Psalm 149 v. 1
Concordia Publishing House commissioned a new hymn to coincide with the publication of the Lutheran Study Bible. The hymn was set to an unfamiliar tune. Perhaps the tune was new too. So I picked this new hymn for the congregations at Conant and Pinckneyville. As it turns out this new hymn likely won’t make the top ten favorites.
I should have called our son Aaron the week before we tried to sing it rather than the week after. “It was unsingable, he said. He had tried it with his choir and they couldn’t get the melody. He thought it might work in a large congregation with a trained choir and musicians. The two congregations I serve each number about 30 in worship. But they gamely gave it a try and allowed me to come back for all Saints Day this last Sunday
Psalm 149, appointed for all Saints Day, calls God’s people to sing a new song. However, what does it mean when the psalmist calls for a new song to be sung?
The Lutheran Study Bible provides some helpful information. The shr chadish, Hebrew for “new song”, celebrates God’s new work of salvation. The old song, which, of course, at one time was a new song, was the Song of Moses in Exodus 15:1-8. As the bodies the Egyptian army washed up on the shore of the Red sea, the people joined Moses in singing, “I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.”
In the Psalms the new song often celebrates God’s redeeming his people from exile in Babylon. At the dedication of the wall of Jerusalem Levites from the countryside were summoned to Jerusalem “to celebrate …gladness, with thanksgivings and with singing, with cymbals, harps, and lyres.” Members of the singers’ guild participated in the festivities (Nehemiah 12:27-28).
When the final redemption brought through the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Lamb before the throne, the company of heaven “sang a new song.” (Rev. 5:8-9)In anticipation of that new song, we sing “This is the Feast,” (LSB155) which contains the words that John heard in his visual being sung around the throne of God.
As the Gospel of Christ’s salvation moves through the ages and various times and cultures of this world the songs and the worship changes to meet the new situations. What remains central is that each new song centers on a celebration of Christ’s redemption through his death and resurrection.
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