Word of Salvation – Vol. 22 No. 24 – February 1976

 

A New Song For Each New Day

 

Sermon by Rev. H. Pennings, Th Grad on Psalm 98

Psalter Hymnal: 281:,2,8,9; 412; 289; 191 after sermon; 490 doxology

 

A question which Christian people invariably ask of themselves as they seek to be better disciples is, “How should I be acting in this situation?”  This question is not always consciously asked, of course, just as it is true that we don’t always consciously say to ourselves, “I am a Christian – therefore I must be a disciple therefore I’d better think about this today.”  Still, it will hardly be disputed that we don’t always know what to do in a given situation.  We often have problems confronting us – “How must I act?  What would be a responsible thing to do in all of this?”

Granted that it is a good question, for our lives are never straightforward, it still ought never to be a PRIMARY QUESTION.  It ought not, in other words, to be the FIRST QUESTION which we ask in any situation, but the SECOND one.  The first one ought to be this: “WHAT DO I KNOW TODAY?” or “WHAT AM I AWARE OF?”  Many things happen which we don’t understand well.  What do we know about them?  What do we know about ourselves today?  This final question is likely the most important of all “WHAT DO I KNOW ABOUT MYSELF TODAY?”

Let us look at the things which the psalmist knows.  You may have thought it rather odd that there was no Bible reading apart from the reading of the text However, listen to some parts to be quoted from the prophet Isaiah, and compare them with the psalm which is our text.

“Behold, the Lord God comes with might,
 and His arm rules for Him……..
 He will feed His flock like a shepherd,
 He will gather the lambs in His arms (40:10,11).

“The Lord has bared His holy arm before the eyes of all the nations:
 and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (52:10).

“Sing for joy, O heaven, and exult, O earth;
 break forth, O mountains, into singing!
 For the Lord has comforted His people,
 and will have compassion on His afflicted.” (49:13)

“Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it;
 shout, O depths of the earth;
 break forth into singing, O mountains,
 O forest, and every tree in it.
 For the Lord has redeemed Jacob,
 And will be glorified in Israel,” (44:23).

These four passages from Isaiah, and at least five others which the Psalmist quotes from, tell us that he knows one thing above everything else – he knows that the Bible always speaks directly to himself that it is God’s Word FOR HIM!  We can see by the way he quotes from Isaiah that he knows another important thing about the Bible; that he ought not to get bogged down in the things which are not so easy to understand, but to get at the main point which is always very clear.  Even today, we don’t claim to understand everything the prophets wrote to their own generation, though we can thank God that we have a better understanding of these things than the psalmist did.  And yet, with joy in his heart he applies to himself what he DOES UNDERSTAND, and incorporates it into his song of praise.

What he KNOWS ABOUT is the victory of his God; he knows it, because GOD HAS MADE IT KNOWN!  Not through the Scriptures in the sense of ONLY through the Scriptures; he has experienced it himself – he has had a taste of God’s victory in his own life!  God has done marvellous things!  For him!

Because he quotes so much from the prophet Isaiah we gather that the victory of God he refers to mainly has reference to the Israel of Isaiah’s time.  God had promised the church through Isaiah that He would not forget His people, even though He declared strongly that they had to be punished.  And, punish the church He did; because of their idolatry they were banished from the land of promise, and for seventy years lived in exile.  But God promised that there would still be deliverance for them.  We know that it came, too.

What a victory it was!  What a heart-breaking sight to see God’s covenant people so desperately forlorn in a foreign land.  “By the waters of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion.”  Israel, as God’s special nation, always had the eyes of the world on her: it still does, of course, as we well know.  All the surrounding nations remembered for hundreds of years that little Israel had overthrown all the mighty men of gloriously powerful Egypt.  From father to son it would be told…

“That little Israel, watch out!  Watch that little Israel!  When they came to Canaan from Egypt, having first beaten them, they over threw all the other nations.  The walls of Jericho fell tumbling over simply through their blowing some trumpets.  Watch little Israel, my sons beware!!  Remember that little kid killing Goliath the giant!  Remember that mighty army being scattered by a few hundred men!”  Israel was a feared nation.  To have a victory over her was considered to be no mean thing.  So, what a heart-breaking sight to see her people scattered over such a wide area.  The other nations would have imagined, “Surely, this is the end of that pesky nation; we are rid of it forever.” They knew that Israel had been in dire straits before, but never one like this; why, there WAS NO ISRAEL ANYMORE!

We know, because the Bible reveals it to us, that Israel was only so great when it trusted in God and that when Israel turned to idolatry other nations were made great for a certain time.  But when seventy years of exile were at an end, God stretches out His mighty arm.  Things start to happen, one upon the other.  For a start, Israel is back in her own land.  Then the temple is being re- built, and the walls around Jerusalem stand again!  Every nation marvels!  Once again, little Israel has won through – it still survives.

But the psalmist of God knows better.  Not ISRAEL, but ISRAEL’S GOD, has won another victory!

O sing unto the Lord a new song,
for He has done marvellous things.
His right hand and His holy arm,
have gotten Him the victory!
All the ends of the earth have seen
            the victory of our God.

The psalmist knows however that the prophet Isaiah, though he talks about this return from exile in Babylon, has at the heart of his message a much wider and greater victory.  At the heart of every major prophecy he has in mind that a shoot will come forth out of the stump of Jesse.  He will be a wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace.  He will redeem Israel, and all the coast-lands will wait for His government.  Now, WE understand very well that Isaiah’s prophecy concerns Jesus Christ.  But don’t forget that we live after this prophecy has been fulfilled.  The psalmist doesn’t; for him it is still future.  Thus, when he refers to the ends of the earth seeing God’s victory, he sees Jesus Christ’s coming for the first time, and His coming for the second time, ALTOGETHER – that is as far as his understanding goes.  Similarly, when he speaks at the end of the psalm of the judge of the earth coming to judge the people with righteousness and fairness, he just looks at all the promises of God for the future without going into any detail.

Because we live afterwards, we have a more accurate, detailed idea of the history of God’s victories.  We know about Jesus’ birth and His teaching ministry.  We know also that the salvation which He obtained for us was of a different nature than the one experienced, or maybe heard about, by the psalmist.  Salvation always implies salvation FROM SOMETHING TO SOMETHING.  The previous two great periods of salvation, the EXODUS FROM EGYPT and the EXILE’S RETURN, saw Israel being saved from their enemies into the land of promise.  But the salvation we obtain through Jesus Christ is salvation which is eternal – salvation from the mighty power of evil, and salvation into the waiting arms of the God we have grievously offended.

The psalmist certainly understands these things, even if only in part.  He too has a share in Jesus’ blood!  He too is saved by faith only!  He too is a part of God’s eternal victory!

He sees then also a new world, one which we are waiting for also.  At that time, everyone who has ever lived will be able to see the great salvation of God prepared for His people.  All will see and acknowledge the justice of God; not one will be able to say, “God has not dealt fairly with me; His judgement is, in my case, unjust!”  When the psalmist says in vs.3, “All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God,” he is not making an idle boast, for he looks back to the exile, and forward to Jesus Christ.  For him the world was the Middle-east.  For us the world is the whole extent of it, and furthermore, all people throughout its total generations.

This is what the psalmist KNOWS IT IS GOD’S VICTORY!  This is what we have to know as well.  For, once we know about it; that God’s victory encompasses the entire earth and every moment of its history, we will never again ask the question which was asked at the beginning of the sermon: HOW SHOULD I LIVE IN THE WORLD?

Brothers and Sisters – you know of God’s victory for us – we should live it praising God!  We should always act out of complete thankfulness that Jesus Christ has come and performed the miracle of our salvation.  We were dead, but He has made us alive!  Never has anyone stretched out his arm as God stretched it out to pluck us out of the depths of eternal damnation to place us in the position where neither present nor future holds any terror for us?  Only MORE OF THE GREATNESS and of the VICTORY OF OUR GOD.  Every day we should sing a song of gladness songs about the victory God obtained for us through our Saviour long ago but also songs about the strength and length of His arm for us TODAY.  History keeps on being acted out, and we are a part of it.  But, God is in control!  He has done great things for us today.  We ought to keep on singing and composing new songs; songs in line with the blessings we have received from God.  Why don’t we sing, in the circle of the church and of the family, songs which express the thankfulness of our heart for the way He has blessed us – songs of deepest personal gratitude, mentioning SPECIFIC BLESSINGS?  Yes, why not?

The psalmist says that we should break forth into joyous song, and the language he uses might make us think about chicken pox or the measles.  Isn’t it so that we say about these that “they BREAK OUT overnight”?  This is what the psalmist means; an eruption into song because of the gladness in our hearts.  Neither is it only singing that he refers to.  Though we only use the organ during our worship services, the psalmist would have us use every instrument in the world to blast out about God’s victory for us.  The idea is the very best of our singing, and the most melodious music of all our instruments, in order to erupt into a symphony of praise.  Nothing is too grand.  Look at what God has done for us, and look at what is still in store!  Make a joyful noise before the Lord, the king – OUR KING! – our ruler and defender who upholds us every second of every day by His wonderful government.  A new song for every new blessing, says the Lord.

And what unbelievable language he uses when he starts to talk about that part of creation, which we imagine is without ‘life’.  In his efforts to find suitable words to express his feelings towards God the psalmist sees a picture of the hills around about him lifting up their imaginary voices and singing for joy with him.  Just imagine it!  He sees the seven seas of the world roaring with such a roar of approval for what he knows about God that they form a suitable accompaniment for a choir consisting of the whole of humanity!  And imagine this, if you can the streams and rivers of the earth all of a sudden breaking out of their banks, lifting themselves up, and clapping hands!  We might say, “The psalmist must be taking LSD,” but it is not a drug which makes him write this way; it is the glory of God which overwhelms him.

Now, in the future, something like this is actually going to happen.  We do not understand it yet, and the picture of it given us in Scripture is far from clear.  But the apostle Paul in his letter to the Roman church speaks of the WHOLE CREATION, and the hills and the floods are included in this of course, the WHOLE CREATION groaning together waiting for a renewal expected but not yet realized.  Already now there is a grand symphony of groans of expectation, but in the future, when the creation is renewed and all people will acknowledge God’s righteousness, we will witness all things perfectly coordinated to show up its Creator.  Yes, maybe even the THINGS around about us, will, with us, be continually giving thanks.  In that time too the child will play with the deadly death-adder, the lion will feed with the calf, simply out of thanksgiving.

That is the kind of government yet to come.  Yet we know about it – even today, and it is the kind of knowledge which must make us live out of thankfulness, anticipating similar blessings for our church and our family.  We can sing about the blessings of tomorrow, and we can sing about the blessings of yesterday, too.  But what about the blessings of today?  For every new day a new song, please, in accordance with the things you know, says the Lord.

Well, the Scriptures tell us about these things.  We know from them what we have to thank God for, and why our own lives also demonstrate that our God is God who really cares.  It is the kind of care which caused Jesus Christ to suffer hell when we, who deserve it, may already today anticipate the joy of heavenly glory

Though the Scriptures tell us about these things, what they cannot do, and what God WILL NOT DO, is to make us, FORCE US, to sing songs of praise after the example of the psalm.  That is something which we have to learn for ourselves, firstly from the Scriptures, and secondly from everyday experience.  The Bible has many examples of prayers for us to follow, and many examples of songs of praise like the one we have been studying today, but it tells us to pray our own prayers and to sing our own songs IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR HEARTFELT GRATITUDE.  Yes, gratitude is a personal experience, and cannot be forced on anyone.  It would therefore be a useless exercise to end this sermon by demanding from you, “so must you sing God’s praise, brothers and sisters!”

One thing is necessary alone, and then it is up to each person to respond in the way he sees fit – in accordance with his heart, that is!  Please learn again about God’s care for you, yesterday before you were born, tomorrow when you might have passed from this life, and today, for only today, God gives you the opportunity to respond.  Once you have really seen Jesus Christ, and KNOW Him, every new day will be a day for a new song.  For, God’s victory for you will then also be your victory with Him.

Amen.