Psalm 96: A New Song

 

New occasions and new seasons sometimes require new songs. For many of us the most difficult part of the new is letting go or walking away from the old, we celebrate open doors, but we tend to lament closed ones. We find comfort in what we know even if it is that comfort that is keeping us from being more than we have ever been before. Psalm 96 begins with a call, a command for Israel, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song . . .” 

While the text does not tell us the author or the occasion for Psalm 96, history surely does. This psalm is nearly identical to the last half of the song attributed to David in I Chronicles 16, when the ark of God was placed in the tabernacle in Jerusalem. A new song for a new season. 

Israel had been birthed by God from a barren woman and a man too old to have children. When God called Abram, all he wanted to be was a Father, but God wanted so much more for him. Abram was willing to just have a son, to just live up to his name (Abram means “father), to just stop living in the disappointment of being and having less than was expected of him, less than he expected and desired for himself. When we talk about Abram and Sarai, who became Abraham and Sarah, we talk about the miraculous conception and birth of Isaac, we talk about how God established His own nation through a couple that could not even establish their own family, but we often forget to talk about the most important part of the promise, that Abraham’s son that would become God’s nation would be a blessing to all the nations. God did not simply give a promise to Abraham, He gave every nation on earth a promise through Abraham. 

Fast forward to I Chronicles 16. Israel had endured 430 years of slavery in Egypt and then experienced God’s miraculous deliverance and the provision of the land He had promised to Abraham centuries before. They had seen God defeat their enemies and fulfill His promises, but they had also, at times, allowed their hearts to wander, worshipped the idols of the countries around them, suffered God’s discipline but also experienced His forgiveness and restoration. At the end of the Judges period, they had lost the ark of God to the Philistines in battle. The very thing that was their symbol of God’s presence, God’s favor and their identity as God’s people had been lost. This was Israel’s lowest point to date, who were they if they did not have God’s presence? Who were they if they were possibly no longer God’s people? 

The Philistines, thinking that the God of Israel was no more than an idol like their own gods, put the ark of God in the temple of Dagon (the god of the Philistines). The next day, when people went into the “house of Dagon”, the Philistines’ idol was laying face down, in a pose of worship, in front of the ark of God. They put the idol back in its place, but the next day, when they returned to worship, Dagon was once again face down in front of the ark of God, but this time its head and hands had been cut off. I Samuel 5:6 says, “The hand of the LORD was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors . . .” God’s presence was too much for the idolatrous Philistines. Just as He had brought the plagues on Egypt, He brought plagues to the Philistines to show His power and to reveal His glory. Finally, the Philistines relented and sent the ark of God back to Israel where is sat at the house of Abinadab for 20 years while all of Israel lamented. 

During that time God raised up Samuel to be both prophet and judge over Israel and then, when he became an old man, Israel asked for a king, they asked to be like all the other nations, when in fact they were not and could not be like other nations. God raised up Saul as their king, but he chose glory for himself over the glory of God and was killed in battle, along with all three of his sons. David, whom God had promised to be a man after His own heart, became king, first over Judah, while Israel, again, chosen a king for themselves, but then 7 ½ years later, the nation was reunited with David as their king. The tide had turned. David indeed followed after God and God provided blessing to Israel because of it. They defeated their enemies, they gained wealth, power, and security. God’s favor was back upon them, they were once again confident in their identity as the people of God and David decided that it was time to return God’s presence, the arc of God, to the center of their worship. He prepared a tent (tabernacle) in Jerusalem and in I Chronicles 16 the arc was moved, the people were gathered, and the Levites led in a new song. A new song for a new season. 

In Psalm 96, it is not the lyrics that are new. Israel sings of God’s glory, they sing of His majesty, they sing of His holiness, they sing “For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised”. The new song was not what they were singing, but how and to whom they were singing. For centuries Israel had sung the songs of their hearts to God, but now David was calling them to sing the song of God’s heart to the nations. “Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples . . . Ascribe to the LORD, O families (tribes) of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name . . . Say among the nations, ‘The LORD reigns!’” This was a call for Israel to return to their original promise, their origin story if you will, that God would make them a nation so that through them He could bless all nations. Their calling was never to turn inward but always to look outward, it was never to hide themselves away from the world but to shine the beauty of God’s majesty to the world. They were not a nation with priests but a nation of priests, they were the singers of God’s song, the witnesses for His glory. 

The great fulfillment of God’s promise that the children of Abraham, that Israel would bless all nations is still being fulfilled today and will be fulfilled eternally through the Jesus the Messiah. This new song is one to be sung by everyone whose name is written in heaven, whose life has been brought back from death, who has experienced what it is to be born from above. Psalm 107:2 says, “Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story” (NIV). Jesus commanded “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations . . .” All different ways of saying the same thing, “Oh sing to the LORD a new song . . .” Today do our songs, do our lives, do the things we say and the way we live reflect the glory and beauty of Jesus to the nations, to the world, to our neighbors that do not yet know Him? Are we singing our songs or God’s? Are we reaching for blessing or pouring blessing out? Are we demanding the privileges of redemption or appealing to those who have not yet been redeemed? Here is the good news with God, it does not have to be either or because He is always both and! And so, sing the songs of your heart to your heavenly Father who is in the secret place both waiting and listening, but sing the songs of God’s heart to the world that is watching and wandering. When David brought the arc to Jerusalem it was not so that Israel would see God’s presence but so that the nations, the peoples would see God’s presence in Israel, it was not to comfort those who were already near but to call those who were still far off. We have been filled with the Holy Spirit not for our benefit but for God’s mission, not to have the feelings we desire, but to be used for the work that salvation required. Our salvation was the beginning of a new season and it deserves, I even believe it demands a new song, a song that goes beyond ourselves, a song that calls all people to take from what we have been given, a song sung by the blessed believing that we must now be a blessing.