Read
Sing a New Song
1Sing a new song to the Lord!
Everyone on this earth,
sing praises to the Lord,
2sing and praise his name.
Day after day announce,
“The Lord has saved us!”
3Tell every nation on earth,
“The Lord is wonderful
and does marvelous things!
4The Lord is great and deserves
our greatest praise!
He is the only God
worthy of our worship.
5Other nations worship idols,
but the Lord created
the heavens.
6Give honor and praise
to the Lord,
whose power and beauty
fill his holy temple.”
7 Tell everyone of every nation,
“Praise the glorious power
of the Lord.
8He is wonderful! Praise him
and bring an offering
into his temple.
9Everyone on earth, now tremble
and worship the Lord,
majestic and holy.”
10Announce to the nations,
“The Lord is King!
The world stands firm,
never to be shaken,
and he will judge its people
with fairness.”
11Tell the heavens and the earth
to be glad and celebrate!
Command the ocean to roar
with all its creatures
12and the fields to rejoice
with all their crops.
Then every tree in the forest
will sing joyful songs
13to the Lord.
He is coming to judge
all people on earth
with fairness and truth.
Reflect
Jesus taught us to begin our prayer with praise – “Hallowed be Thy Name.” Praise psalms like this one inspire us to higher levels of praise.
It is easy to neglect praise. Our prayer lives need to be well rounded to include praise, thanksgiving, confession and intercession. I have found much blessing in using a psalm to begin my quiet time.
GOD IS PRAISEWORTHY
Review verses 3-6, 9 and 15 and meditate on these praiseworthy attributes of God.
EXPRESSIONS OF PRAISE
This psalm inspires us to use a variety of expressions to glorify God:
- Singing songs, writing songs and singing new songs of praise (vv 1,2)
- Declaring his glory and greatness (vv 3,4)
- Ascribing to God in family, church and everyday conversation his glory and strength (vv 7,8)
- Worshipping and bowing down because of his utter holiness (v 9)
- Communicating in national and international arenas that the Lord reigns (v 10)
- Acknowledging God’s present and future power to judge the world righteously and fairly (vv 10-13)
As I consider this range of God-honouring praise, I realize how far short I and congregations fall in the ministry of praise. How much we need to raise the bar of praise whether personally or congregationally! So much of our prayer lives begin and end in personal intercession – “Give us this day our daily bread.” This can lead to our becoming self focused and self seeking rather than God focused and kingdom seeking. May we have a healthy balance in our prayer lives!
Respond
Pray for praise renewal in your own life as well as your congregational life and all praise leaders and praise teams.
George Anderson
George is a retired Presbyterian minister who resides in Binbrook Ontario, Canada with his wife, Audrey. George & Audrey emigrated from South Africa to Ile Perrot, Quebec, in 1989 with their four daughters all of whom are now married and living in Ontario with their nine grand-children. After teaching high school Math and working in SU in South Africa, George pastored two churches there and four churches in Canada, the last being in the beautiful Muskoka town of Huntsville. The main focus of George’s ministry has been building up congregations through the renewing grace and power of the Spirit of Jesus as expressed in Acts 2 v 42 – teaching, fellowship, eating together and prayer. George enjoys bird-watching and hiking with Audrey and the occasional tennis and golf.