The Christian Musician: New Year, New Song


If you want references to singing in the Bible, go read the Psalms. It won't take you long to find some!

   "Sing unto Him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise" (Psalm 33:3). (My family's probably going to laugh when they see I included this verse in my blog post. Through my entire musical education, including currently, the summary of the main thing I have been told could well be, "Not so loud!")

   "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 the LORD" (Psalm 40:3).

   A new year.
   A new song.
 
   Fitting, right? But then the question becomes, what should this new song be about?

   Sometimes that's an easy question, and you don't have to be a songwriter to know that. If you've been a Christian for any length of time, you know there are days when the praise, the adoration, the right Christian feelings, just bubble up inside and you have no problem singing!

   Other days, the only song you can sing is, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen."

   Come on, you've been there!

   When I look back over 2018, I see a lot of things to praise the Lord for. I don't have to look very hard. It was a good year for me. But had you asked me last New Year's if 2017 had been a good year, I would have given you a very long pause. And then probably answered with something like, "Well . . . it could have been a lot worse. Yeah, it really wasn't that bad. I have nothing to complain about."

   Yet there were still things to praise the Lord for then. Even though I didn't feel like it. All I had to do was try writing them down, and I didn't have to go very far before I could see God's faithfulness, even in -- and especially in -- the circumstances I didn't like. 

    So you don't know what your new song should be about? Find His goodness to you personally in the old year. And anticipate that His mercies will be new for every morning of 2019 (Lam.3:23). And may our praise to Him -- with our voices, with our instruments, and most importantly, with our lives  -- be a tool that He uses, so that "many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD" (Ps. 40:3b)!

P.S. If you tried to comment on my blog for the last post, I apologize. Blogger is currently only allowing users signed into their Google accounts to comment. I'll keep trying to change this to open it up to everyone.
Location: Onoway, AB T0E 1V0, Canada

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