, singing, helps us to do this in nuanced and expansive ways that words alone cannot. That's the power of singing that glorifies God. But I want you also to notice that these expressions of our hearts through singing, these what we might call emotions or affections, don't exist in a vacuum. They're not for their own sake.

We're not just making music to enjoy music. Rather, singing that glorifies God is a response. It is a response to who God is and what He has done. And again, we can see that just in the structure of this hymn. We find a call to express to the Lord through singing and then reasons for those expressions.

A call to sing and then reasons for singing, another call to sing and then reasons for the singing. In fact, in two of the three stanzas this is also clearly seen with another grouping of three. Look for example at verse four. After the threefold call to sing and the threefold development of what that means, we find in verse 4, for great is the Lord. And then verse 5, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless and then implied in verse 6, for splendor and majesty are before him.

We find here three reasons that we ought to sing, three calls to sing, three descriptions of those songs, and then three reasons for the singing. Look with me down in verse 13. We find the same thing. After the threefold call for the earth and the sea and the field to sing, we find in verse 13, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth, and then again implied, for he will judge the world. Another set of three.

And although we don't find this same grouping of three fours in the second stanza, the second stanza is filled with reasons for singing. Folks, this is important to recognize because this is a central mark of music that glorifies God. A good hymn is not simply an expression of emotion. A good hymn is not even just an expression of emotion directed toward God, but neither is a good hymn just simply a recitation of theological facts. A good hymn contains both expressions of appropriate affection directed toward the Lord and theological reasons for those expressions.

A song that just contains descriptions of emotion can easily devolve into sentimentalism and emotionalism. It's about me and what I feel. I am enjoying the feeling more than enjoying the God I'm supposed to be worshipping. But a song that just would contain statements of theological fact defeats the whole purpose of singing and might lead to dry intellectualism. Music that glorifies God avoids both of those extremes by expressing the hearts affections toward the Lord and the theological reasons for those expressions just like Psalm 96 models for us.

So what then are these reasons that David gives for singing? What are the reasons we sing that bring glory to God? Well first, we sing because God is worthy. He is worthy of the kinds of expressions in this psalm. Why is he worthy?

Well, his very nature and character are worthy. He is great and therefore he deserves praise, verse 4. In fact, the pagan gods are worthless compared to him, verse 5. Splendor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary." Verse 6, it's true, he's worthy of these things. "...glory and strength are due to his name." Verse 8, "...he is righteous and faithful." Verse 13, In other words, God is great, He is majestic, He is glorious and strong, He is righteous and faithful, and therefore He deserves expressions of praise, adoration, fear, trembling, and rejoicing.

That brings him glory. But not only is God's nature and character worthy, He is also worthy because of what He has done. And David lists many of what he calls in verse 3 God's marvelous works in this Psalm. He saved us, verse 2. He made the heavens, verse 5.

He is coming to judge the earth, verse 13. Each of these acts of God deserves our response and so David proclaims the appropriate responses to these works of the Lord. You see, music that glorifies God declares his glory and declares his works because God is glorious. But there's also another profound way that our music ought to glorify God beyond just recounting the worthiness of God, and it's also at the core of the progression of thought in this psalm. According to David, this singing to the Lord, this praising God for our music, is not supposed to just take place in isolated conclaves of God's people.

Rather, according to verse 3, singing is supposed to take place among the nations, among all the peoples. Now why would he say this? I mean isn't it true that singing is only for the redeemed people of God? Isn't it true that only God's people can worship Him? Is it not true that singing is to God and for God?

Well, yes, that is true. Only the redeemed people of God can sing these kinds of things and and the primary audience of these songs is God himself but David commands us to do this among unbelieving people. Why would he do that? Well the reason that we are to sing among the nations is not really stated in this psalm overtly and explicitly, but rather it is expressed by means of the psalm's poetic development in these three stanzas. And by the way, just as a side note, this is also the mark of a good hymn.

A good hymn is not just a loosely connected, disordered smattering of expressions of worship and theological ideas that someone wrote in his garage in five minutes. A good hymn is carefully composed in such a way that its central ideas maybe aren't necessarily stated in an overt on the surface sort of way in simple propositions, but rather they are developed through the course of the hymn poetically, giving it a richness and a depth that is able to express profound deep things about God. So how does this Psalm then develop through the three stanzas? Well, notice that this command in the first stanza to sing among the nations and among the peoples progresses in the second stanza where the command is to ascribe glory to the Lord and that command is given to all the families of the peoples. There's an expansion from a singular family in the first stanza to all the families of the nation ascribing him glory in the second stanza.

It progresses from one singular people of God singing his praises to all the peoples of the earth singing the praises of the Lord. Now the question is how does that happen? Well it happens because as God's people sing to God among the nations, as we bless His name, as we tell of His salvation, as we declare His glory, this serves as a powerful witness to the unbelieving people of the world. It leads them, it leads those unbelieving people to join with us in our praise to the Lord and glory that he deserves. You see, there is nothing more evangelistic than God-centered worship in which his people bless his name, magnify his glory, delight in his splendor, and recount his wondrous works of creation and redemption.

And notice that this kind of singing and worship is a powerful witness without changing what we sing or how we sing in order to attract unbelievers. In fact, this song explicitly calls the pagan gods worthless. That doesn't sound very seeker-sensitive to me. No, what is the greatest witness of the unbelieving world is when we faithfully recite the works of the Lord in our worship, when we respond rightly with our hearts, expressing these things verbally with our singing. Glory to God through our music is profoundly evangelistic.

It's evangelistic without changing the music to appeal to unbelievers that we are trying to evangelize. So according to Psalm 96, music that glorifies God is first a response to God's nature and works. We bless His name, we declare His salvation, we give Him glory because He is worthy of those expressions. And all of these expressions also glorify God by serving as a powerful witness to the unbelieving world. They see our song and then they join with it.

But there's a second way that our music ought to glorify God that I believe is often forgotten, overlooked, or ignored and we see it in this Psalm as well. I want you to notice a couple additional aspects about the way that this Psalm develops. The first is related to what we just saw. The Psalm progresses from God's people singing among the nations in stanza 1 to all the families of the earth ascribing him glory in the second stanza. Now here's a question.

Is that a present reality? Are all the peoples of the earth currently praising God? Well, certainly not. In fact, the call for all people to praise God is even more surprising in this context in which David wrote it, in the context of the of the Old Testament Israelites, because for David to address all the families of the people instead of just one family, the children of Abraham, seems odd. Until We remember that although God did choose one family, He chose Abraham and his descendants as His special chosen people, He also promised to Abraham that through this one family God would bless all the families of the earth.

The Old Testament is filled with prophecies indicating that one day all the nations will come to worship God. But even now that's not currently happening. God's focus in this age has spread beyond just Israel to the Gentiles but even now all the families of the people are not praising God. All the families of the earth are not yet being blessed. So when will that happen?

Well before we answer that question consider how David further develops the Psalm in the third stanza. He's moved from Israel praising God among the nations to all the nations of the earth praising God in stanza 2. Where does he move in stanza 3, beginning in verse 11? Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar and all that fills it, let the field exalt and everything in it, then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy. This is now not just Israel praising the Lord or even all the nations of the earth praising the Lord, this is the earth itself praising God.

Is that currently happening now? Well, there is certainly a sense in which even now the heavens and the earth are displaying the glory of God and magnifying His greatness in that sense. But the heavens are not glad. The earth is not rejoicing yet. The fields are not exalting.

The forests are not singing for joy before the Lord, Scripture tells us that creation is currently groaning as a result of the curse. You see, like the reality of all the families of the people praising God, All the heavens and the earth praising God is something that is yet to come. So when will that take place? Well keep reading in verse 13. For he comes.

In other words, the gladness of the heavens and the rejoicing of the earth and the roaring of the sea and the exalting of the field and the singing of the trees, all of these things are in a response to the coming of the Lord. Keep reading. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. This is referring to the second coming of the Messiah.

What's interesting about this phrase, He comes, is that it is not in the future tense in the Hebrew here. It's referring to the yet to come judgment of the Messiah, But it is not in the future tense, it is in the perfect tense, which is used to describe actions that have already happened in the past or are considered as if they have already happened. Well, for David in the Hebrews, singing Psalm 96 in its original context, any sort of coming of the Messiah had not yet happened and yet here they are singing in a sense as if it's already a done deal. Remember a good hymn like this Psalm expresses affections to the Lord in response to who God is and what he has done and yet here they are responding to something that has not yet happened as if it has already happened. And even for us, we who live on this side of the first coming of Christ into the world, the coming described here at the end of Psalm 96 is the second coming.

It's still future. Christ did not judge the world when he came the first time. That will help happen when he comes again. So what's the point here? The point is that the reality of all the families of the people ascribing glory to the Lord is future.

And the reality of all creation perfectly praising and rejoicing in the Lord is future. These things will not come to pass until the Lord comes again to judge the world which again is future. Now here's the thing, it makes sense to sing in response to things that God has done in the past, right? God made the heavens. God saved us.

It makes sense to sing praise to him in response to those realities, and it makes sense to sing in response to present realities. God is great. God is majestic. God is glorious and strong. He is righteous and faithful, and so it makes sense to sing in response to those things.

But why would we sing in response to things that have not yet taken place as if they have already happened like this Psalm does. Well, the answer to that question reveals the second important way that our music ought to glorify God. The first reason is that singing is an expression. Our hearts respond to past and present realities about God's nature and works and singing gives us voice to express our hearts to God as a response. That glorifies God.

But the second reason that we sing, which is highlighted when we respond to something that has not yet taken place, is that singing forms us. In other words, when we sing in response to something that has not yet happened, we are in a sense acting out that future reality as if it has already happened so that will be formed by it. Again, response to something implies that you've already experienced it. The experience usually comes first, that experience forms us, and then out of what has been formed in us through that experience we respond. For example, I remember watching the horrors of 9-11 as they were happening that day.

I experienced them and that experience shaped me. It shaped my feelings about this country. It shaped my feelings about rescue personnel, it shaped my feelings about terrorists, and now I respond toward all of those things in certain ways as a result of my experience. We have these sorts of experiences all the time, do we not? But how can we respond to something that we have not yet experienced?

We've not yet experienced all the nations ascribing glory to the Lord or all the earth singing for joy. We've not yet experienced the Lord coming to judge the earth. How can David expect us to respond to those things? Well this is actually one of the great powers of art. Art, like a song, is a way of creating an experience that maybe we haven't actually experienced for ourselves in such a way that we can be formed by it as if we have experienced it.

Let me give you an example. How many of you have read John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress? Probably most of us. Well, what is the value of a fictional story about a man traveling toward a celestial city. What's the value of that?

We read about Christian's journey, one in which he's formed by various experiences along the way, but they're all made up. None of us have experienced those sorts of things. Why did Bunyan do that? What's the value of reading that story? Well, Bunyan created an allegory of salvation and the Christian life in such a way that as we walk along the journey with Christian we can be formed by his journey as if we are experiencing it for ourselves.

That's the power of art. That's the power of all art. Literature, drama, painting, poetry, music. They don't just allow us to express what we have already personally experienced. They also shape our responses through portraying powerfully formative realities that maybe we haven't actually experienced for ourselves.

So this is why we would sing a poem about a future reality, singing it as if it is happening right now. By singing about all the families of the people praising God and all of creation praising God and the Lord coming to judge the earth in righteousness and faithfulness, our hearts are shaped as if we are there right now, as if we are experiencing those realities right now it's more than just an expression of hope that these things will happen through the art we are making the future momentarily present so that it can form us to glorify God as we ought So this is why good songs that glorify God don't just express things like joy and praise and thanksgiving and adoration, they also give the reasons because by giving the reasons and by singing those reasons we are further formed by them over and over and over again through the art. You see Christians today I think often recognize the expressive power of singing and worship. We know that songs give us a way to express our express our hearts to God in a way that glorifies Him. But Christians often fail to recognize the formative power of song.

Songs both express and form and so this is why we need to be careful to evaluate our singing, to evaluate our music, to make sure that what we are expressing is an accurate and faithful representation of Scripture that glorifies God and we need to evaluate our music to make sure that how our music is forming our hearts is faithful to glorifying God as we ought. We ought to choose music not just because it gives us good ways to express what is already in our hearts. We ought to choose good music that forms our hearts, that matures them, that grows them, that expands them in ways that would not necessarily happen naturally. Good music doesn't just glorify God by helping us express what is already in our hearts. Good music actually forms our hearts so that we can glorify God in ways that we would not otherwise.

It sanctifies us. This is what this psalm is doing. This is what all good songs do. We are singing about past, present, and future realities such that they all become present through the art shaping our hearts to respond with affections to the Lord that truly glorify him as we ought. This Psalm does that by recounting all of these things, but it also forms us through the use of the artistic elements of the psalm.

Remember, this is not just a prose narrative. This is a work of art. This is a poem. It's meant to be sung. And there are all sorts of poetic devices in this psalm that help to form our hearts to glorify God.

I wish we had time to go through them all. I delve into that much more deeply in my new book. But one of them deserves special attention. One of the most common poetic devices in Hebrew poetry is parallelism. Someone once said that with Hebrew poetry, words don't rhyme, lines rhyme.

And in this psalm, the parallel lines are mostly grouped in pairs of two. We call this bicolons. Look at the opening of the song, for example. Sing to the Lord a new song. Here's the parallel line.

Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord bless his name, here's the parallel line, tell of his salvation from day to day. And the whole Psalm progresses in this manner with bi-colons, parallel lines in pairs, until we arrive at verse 10, which we haven't looked at yet. Verse 10 is not a bicolon like all of the other parallel lines in this psalm. Verse 10 is a tricolon.

It's a group of three lines in parallel. Look at the verse. Say among the nations the Lord reigns, yet yes the world is established it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. The second and third parallel lines further describe and expand the reality of what it means in that first line when it says, the Lord reigns.

Now why would David do this? Why would he compose a poem entirely entirely comprised of bicolons only to toss in a tricolon in verse 10? Was that an accident? Hardly. David, like all of the authors of the Psalms, was an accomplished poet.

He knew what he was doing. He composed these lines as a tricolon intentionally. Why? Because it sets apart these three lines from the rest of the poem. This is David's poetic way to highlight and bold and underline and draw stars around these lines.

These are the central key lines of the whole poem. These lines really are the only expression of the content of our song. And what is the content of a song that glorifies God? The content is the Lord reigns. Remember Psalm 96 was included in a collection of enthronement Psalms which emphasized the kingly reign of the Lord.

Again, David wrote this Psalm to dedicate the new tabernacle once the Ark had been brought back to Jerusalem, had been recovered from the pagan territory where the Philistines, you remember, put the Ark in the in the temple of Dagon and do you remember what happened? They woke up the next day and Dagon was flat on his face. All the gods of the people are worthless idols. The Lord reigns. The Hebrews later used this psalm of the dedication of the Second Temple after they had had come back from Babylonian exile where God saved them from captivity, once again displaying Yahweh's superiority over the gods of the pagans, tell of his salvation from day to day, the Lord reigns.

The whole context and purpose of this psalm is encapsulated in that central tri-colon of verse 10 and David masterfully uses poetry to ensure that we will not miss the point. The Lord reigns. And even though all of the realities expressed in this Psalm have not fully come to pass, David sang this song and the Hebrews sang this song after they returned from exile and we sing this Psalm today as if all of these things have already happened, as if they are a present reality. Why? So that it shapes us and forms us into a people who live in light of that reality, so that it shapes our hearts to sing and glorify God, so that it causes us to sing, so that it causes us to sing a new song.

And that brings us full circle as we close right to the opening lines of the psalm. Oh sing to the Lord a new song. What is this new song? Well, it's directly connected to the central message of this of this song. This phrase new Psalm appears five other times in the Psalms and one other time in Isaiah and they're all very similar to this, a call to sing to the Lord a new song.

But the phrase also appears two times in the New Testament, both in the book of Revelation when Jesus the Lord comes to judge the earth. The first is in Revelation chapter 5, John's vision of heavenly worship when the Lord comes. Chapter 4 described the angels surrounding the throne but in chapter 5 John sees the lion of the tribe of Judah the root of Jesse a lamb standing as though it had been slain. John sees the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the only one worthy of opening the scroll that would establish his right to rule the kingdom of God. And in response to this revelation, verse 9 tells us that the angels and the elders sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seal for you were slain and by your blood you ransom people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth." You see, this new song that glorifies God is a song in direct response to the finished work of Christ on the cross and His worthiness to rule when He comes again.

It is a song of the redeemed. In fact, when the song appears again in Revelation 14, it says in verse 3 that no one can learn the song except those who had been redeemed from the earth. You see, a new song that glorifies God is a song that rises out of the heart of one who has experienced the Lord's salvation, who has experienced the goodness and greatness of God, and even more specifically, one who sings, one who responds, one who worships as if the Lord already reigns because he does. It is as if he has already come to judge the world, as if all the families of the people are already ascribing to the Lord the glory due his name as if the very heavens and earth and sea and field and trees are already singing before the Lord because folks it's a done deal. A new song that truly glorifies God is a song that expresses right affections toward God in response to who He is and what He has done.

Music that glorifies God blesses His name. It tells of his salvation from day to day. It declares his glory among the nations. Music that glorifies God shapes and forms us, molding our minds and our hearts such that we cannot help but believe and affirm and sing the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established.

It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Amen.