Psalm 98 starts “O sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things.” Sing to the Lord a new song. New is a scary word for us in the church… Most of us like the tried and true methods of doing things, and the songs from our youth. It is comfortable, like that old pair of jeans that is broken in just right, and fits us in all the right places. New jeans don’t snug with us, or fit quite right yet, they have not been broken in yet, and so they rub us wrong sometimes. Like a new pair of shoes that has the possibility of giving you a blister…
So why does the psalmist say sing a new song, when there is probably a song that would work just as well that is well known to us? Because God is not stale and stuck in the past. He remembers the past, and the promises He has made to His people, but He is not stuck there like we sometimes get. He wants us to stretch out and do things differently. Because sometimes the old comfortable stuff to us just doesn’t connect with those who are looking, and we can not expect them to become like us before they come, because God does not expect us to change before we come to Him, He excepts us as we are…
I can hear some of you saying though what about tradition. And tradition is good, if it is tradition and not traditional… explanation – tradition is that on which and in which we are grounded. It is the basis for our understanding. Traditional is doing something because that is the way we have always done it. If you ever hear, “we haven’t done it that way before…” maybe it is time to think about tradition vs. traditional. Be grounded in the past and remember it, but be like God and looking for the new way to sing and praise and help people understand how much God loves them.
So sing to the Lord a new song!
aSacredRebel 