Sing a New Song

I enjoy music.  I enjoy worshipping Jesus.  I enjoy leading others in worshipping Jesus through music.  One of the challenges of worship leading is finding the balance between wanting to be in step with what God is currently doing through music, but also helping the congregation to connect.  I am listening to music a lot, and there is so much new stuff coming out all the time that is really good, but you can't be throwing new things out all the time.  

In the process though, my desire is to honor God by being obedient to the call on my life, and honestly bring the congregation to a place of worship.  Believers really shouldn't need that much coaxing though.  First of all, God is God, so we worship Him.  Also, we have salvation and that is every reason to joyfully worship the king, no matter what song is being played.  That is a challenge for me personally, because there are some songs that sound depressing to me or don't have much substance.  But, as a Jesus follower, a disciple, I need to get over myself, because when it comes down it, that is an issue of preference and should never get in the way of me responding to God's amazing love & grace in worship.  Never.  Ever.  Ever.  Ever.  Ever.  I've been a Christian for over 20 years and should be mature enough to realize that when I get hung up on my personal preferences to the point that I cannot engage in worship, I am not following Christ.    

I thought about the title for this blog being "Worship Wars"  because that is what I feel the church experiences throughout history. I just hate the phrase.  I hate the war.  I hate that preferences get in the way of Presence. 
It's nothing new, the battle over music in churches.  It's being going on for centuries.  It's one thing to have separate opinions on personal preferences, it's an entirely different when those preferences cause division in the church, which quenches the Spirit moving in our midst.  

I still want to believe that it is possible for older and younger generations to worship together in the same place, but I'm not going to lie, I can definitely understand why many churches have two separate services.  The reality is, it is completely and entirely Biblical for people to sing new songs to God.  I’m just wondering if older generations are ever going to be ok with that.

Psalm 40:3 ESV
He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.
Psalm 96:1-13 ESV
Oh sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing to the Lord, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.
Psalm 33:1-22 ESV
Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord.
Isaiah 42:10 ESV
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.
Revelation 5:9 ESV
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation,
Psalm 144:9 ESV
I will sing a new song to you, O God; upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,
Psalm 40:1-3 I waited patiently for God to help me; then he listened and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out from the bog and the mire, and set my feet on a hard, firm path, and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing of praises to our God. Now many will hear of the glorious things he did for me, and stand in awe before the Lord, and put their trust in him.

Ok, you get the point.  There are plenty of scriptural references to "singing a new song."  I wonder though if when David would write a "new song," the church folks condemned him like this person did with "new" music:  

"There are several reasons for opposing it.  One, it’s too new.  Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous.  The new Christian music is not as pleasant as the more established style.  Because there are so many songs, you can’t learn them all.  It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than Godly lyrics.  This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly.  The preceding generation got along without it.  It’s a money-making scene and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose." 

They were talking about Hillsongs, Jesus Culture, and Gateway Worship, right?  I mean this sounds soooo familiar.  But this was written by a pastor in 1723!!!  He was referring to Issac Watts, the person who wrote Joy to the World, At the Cross, and other songs we would call "classics" now.  

On one hand, it's comforting to know that my generation isn't the only generation who has received flack for participating in the Biblical exercise of "singing a new song"in worship to God.  

On the other hand it's terribly discouraging and disconcerting that we haven't learned. 

We haven't learned that Satan's number one goal is to cause division in the church.

We haven't learned that probably his second goal is to get us focusing on all the wrong things, so that living missional, kingdom lives is ignored.  

We haven't learned that the church is constantly in need of renewal and new life or everything will become ritualized and institutionalized.  

We haven't learned to seek the needs of others above our own.  

We haven't learned to care for the next generation.  If you are only concerned about your own needs, your church might start to have more funerals than baby dedications.

Here's where I stand on worship music:  If the song is rich in theology, if it honors Jesus, if it is singable, and if it is congregational, I'm going to sing it.  Whether it was written in 800 AD or 2014.  God is moving in his people, and for the creative/musical folks like me, we will express it by writing songs. 

Because it is a biblical, natural, beautiful thing when God puts a new song in our hearts.  

We should be embracing new things, new life, and young people, not rejecting them.  The church will not grow otherwise.  My guess is the current older generations didn't do everything that their grandparents did.  I grew up singing out of the Red Back Hymnal.  But my adult worship experience hasn't had a lot of that music. 

What I want is for the mutterings to stop.  The attitudes that assert that God only moved in a certain time frame musically is putting God in a box. 

Can’t we please stop griping and complaining about our preferences, worship God, and focus on building the Kingdom together?  Is that really too much to ask? 

Stop telling me that God isn’t in new music.  Satan doesn’t live in guitars, he moves in this world as the accuser, liar, and the divider. 


I don’t really know how else to end this than to add this song I found, which really truly expresses my heart in all this.  Let’s please just worship Jesus together.    

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