The Old Can Be New

“Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.” (Ps 149:1 AV)

Our church hymnal has about 500 hymns.  Many of these hymns we have sung multiple times.  Some of them we sing rather often.  During my single days, I was part of a singles class whose pastor loved Victory In Jesus.  We must have sung that hymn every other week.  Victory in Jesus was hymn number 223 in our hymnal.  Others were favorites of our church.  Like Amazing Love, or Nothing But the Blood, or Hallelujah For The Cross.  Then I have favorites of my own like When I Survey The Wonderous Cross, or Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus, or The Old Rugged Cross.  These are old songs.  They were written many decades ago.  The reason they have not gotten old, however, is the doctrine contained therein is fresh with every generation that comes to Christ.  An old song can be a new song.  And it can be a new song every day.

As I wrote a day or two ago, I sat and watched a production of F. Handel’s Messiah.  In my much younger Christian years, I wore that album out.  This was before CDs and MP3s.  My copy was on a cassette.  I must have listened to that work at least once a month for almost a decade.  I have to admit, for all that time I enjoyed this work for the music’s sake and the words of each movement.  I was raised on rock-and-roll and Handel’s Messiah is about as far from that satanic music as one can get.  It was like a shower to my soul.  I don’t know what took me so long, but this year the Spirit finally helped me connect the dots in how the different pieces were placed in sequence to tell a story.  The story of redemption, judgment, and glorification becomes evident in the entire work.  I don’t believe in second inspiration, but Handel’s Messiah is perhaps one of those works which can claim a leading of the Holy Spirit in assembling this work.  I must have listened, as I said, hundreds of times.  I went to live productions several times.  The course of our world and what I see for it in the near future made me appreciate this work to a depth I had never understood before.  What changed?  Was the work new?  Was it a new song?  No, the circumstances of life and God’s hand in it refreshed the meaning of those words so it was as if I heard it for the first time.

Paul equates singing to prayer in one of his letters to the Corinthians, in Ephesians, and Colossians.  Singing is indeed a type of communication to one another and ultimately to God.  When we sing we are testifying to the congregation and the LORD all that He is and has done.  That is the difference between modern Christian music and old-fashioned hymns.  The older songs are God and Chris-centered.  The newer stuff is narcissistic and stresses how life and God affect the believer.  When we sing, the words which come from our lips should reflect new blessings or, at the very least, a remembrance of what God has done in a new and refreshing way.  A new song every day does not need new words or a new melody.  All a new song needs is a new, or renewed, appreciation of God and what He means to the soul.  So, do I think in heaven we will be learning a new song each and every day?  Perhaps.  But it does not need to be so.  Do I think that believers need the newest release for the most popular Christian songwriter?  No.  It is not necessarily wrong to enjoy and use new sacred pieces.  But what is more valuable is a new or renewed sense of gratitude and worship as we sing those songs whether they be old or new.  It has always been the heart more than the words.