This Week's Focus Passage

Psalm 149:1 ‘Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise in the assembly of his saints.’

This Week’s Focus Passage: Psalm 149:1

‘Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise in the assembly of his saints.’

 

    What has God the Holy Spirit indited for us here in His Word, when He has called us to Sing unto Jehovah a new song? Is this ‘new song,’ to be something of our own devising; from our own brains, rather than something written through the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit? We may read of ‘new songs’ in a small number of places (at least, nine) in the Word of God. Two such places are found in the very last book of our Bibles, in Revelation 5:9, and 14:2-3, as follows:

    And when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sing A NEW SONG, saying,

Worthy art thou to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou was slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation, and madest them to be unto our God a kingdom and priests; and they reign upon the earth.—Rev. 5:9.

And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and the voice which I heard was as the voice of harpers harping with their harps: and they sing as it were A NEW SONG before the throne, and before the four living creatures and the elders: and no man could learn the song save the hundred and forty and four thousand, even they that had been purchases out of the earth.—14:2.

The fact that these heavenly singers both ‘fell down before the LAMB,’ and that they speak of Him having purchased ‘unto God with thy blood men of every tribe,’ etc. informs us that they are singing these NEW SONGS unto One who has saved them.

    One has well written of this reality, saying, that, “The new salvation gives a new heart, and a new heart gives a new song.—The time will come when all who once would not, from the heart, bow the knee before the Lord, must bow it with anguish. And the Lion will rend those who would not follow the Lamb.”

    And, John Gill, has said, on Psalm 149:1, “Praise ye Jehovah, etc.] Or Hallelujah; the title of the psalm, according to many. Sing unto Jehovah a new song; for a new mercy received, a new victory obtained, or a new salvation wrought; more particularly the new song of redeeming grace through Jesus Christ, the song of the Lamb, in distinction from the old song of Moses and the children of Israel at the Red Sea, on account of their deliverance, which was typical of salvation by Christ, the oldest, being the first song we read of; but this is a new one, which none but the redeemed of the Lamb can sing; a song suited to Gospel times, in which all things are new, a new church-state, new ordinances, a new covenant, and a new and living way unto the holiest of all; a song proper for renewed persons to sing, who have new favors continually to bless and praise the Lord for. And his praise in the congregation of saints; such who are partakers of the blessings of divine goodness; are separated and distinguished from others by the grace of God; are sanctified and brought into a Gospel church-state; and who gather and assemble together to worship God, and attend upon him in his word and ordinances: and in such assemblies the praises of God are to be sung: which being done socially, the saints are assisting to one another in this service; and it is done with greater solemnity, and is more to the public honor and glory of God; thus Gospel-churches are called upon to sing the praises of God among themselves, Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16, and have Christ for an example going before them, Psalm 22:25.”      

Gill references, I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the assembly will I praise thee.—Psalm 22:22; see Hebrews 2:12. Jesus, our Great Precentor, we believe, will one grand day be leading our singing of praise to our God, even as we may suppose He did after the Passover meal with His disciples; that which we may surely receive as His ordaining the Lord’s Table for His people today. 

Sing unto him a new song; play skillfully with a loud noise.—Psalm 33:3.

And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it and fear, and shall trust in Jehovah.—Psalm 40:3.

Oh sing unto Jehovah a new song: Sing unto Jehovah, all the earth. Sing unto Jehovah. Bless his name; Show forth his salvation from day to day. —Psalm 96:1-2.

Oh sing unto Jehovah a new song; For he hath done marvelous things: His right hand, and his holy arm, hath wrought salvation for him.—Psalm 98:1.

I will sing a new song unto thee, O God: Upon a psaltery of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.—Psalm 144:9.

Praise ye Jehovah, Sing unto Jehovah a new song, And his praise in the assembly of the saints.—Psalm 149:1.

And Isaiah had joined the hymn, as it were, Sing unto Jehovah a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth; ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein, the isles, and the inhabitants thereof.—Isaiah 42:10.  

When Paul has uttered those blessed words, recorded for us in 2 Corinthians 5:17, saying, Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; BEHOLD, they are become new. Is not this glorious ejaculation from his heart tantamount to singing unto Jehovah a new song? In his commentary upon 2 Corinthians, Philip Edgcumbe Hughes has cited another writer, James Denney, on this blessed verse, “In its sudden note of triumph,” says Denney, “we feel, as it were, one throb of that glad surprise with which he (Paul) had looked out on the world after God had reconciled him to Himself by His Son.” This response of delight and wonderment cannot fail to be evoked in the hearts of those to whom the miracle of God’s new creation is revealed.”—Hughes.

Recall all the vivid realities that are related to this new song, which all point to this intended ‘new creation,’ of which Paul joyfully has written. Think of Ezekiel 36:26, and it suffices, NEW HEART also will I give you, and a NEW SPIRIT will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh.

We may witness this prophecy in Ezekiel, we may witness the psalmist prophetically singing of its wonder, we may witness those in the last book of the Scriptures, also rejoicing in it culmination. The wonders of God’s grace and mercy through Christ are found from the beginning to the end, and are greatly sufficient, without any other thing needing to be added to cause us to, every day, Sing unto Jehovah a new song. Elihu, in his response to Job, recorded in Job 32:19, sums up very well just what our response to the grace bestowed upon us, and all because of the BLOOD OF THE LAMB OF GOD SLAIN FROM THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD, when he has concluded his remonstrance before Job, by saying, as something of a finale:

        Behold, my breast is as wine which hath no vent; Like new wine-    skins it is ready to burst.

May this be said of the singing of praise to God through Jesus Christ in our weekly exercises of worship together before God, as well as in each of our homes daily.

David Farmer, elder

Fellowship Bible Church

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