Sing a New Song

We are headed into a new year, and 2023 is an opportunity for us to sing a new song.
In Psalm 98, God encourages us to sing a new song.  In other words, look forward to what is coming instead of looking back at where you have been.
I wonder how many songs have been sung in the history of the world. There is no exact number, but the ones that can be counted number somewhere in the trillions.  That is a lot of songs. Even today musicians all around the world are hard at work writing and creating new songs.
Since God is inviting us all to sing a new song, I want to invite us all to accept this challenge this coming year. This means that there are a couple of questions we need to answer as we prepare to sing a new song.
The first: What are we planning to sing about? Every good song tells some story, and it invites people into a shared experience. What story is our new song going to tell? Hopefully we will sing of God’s glory. I think it would be wonderful to honor His faithfulness. Our new song definitely should point to God’s saving grace.
Let’s not stop here. There needs to be more to this new song. I hope our new song will be about our community and our mission to follow Jesus. I hope this coming year our new song will tell the story of God’s amazing love.
Let’s not forget to sing about how God has welcomed in everyone that our world has rejected. These are people like me and people like you. If we have found a home and a purpose in living for Jesus, so can they.
Second, what will this new song we sing sound like?  My hope is that it is a joyful song. It should be fun to sing.
Maybe it should be a song that we can dance to. Remember even King David danced before the Lord.
It needs to be catchy and easy to sing along with. Not everyone who likes to sing is a professional singer. This means that our song needs to have a sound that welcomes all people to sing along.
Definitely our song needs to be one of those that tends to stick in people’s minds and hearts. I guess that means that our new song needs to have an impact on people.
We live in a world full of hurting people who need to hear the clear and life-changing message about God’s love. They also need to experience the love of God firsthand. So let’s not make the mistake of trying to sing our new song alone or too quietly, otherwise nobody will join us as we sing.
Sing to the Lord a new song; shout for joy to the Lord all the earth.