Blog Archives
A New Song!: Introduction
Introduction:
While we often think of the book of Revelation in terms of God’s judgment being brought upon his enemies, one of the major themes of Revelation is that of worship. In fact, nearly half (24 of 60 uses) of the New Testament uses of the verb proskunew (proskuneo), which means “to worship,” are found in the book of Revelation. It is a book that depicts both proper worship in heaven in the here and now and proper worship in heaven when all of the elect are finally gathered around the throne of Christ.
With that in mind, Revelation is also a book that contains quite a few songs to the glory of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (and especially to the Son for his redeeming work). It is as if the Apostle John can’t help but break out in joyful song as he relates his theophany to us.
In the church today, there are (and I expect will always be) debates surrounding the use of new hymns being used in the church. Some churches even go as far as to exclusively sing the psalms, as God’s inspired songbook. I think that singing the psalms is great! I also think that singing the New Testament songs is a great thing to do (though in the New Testament we are largely only given fragments of the song itself)! And, I think that the inclusion of songs in the New Testament sets a precedent that each generation should always be contributing to the body of hymnody. Yes, that means that some hymns will pass into obscurity as new ones are added, but the best ones will not. I can’t imagine a day when a company will print a hymnal without standards like “Amazing Grace”, “O For a Thousand Tongues,” and “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.”
The key that we have to keep before us is to be careful that the new songs teach good theology. So much of the theology that we learn is from the hymns. Hymns often touch us deeply and stick with us, thus helping to shape the way we think about God and the Bible. One of the great things about the “tried and true” hymns of the faith is that they have been tried and tested by generations as to what they teach. As a generation that is adding new songs to the hymnody of the church, it is our responsibility to weed through the good and bad hymns on the basis of what they teach about our Lord.
Jesus is worth a hundred thousand generations of hymns and more! His glory is beyond the capacity of our language to convey! And once this world passes away, we will have an eternity to try and properly praise his worth. I look forward to that day. But for now, even in our limited capacity, we should be giving our all to the joyful task of that praise.
These two verses contain a fragment of a hymn that John witnessed the angels singing in heaven. As I mentioned above, there is a lot of theology that is contained within our hymnody. I thought it would be useful to look briefly at some of the theology that is taught within this wonderful hymn fragment.
My Mouth Will Declare Your Praise: Psalm 51 (part 16)
“Oh Lord, my lips you will open,
and my mouth will declare your praise.”
(Psalm 51:17 {Psalm 51:15 in English Bibles})
Loved ones, hear these words of David, and hear them well. When it comes to your worship, and what the writer of Hebrews calls your “sacrifice of praise” (Hebrews 13:15), the value and quality of it has nothing to do with the skill that is demonstrated. The value of it lies within the origin of the praise. Is the praise that you give a product of the work of the Holy Spirit in your life, or is it a product of men? You may have the voice of a world-class operatic singer, but if your song is not powered by the movement of the Holy Spirit, you are but a noisy and lifeless instrument. Yet, you may have no more skill than a school-child, but if your praise is lifted up by a sincere heart before the Lord, and is empowered by the Holy Spirit, such a song is considered sweet in the ears of God.
Friends, do not forget who it is that is writing these words—it is David the songwriter. Yet, David understood clearly that the power behind his songs was the working hand of God in his life. It is God who must open our lips so that praise may flow forth. At the same time, sometimes our lips become closed in the wake of great sin, yet David sets these words forth in confidence, knowing that in his repentance, God will restore him in faith and will once again give him a voice to sing God’s praises.
Beloved, do you sing to God? I mean, do you really sing with your whole heart? Are you intimidated because you have difficulty holding a tune? Are you afraid that you will be off-key with the person in the pew next to you? Do you worry what that person will say of your singing behind your back? Beloved, there may be a hundred reasons why you do not sing your praises to God, but there are an infinite number of reasons to praise him with your whole voice! Loved ones, we are a people who have been redeemed from sin and death—how can we spend a moment of our lives not praising God? Yet, if you are one of those who are gifted in voice (something that I am not J), make sure that you are not singing because of the praise of your audience—if you sing thus, it will serve no other purpose. Rather, sing praise that points to God and use your gift to point others heavenward. Lastly, loved ones, praise God both inside and outside of His sanctuary. Praise him when you go to and fro; praise him in your homes and in your cars; praise him in your waking and sleeping—praise him, praise him, praise him in all that you do. Give God the glory, for great things he has done!
To God be the glory, great things he has done!
So loved he the world that he gave us his Son,
Who yielded his life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life-gate that we may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear his voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O Come to the Father through Jesus the Son,
And give him the glory, great things he has done!
-Fanny Crosby
Praise Yahweh–All the Nations!
“Praise Yahweh, all ye nations!
Laud him, all ye tribes!
For his chesed is mighty over us,
and the truth of Yahweh is eternal!
Praise Yahweh!
(Psalm 117:1-2)
How greatly our God blesses his people! How wonderful is our God’s faithfulness throughout the generations! How our God has given us so much more—abundantly more—than we need and deserve! And how our God has shown us grace even in disobedience! Oh, beloved, how we should praise the God of Abram, Isaac, and Jacob who has adopted us as children through his Son, Jesus Christ! But not only should we praise God for his goodness to us, so should the rest of the world! Let not only God’s people praise his glorious name, let all the peoples of the earth praise his name for God has been good to us.
This is a bold statement, and it is one that we often do not think of when we evangelize the nations. We usually speak to them about grace and about the truth of God’s word. We speak to them about Christ and about Him crucified, and we speak about forgiveness. Now all of these things are essential to our witness, but the psalmist presents this as one more thing that is essential—come to a relationship with God through Jesus Christ because God is faithful to his people. And we, of course, are not just talking about any general faithfulness, but we are talking about God’s ds,x, (chesed)—God’s covenantal faithfulness in spite of our covenantal unfaithfulness.
Yet, even if the nations never come to faith, they are to praise God—even laud him—because of God’s faithfulness to us. Why? Because their gods, being of wood, metal, and stone, cannot respond for they are nothing more than the works of craftsmen—how can they respond, for they are deaf and mute! The tribes of the world know nothing about a god being faithful to them—they know nothing of chesed. And as they look to Israel—now toward spiritual Israel—they should rejoice that there is a God in the land who does actually care for his people and who proves himself faithful over and over in spite of his people’s unfaithfulness. It is the principle that it is right to rejoice with your neighbor over your neighbor’s blessings even when you lack. Oh, and let us not forget that for the believer, God’s blessings are meant to be shared as a tool of the gospel.
Oh, beloved, do we really believe these words? Do we really believe that every nation in the world has an obligation to praise God because God has been good to us? Are we bold enough to tell the Muslims and the Hindus, for example, that are persecuting Christians so harshly in many places, that their sin is not simply in their persecution, but their sin is in a failure to worship God. Are we bold enough to tell our unbelieving neighbor, that even though he is not receiving blessings from God, he has an obligation to praise God because God has been good to us. Do not miss the gentile focus of these psalms; they provide an apologetic of God’s grace to his people—a testimony of God’s faithfulness and goodness throughout their history—a sign of our great God’s grace to us, a sinful and rebellious people.
Dear friends, oftentimes, when we think about evangelism, we think about going door to door handing out tracts or using the Evangelism Explosion method of witnessing—and these are good tools. Yet, should we not give strong consideration to the evangelism methods that our Lord gives us in scripture? Should we not also give preeminence to those ways which God communicates in his inerrant word? If this is so, let the words of this psalm sink deeply in your heart. The unbelieving nations are called to praise God because God has been good to his people—to us. Do you live your life in such a way that unbelievers see God’s goodness to you? Is your lifestyle such that causes unbelievers to see and desire what you have that they lack? Beloved, this is the evangelism method of the psalmist—live your life glorying in God in such a way that the world is drawn to join you in worship. Yet, I wonder which is harder for most professing Christians in our culture, to pass out tracts or talk along a memorized script, or to truly and genuinely exalt in worship—exalting in such a way that it shapes every second of their life and every activity of their day. Beloved, that will attract people to Christ, but it demands your life. Are you willing to give it?
All glory laud and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King,
To whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.
Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s name comest,
The King and Blessed One.
-Theodulph of Orleans
He is Worthy!
Oh how important it is for us to worship Jesus! He is worthy of our praise and no one else is. Mohammed was not worthy, Buddha was not worthy, Krishna was not worthy, our governments are not worthy, humanistic teachers are not worthy—no one but Jesus is worthy of our praise and adoration.
Jesus is worthy first because of his perfect character. From the beginning of time, Jesus is and was infinitely perfect in all of his ways. He is God. And for that simple fact, he deserves our worship. Friends, not only is the unbelief of the non-Christian a sin, but the refusal to worship both of the non-believer and of the casual churchgoer is also a sin. Had Jesus never done any work of redemption, he still would have been infinitely worthy of our praise and honor.
Yet, in his work of redemption, how much more worthy is he! He condescended to take on flesh and walk with us. He came to us while we were still rebels against God, wallowing in our sin—and he called us to himself. He did the work of redemption that bridged the infinite gap between a Holy God and a sinful man. He did that for me. And if you are a born-again believer, he did that for you as well. Because he did for me what I could have never done for myself, how much more is he worthy of my praise!
Praise Him! praise Him! Jesus our blessed Redeemer!
Sing, O Earth, his wonderful love proclaim!
Hail him! hail him! highest archangels in glory;
strength and honor give to his holy name!
Like a shepherd, Jesus will guard his children,
in his arms he carries them all day long;
Praise him! praise him! tell of his excellent greatness;
praise him! praise him! ever in joyful song!
–Fanny Crosby
The Preacher's Study 