Worthy of New Songs (Psalm 33:3)

Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings that loud shouts.
– Psalm 33:3

I love this verse and particularly that first phrase, “Sing to him a new song.” This is a phrase we see multiple times in the Psalms and all the way to the end of the Bible in the Book of Revelation when it says. “They sang a new song.”

Psalm 33:3 Demonstrates How Worthy God is of Our Praise

And I want you to think with me about why we would sing a new song. I mean, for thousands and thousands of years there have been songs sung to God. So why do we need new songs? Why would there be a command even here to sing a new song? Well, think about it. You might sing a new song when you discover or experience something new about God, about the one you’re singing about or singing to. When you think about God, he is infinite in his glory, which means 10 trillion years from now, we’ll still be discovering more glory in God, which means we’ll still be singing new songs about things we’ve seen and things we’ve experienced in God.

So there’s that sense in which we are continually seeing and experiencing more in God that leads to new songs and then you think about as the Gospel spreads from generation to generation and music changes in different ways, then God’s people in successive generations sing new songs. We’re seeing songs today that are different from what God’s people were singing 1,000 years ago or 100 years ago. And we also sing some of those songs. So we sing old songs and new songs.

And then, think about this, as we pray for the spread of the Gospel among all the nations, there are thousands of people groups right now, languages where songs are not being sung and praised to God because they’ve not been reached by the Gospel. But when they’re reached by the Gospel and people come to Christ and they gather together as the church, then they compose, what? New songs.

Psalm 33:3 Reminds Us God is Worthy to be Praised Among All the Nations

I think about one of my favorite songs that I have recorded on my phone. It’s from a very remote tribe in Asia that had been totally unreached by the gospel until some missionaries at great cost to their lives took the Gospel there and people believed it, specifically a young girl who then shared the Gospel with her mom and dad, and her mom and dad believed the Gospel and soon thereafter were stoned by the religious tribal leaders in that village because they had put their faith in Jesus, in what they called a foreign God.

And this young girl, teenage girl, sat down and wrote the first song of worship in her language to God praising him for his love and his faithfulness, even amidst hardship and death, specifically the death of her parents in this world. She sang a new song. I’ve got that song recorded on my phone.

When I listen to it, I can’t help but to pray. I’m about to lead us in prayer right now even just thinking about it. God, you are worthy of new songs in every generation, in every nation as we discover and experience and see more and more and more of you and all of your glory, and as your glory spreads in the world. So we say, “Yes. We want to sing new songs forever. We want to sing new songs today and, God, we want new songs to be sung around the world to your glory.”

Praying for the Shahari People

God, we pray today for the Shahari people of Saudi Arabia, no known followers of Jesus among them, speakers of the Shahari that live in Saudi and Oman and Yemen. God, we pray for songs of worship to be sung in the Shahari language. Please, God, bring it about for your glory. Cause songs and shouts to arise in Shahari giving you praise, Jesus.

We pray you’d help us to live for this, to live to see your songs spread all over the world, even as we sing new songs in our lives, in our churches, and we lift up loud shouts of praise to you. You are worthy of new songs and loud shouts of praise in our lives, in our churches, and among all the nations. We pray this in light of your word in Psalm 33:3. In Jesus’ name, amen.