Christ: The New Song (Psalm 98) – The Songs of Advent

Again, it is an exciting thing that this is our first Christmas together, although it is obviously not

Christmas Eve or Christmas day, but we do love and celebrate the ways in which the church calendar, that liturgical calendar helps us to rest in and rejoice in these seasons a little bit longer than maybe we're used to.

We surely want to be a people who receive these 12 days of Christmas and use them to meditate upon the things of God and the great gifts that he's given us in his son.

But this day, this afternoon, we are kind of wrapping up our Songs of Advent series with more of a

Christ, obviously Christ -centered and forward -looking word. Music has a way of marking our lives, and we remember where we were when we first heard particular songs often.

We associate melodies with moments, right? Certain songs that you only hear at weddings or funerals or graduations very often, or that you listen to in the midst of celebration or heartbreak.

Songs become, in a way, the soundtrack of our existence, and the emotions that they carry can follow us through the years.

A few of you could attest to this, and in my case, if you've been to my house after dinner and three doors down or Creed comes on through the

Alexa, conversation is over at that point. Singing has begun, and the feels have begun.

Jeremy knows. But this principle shouldn't surprise us, right? We're made in the image of God, right?

Our God is a God who sings. Zephaniah 3 .17 tells us that the Lord, our God, rejoices over us with singing.

The God who spoke light into existence, who breathed life into dust, who commands the morning and sets boundaries for the sea, this

God sings according to Scripture, and we bear His image, and so we sing too.

Again, over this Advent season, we've been walking through some of these songs from Luke chapter one and two, the great hymns that marked that arrival of our

Savior. We heard Mary's Magnificat at the faith -filled refrain, glorifying her God and Savior.

Zacharias' Benedictus, that priestly song of covenant fulfillment. We listened to the angels' Gloria, that heavenly anthem announcing peace on earth and glory to God in the highest.

And we stood with Simeon singing his Nunc dimittis, that age -saint song of satisfaction at seeing salvation.

And I hope that each of these songs has taught us something about how God's people respond when

God acts in history. But today, again, on this first Sunday of Christmas, or after Christmas, excuse me, we turn to a different song, or rather, it's really a focus on a biblical theme that ties all of these songs together.

Today, we come to, among many options, Psalm 96 is one of them, that's the one in your program, but really today we're focused on Psalm 98 and its bold, bracing call to sing to the

Lord a new song. So if you would, hear the word of the Lord this day from Psalm 98.

O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory.

The Lord hath made known his salvation, his righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy, and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our

God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise.

Sing unto the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the voice of a psalm. With trumpets and sounds of cornet, make a joyful noise before the

Lord, the King. Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.

Let the floods clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness, shall he judge the world and the people with equity.

Thus ends the reading of God's holy word. May he write it on our hearts by faith. Let us pray.

Father, again, we thank you for your word. We ask this day that you would help us in our time that we have to receive what it is that you, by the ministry of your spirit to us,

Lord, through the preaching of your word, the things that you would have for us, Lord, give us faith to receive, Lord, give us strength and perseverance to respond with joy, with wisdom,

Lord, but also with great authority and hope in the things that you are doing and the things to come.

We ask these things in Jesus' name, and amen. Amen. So we listen again, if you would, to verses one through three, as the psalmist begins in the psalm.

He says, oh, sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm hath gotten him the victory.

The Lord hath made known his salvation. His righteousness hath he openly showed in the sight of the heathen.

He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our

God. This is a new song, right? It's not another song, not just one more song, but a new song.

And so the question, I think, should arrest us immediately. Why new, right? What makes this song new?

Is it simply that it's recent, right? That it's freshly composed? It's the latest release? No, right?

That's far too simple. Calvin helps us here. He insists that new in scripture does not mean novel or contemporary, but rather it means excellent, extraordinary, surpassing.

It means a song that rises to meet the magnitude of what God has done. He writes, by new, he means an excellent, beautiful, and elegant song, not one that is ordinary or common, but a song which may arouse men's admiration as relating to the extraordinary grace of God, of which there had never been so remarkable an example.

In this sense, it is also used in Psalm 33, in verse three, and in Psalm 96, as we read earlier at the beginning of our service.

New here, or as new is here, contrasted with what is ordinary. And thus, the psalmist extols the infinite mercy of God, which was to be revealed in Christ, and which ought therefore to be celebrated and sung with the highest praises.

Hence, we infer that each of us ought to be the more zealous in proclaiming the praises of God in proportion to the greater number of favors which we have received.

It is indeed the duty of all men to sing praise to God, for there is no person who is not bound to it by the strongest obligations.

But more lofty praises ought to proceed from those on whom more valuable gifts have been bestowed.

Now, since God has laid open the foundation of all blessings in Christ and has displayed all spiritual riches, we need not wonder if he demand that we offer to him an unwanted and excellent sacrifice of praise.

That is the new song, right? If you have received, if you have heard that new song that is Jesus Christ, then you owe unto

God a more excellent sacrifice of praise. Now, I won't bury the lead on this one for this week.

This new song that we sing is the praises of Jesus Christ. It is the son of God sent of the father to redeem for himself a bride to the church.

He is the marvelous thing in verse one that the psalmist refers to. He is the right hand, the holy arm who hath gotten the victory.

And what's more, he is the salvation of God's elect made known to the whole world. He is the new song, the more excellent, beautiful and elegant song that the scripture calls us to sing in faith.

You see, ordinary mercies call for ordinary thanksgiving. Daily bread deserves daily praise.

But when God does something marvelous, when he breaks into history in a way that shatters expectations and rewrites the future, ordinary songs won't do.

You need a new song, you need a song equal to the wonder. And brothers and sisters, Christmas is precisely that kind of moment.

The arrival of Christ in human flesh is the marvelous thing that warrants a song unlike any sung before.

And this new song in particular calls us to sing it in four parts. This is gonna be the outline for the sermon.

First, this new song celebrates a new birth, the incarnation. Second, the new song summons a new people.

Third, this new song requires a new heart. And fourth and finally, this new song anticipates a new creation.

So first, the new birth, right? For he hath done marvelous things.

That's the psalmist's cry in verse one. Marvelous things, singular, incredible, extraordinary things.

When Psalm 98 was first sung in Israel, it celebrated God's mighty acts of deliverance, right?

Could be referring to the exodus or the return from the exile or David's victories over Israel's enemies.

But like so many psalms, this one is pregnant with messianic promise. It points beyond its immediate context to a greater deliverance, a more marvelous work.

And what could be more marvelous than this, right? That the eternal son of God, through whom all things were made, takes on human flesh in the womb of a virgin.

All right, what could be more extraordinary than the Almighty entering his creation, not as a conquering warrior, but as a helpless babe?

And we observe in verse one that God procures salvation with his own right hand, his holy arm, not through secondary causes, not through ordinary means even, but by his own direct miraculous intervention.

It isn't that precisely, again, what we celebrate at Christmas, that God himself in the person of his son secures our salvation, not from a distance, but by coming near, by taking our nature upon himself.

We consider the sheer marvel of it, right? That in Bethlehem's stable, the infinite becomes finite.

The eternal enters time. The word becomes flesh. The light of the world opens infant eyes in darkness.

The one who needs nothing becomes the one who needs everything. Mother's milk, human care, protection from Herod's rage.

And it's no ordinary birth announcement that we see in these early parts of the gospel. Heaven itself cannot keep silent, right?

Angels break through the veil between worlds to sing glory to God in the highest. Shepherds summoned by angels to witness the inbreaking of glory into a world grown cold and hard.

And the very cosmos respond to what is happening in that stable, right? We, stars in the sky, because what is happening is truly marvelous, right?

It's God keeping his covenant promises in a way that exceeds all expectation. And we see in Isaiah 42, actually very, this very thing kind of in view as it pertains to the new song.

The prophet introduces the servant of the Lord with this in view, with us, with pointing us to the fact that this is a new thing coming.

Again, looking at verses one through 10, and in verse 10, we'll see Isaiah references specifically the new song.

It says, behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I put my spirit upon him.

He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not cry nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.

A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth, and the aisles shall wait for his law.

Thus saith God the Lord, he hath created the heavens and stretched them out. He hath spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it.

He that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein. I the

Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the

Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and then that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

Behold, the former things are come to pass and new things do I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

In verse 10, sing unto the Lord a new song in his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea and all that is therein.

The isles and the inhabitants thereof. You wanna know why the song must be new?

Because this is new, right? It was promised long ago. It's the fulfillment of ancient covenant, but the manner of fulfillment, this is beyond what even the prophets fully grasped.

Peter tells us that they searched and inquired carefully, trying to understand what the spirit was pointing toward, but they couldn't fully grasp it.

But now we see it, we hold it, and we sing it. And the new song is what celebrates this marvel that God has come down,

Emmanuel, God with us, not God watching from heaven, right? Not God even sending an angel with instructions,

God with us, as one of us, bearing our nature in a union that will never be undone, right?

From this moment of the incarnation forward, human nature is forever joined to deity in the person of Jesus Christ.

If that doesn't make you wanna sing a new song, then a song of wonder, a song of praise, of astonished gratitude, then we haven't fully grasped what happened at Christmas, right, what

God did for his people to bring us back unto himself. This is the wonder of the incarnation, and it's surely worthy of a more excellent song than even the saints of old could have predicted, because they couldn't, they didn't see it, they didn't fully grasp what was coming.

This is why the scripture continually points us to something new that was coming for the people of God, a new song.

Next, we see that this new song summons a new people, right? So the new song, it comes in an incredible, miraculous birth in the incarnation, and it's in a new birth, and now we see it summons a new people.

We notice where the psalm goes at verse three, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our

God. This is important, right? I mean, for us, we talk about this often, but it's important for us to bear these things in mind, that the new song isn't just for a select few, right?

It's not the private property of one nation, one tribe, one ethnic group. The psalm calls for a cosmic chorus.

Looking at verses four through eight, make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth, make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise.

Sing unto the Lord with a harp, with a harp and the voice of a psalm, with trumpets and sound of cornet, make a joyful noise before the

Lord, the King. Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein, let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together before the

Lord. All the earth, right? The sea, the rivers, the mountains, all creation is summoned to join the song.

And why? Because this salvation is not tribally bound, right? It's not limited to Israel alone.

Again, Calvin commenting on Psalm 96, he says, he calls all men to himself without a single exception, right?

The gospel invitation is cosmic in scope. Christ came not to save Jews only, but to ransom people from every tribe and language and people and nation.

And we see the first hints of this even in the Christmas narrative, right? The angels appear first to Jewish shepherds, fitting given that salvation is from the

Jews, but soon magi arrive from the East, Gentiles following a star to worship the newborn

King. The partition wall that separated Jew and Gentile, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2 .14

is torn down in Christ. The dividing line is erased and that begins at Christmas.

And this is the radical, I hesitate to use the word, but the radical inclusivity of the gospel.

Not the false inclusivity of our age, right? That denies sin and judgment, but the true inclusivity that says

Christ's blood is sufficient for all who come to him in repentance and faith, regardless of background, ethnicity, or past.

Psalm 96 .1 commands us, sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. And Psalm 98 .3

tells us the reason why. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

This is our post -millennial hope at its finest, right? We're not waiting for Christ to rescue a remnant out of a world destined for destruction.

And we're watching Christ claim what is his, all the earth. We're watching the gospel advance nation by nation, generation by generation, until the knowledge of the

Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea. And that work began at Christmas.

That baby in Bethlehem is the King before whom every knee will bow. The Lord whose praise will be sung in every language.

The Savior whose name will be known from sunrise to sunset. And so we have to ask ourselves, do you grasp the magnitude of what you're a part of?

That sitting here today, that you're part of that cosmic chorus, that you're joining a song that began with angels in Judean hills and will crescendo with the redeemed from every nation standing before the throne.

That you're part of a global movement of God's grace that cannot be stopped, will not be thwarted, and must not be taken for granted.

The new song summons a new people, Gentiles and Jews, slaves and free, men and women, young and old.

And it promises that the mission will succeed, that Christ will see the travail of his soul and he will be satisfied, that the nations will stream to his holy mountain, that the earth will be filled with his glory, it will be filled with his song, and he has commissioned his church to sing it to them.

So we must hear again the call of this new song, to be people of the new birth, people of Christ, the people who are summoned from all over the world to be the new people of God the church.

And third, we see that this new song requires a new heart, requires regeneration. And this is where I think it's important that we each take our time to pause and examine ourselves, right?

It's where the sharp edge of truth has to cut through the sentimentality of Christmas and the season.

Because the new song, as glorious as it is, as cosmic as its scope may be, cannot be sung by just anyone, right?

The song cannot be sung by anyone but by renewed men. It's not with, or excuse me, it is not the melody which proceeds from the mouth that is here intended, right?

So much as the deepest feelings of the heart, right? Not just anybody can sing this new song, but only those who are renewed, regenerated in Christ.

You can attend Christmas services every year. You can be there from Christmas Eve service, midnight service,

Christmas morning service, all those things, and you can go every single day if you wanted to, right? You can sing joy to the world, hark the herald angels sing with gusto.

You can appreciate the beauty of candlelight services and the warmth of family gatherings, but if your heart hasn't been renewed by the spirit of God, if you haven't personally believed on Christ as your savior and Lord, then you're not truly singing the new song.

You're just making religious noise. The new song requires regeneration.

It requires a new heart. In Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26, we read,

I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

Without this work of the spirit, the Christmas story remains an interesting historical event, right?

It's a nice tradition, perhaps even a touching tale, but it doesn't become your song until Christ becomes your savior.

Looking at Psalm 40 in verse three, another new song passage. We read, he put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our

God. We notice the grammar of it, that God puts the song in your mouth.

It's not something that you work up or that you manufacture. It's not a decision that you make to be more cheerful about religion.

It's a gift given by God himself in response to personal deliverance.

And that verse continues in Psalm 40, many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord. The new song becomes a testimony, right?

It draws others to faith, but you can only testify to what you've experienced. You can only sing of salvation if you have been saved.

And here's where the Christmas narrative really confronts us, I think, with a stark choice, that we consider the contrast between Herod and the shepherds.

Both heard about the birth of the King of the Jews, and Herod responded with murderous rage, right?

Slaughtering innocent children in a desperate attempt to eliminate a perceived threat. And the shepherds, as we looked at a few weeks ago, they respond with joyful praise, and they return to their flocks glorifying and praising

God for all that they had heard and seen. And what made the difference for these two?

Was it their education, the work that they did, who their parents were, how they were raised?

The shepherds received the message, ultimately, the difference is this, they received the message by faith, right?

Their hearts were opened to hear the angels' announcement as good news of great joy. Herod's heart remained hard, seeing

Christ only as a rival to be destroyed. And so again, we need to ask ourselves, what is your heart's response to Christ?

This Christmas, is he a threat to your autonomy, to your plans, your flesh and its impulses, or is he your savior, your joy?

Is he your reason to sing? But here's the sobering truth of it, that religious ceremony without heart renewal is empty noise, it's a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal, as Paul says.

God isn't impressed by external worship that isn't matched by internal reality. He told

Israel through Isaiah that this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, right?

The new song requires a new heart, and new hearts are the gift of God's sovereign grace, you cannot manufacture them, you cannot work them up, you can only receive them.

If you're here today and you realize that your heart is cold toward Christ, that Christmas is just tradition and obligation rather than celebration and joy, then we cry out to God for mercy, we ask him to do what only he can do, to give you a new heart, to put his spirit within you, open your eyes to see the beauty and worth of Jesus Christ, and if you doubt whether he could do this for you, you need only look to the manger in Bethlehem that if God could enter the world in human flesh through the womb of a virgin, if he is able and willing to go to that extent to not even spare his own son, then surely he is able to bring you to himself as you receive his promises by faith.

And if you're here today and you know the joy of salvation, if Christ is precious to you, if his grace has transformed your life, then sing, right, we sing with all your heart, sing the new song, not only out of duty, but out of delight, not because you must, but because you can't help it, because he has delighted to bring you into the song as the means through which he will bring it to the nations.

We need the direction and influence of the spirit to sing this song rightly. We need supernatural enablement to respond to supernatural grace.

And thank God that is exactly what he has provided to all who are in Christ. The same spirit who hovered over the waters at creation, the same spirit who overshadowed

Mary at the incarnation, the same spirit who raised Christ from the dead, that spirit dwells in you if you belong to Christ and he produces in you fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self -control, and praise.

The new song calls us unto a new life, right? We are reborn, just as Christ was born into the world, we are born again in him.

We are the new people of God. We are the people of God, the church. And he has worked this in us by his spirit, supernaturally, not worked up of ourselves, but given freely by him.

And now fourth and finally, we see that this new song anticipates a new creation.

The song doesn't stop with personal salvation or even global mission. It points us forward to cosmic renewal.

Listen again to verses seven through nine. Let the sea roar in the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein.

Let the floods clap their hands, let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth with righteousness, shall he judge the world and the people with equity.

The psalmist personifies all creation as joining in worship. Rivers clap, mountains sing, the sea roars, not in chaos, but in praise.

And why? Because the Lord is coming to judge the earth. Now in our day, judgment is almost always heard as bad news.

But here it's the reason for celebration. And why? Because God's judgment means setting things right.

It means justice for the oppressed, vindication for the righteous, correction of all that's wrong with the world.

St. Paul reminds us in Romans 18 through 22, that the creation has been subjugated in darkness since the fall.

And yet it looks forward with great anticipation to the glory of that eschatological salvation that God is working in his church.

Starting in verse 18 again of Romans chapter eight, Paul writes, for I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity not willingly, but by reason of him who had subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

Creation groans, Paul says, it suffers under the weight of the curse. Thorns and thistles, decay and death, earthquakes and hurricanes, nature, red and tooth and claw.

This is not how it was meant to be, right? It's not the original design, if you will.

But creation waits, it waits for Christ to return, waits for the sons of God to be revealed, it waits for the liberation that's coming.

And Christmas inaugurates that liberation. Again, Isaiah 42, the new song calls for this precisely in the context of the servant's mission.

Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise from the end of the earth, you who go down to the sea and all that fills it, the coastlands and their inhabitants, right?

The servant comes to be a covenant for the people, a light for the nations. His mission includes opening blind eyes and freeing prisoners, yes, but ultimately it extends to renewing the whole of the created order.

Quite clearly, we see in the Psalms in particular that Christ's mission is to renew the whole world.

Christmas isn't just about saving souls, though it's certainly not less than that, right? It's about the restoration of all things.

It's about the new heavens and the new earth coming down. It's about the age to come breaking into that present age, the new wine bursting the old wine skins.

This is why, again, our post -millennialism, it's not naive optimism, it's biblical hope that's grounded in the promises of God and the power of Christ.

We're not whistling in the dark, pretending that things will get better while the world burns. We're declaring that Christ's kingdom is advancing, that the gospel is transforming nations, that the spirit is at work, renewing the face of the earth.

Now, this process will continue and will increase until Christ returns to a world largely one for him, not to rescue a remnant from a world wholly lost.

Psalm 98 envisions this, so does Psalm 96, so does Isaiah 42, so does Revelation 5, where we finally hear the new song sung in fullness in verses nine and 10.

Again, Revelation 5, nine, they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and has made us unto our

God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. We shall reign on the earth, not escape from the earth, not rule in some ethereal heaven divorced from material reality, but we shall reign on the earth.

This earth renewed, this creation liberated, this world transformed.

And it all begins, and this is why we celebrate Christmas, it all begins when

God enters the world in the person of Jesus Christ in Bethlehem as a baby, because that baby is the last

Adam, come to undo what the first Adam broke. That baby is the true Israel, come to fulfill what old covenant

Israel foreshadowed. That baby is the seed of the woman, come to crush the serpent's head.

He is the son of David whose kingdom will have no end. And so when we sing the new song, we're not just remembering what happened 2 ,000 years ago in a

Judean village, right? We're celebrating what's happening now, that Christ is reigning from the father's right hand.

The spirit has been poured out upon all flesh. The gospel is advancing to the ends of the earth and we're anticipating what's coming, right?

Christ's return, creation's liberation, the final establishment of God's kingdom in fullness and glory.

That's why the new song has that future orientation as well. It celebrates past deliverance.

It rejoices in present grace, but it also anticipates future glory.

That's why the call to sing it in these many references, even, is in that imperative present tense, right?

It's always to be sung. We're always remembering the past. We're always receiving today and we're always rejoicing in what is to come.

Psalm 144 in verse nine says, I will sing a new song unto thee, O God, upon a psaltery and an instrument of 10 strings while I sing praises unto thee.

That's a promise, right? From the man of God to God himself, I will sing.

Not just now, but forever, right? The new song continues. It echoes through history and into eternity.

And then Revelation 14, three, and they sung as it were a new song before the throne and before the four beasts and the elders.

And no man could learn that song, but the 140 and 4 ,000, which were redeemed from the earth.

That's the song that we're learning now. Every time we worship, every time we praise, every time we testify to what

Christ has done, we're learning the song that we'll sing forever in the age to come.

We're practicing for eternity. We're joining a choir that spans heaven and earth and we'll never stop singing.

And so we take heart, right? That when present circumstances press in, when the world seems dark, when evil seems ascendant, when your own sins and failures discourage you, remember what the new song proclaims to you, that Christ has come, that Christ is reigning, that Christ will return, and that every promise that God has made will be kept.

This isn't some escapist fantasy, right? This is Christian hope.

It's a confidence that sustains us through present suffering because we know the end of the story.

Christmas hope doesn't deny current pain. It puts it in perspective, right? It reminds us that our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

And so what do we do with all of this, right? How do we respond to this new song? Again, Calvin puts it beautifully in his commentary on Psalm 98, the most ardent attempts men might make to celebrate the great work of the world's redemption would fall short.

Even our most ardent attempts fall short. Our best worship is inadequate to the majesty of what

God has done in Christ. Our finest songs can't capture the full glory of the incarnation.

Our most eloquent words won't exhaust and can't exhaust the riches of God's grace.

And yet, and here's the wonder, we're still called to try, right?

We're still summoned to sing, not because our worship adds anything to God's glory, but because we're made for it.

We're created to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. And singing the new song is how we do that.

And so we sing, right? This is our application. We sing and actually sing.

We sing with our voice, right? We join the corporate worship of God's people. Sing in your homes, with your children, in your car, in your heart.

Let the new song shape the rhythm of your life. We sing with vehement and ardent affection.

We don't hold back. We're not tepid or half -hearted. We're singing about the most glorious reality in all the universe, that God's redeeming love in Christ has come for us.

And so we sing like we mean it. And we bear in mind that when we say sing, that I don't only mean in music,

I mean all of your life, right? All of Christ for all of life. In all that you do, relationships, work, what have you, may it reflect a man, a woman, or a child whose life puts

Christ, the new song, on display for all to see. What's more, we sing together, right?

We need to sing together, not only on our own. Psalm 149 .1 says, "'Praise ye the

Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints.'"

This isn't solo work, right? It's corporate worship. It's life together. Your voice joins with your brothers and sisters, and together we make a sound that's greater than the sum of its parts.

Together we testify to the watching world that our God is worthy of all praise.

And brothers and sisters, we sing with understanding. We know what we're singing about.

We know what we're living for and who we serve. Don't let life just happen to you, right?

Be intentional about the things of God. Live with conviction in your mind and the new song in your heart.

That's why we've taken time, or this time today, to explore the theology of the new song, right?

Because mindless worship and a mindless life isn't what God wants. He wants us to love him with our minds as well as our hearts.

He wants us to understand the magnitude of what he's accomplished so our praise can be intelligent, informed, and proportionate to the wonder of his works.

Since God has laid open the fountain of all blessings in Christ and has displayed all spiritual riches, we need not wonder if he demand that we offer to him an unwanted and excellent sacrifice of praise.

God has opened the fountain of blessing. In Christ, every spiritual treasure is ours.

Forgiveness, adoption, justification, sanctification, eternal life, union with God, inheritance of all things.

Everything we need for life and godliness has been freely given to us in Christ. And so, of course, in light of this,

God demands excellent praise. Of course he calls for a new song, not because he's a demanding taskmaster extracting worship from reluctant subjects, but because anything less than excellent praise would be inappropriate to the gift he has given.

If someone gave you a penny, you'd say thanks and move on. Or if someone gave you a million dollars, you'd be effusive in your gratitude.

If someone gave you their only son to die in your place and rise for your justification, what then?

Or how do we respond to that? Only with a singing the new song in faith back to the God who gave it to us.

Only with praise that reaches for excellence, even as it falls short of the glory.

So as we bring this full circle to where we began in this Advent series a few weeks ago, life again is a collection of songs.

And God made us that way for a reason. He himself rejoices over us with singing, right?

We become more like him as we rightly understand the songs that we're singing. Not just that we actually sing, but the life that we're living, right?

The more mindful we are, the ways in which we live, the more we understand the ways in which we are actually responding to our

God who sings. This Advent, we've listened to Mary, to Zacharias, the angels, and Simeon as they sang in delight of the works of God in their midst.

And now we understand that all these songs, every song of faith and hope that's ever been sung, it flows into the great new song.

The song that celebrates God's marvelous work in Christ, the song that summons all nations to worship, the song that requires and emerges from regenerate hearts, the song that anticipates the renewal of all creation.

And so what will our songs be in the year ahead? Songs of faith, hope, and joy, or songs of doubt, despair, and sadness.

And we have a choice. And not about our circumstances, those are often outside of our control, but about how we're going to respond to them, about what lyrics will shape our lives and our souls, what melodies will govern us.

If you belong to Christ, then you have reason to sing always in every circumstance, because your salvation doesn't depend on your feelings or your circumstances.

It depends on Christ's finished work. And that's a fact as solid and unmovable as the throne of God itself.

And so sing the new song, sing it when life is easy and when it's hard, sing it when you feel like it and when you don't, sing it alone and with others, sing it with your lips and with your life, sing it now and sing it forever, because Christ has come, the new song incarnate has entered our world.

And one day, maybe soon, probably not, he'll return to complete what he started.

And on that day, every voice will join the chorus, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess, and the new song will reach its crescendo as all creation sings together before the throne.

But until then we sing not perfectly, but truly, not adequately, but ardently, not because we must, but because we can.