Tag: Songs of Praise

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Sing a New Song of Praise

For the past several mornings, lyrics from a praise song have been stuck in my mind.  “God is great and worthy to be praised.”  I can’t seem to get away from the word “praise.”  I am still praising God for our recent trip to Uganda, and for the many blessings we received.  I know I am praising him for the blessings of family, friends, home, and the fellowship with the saints of God.  It is important to praise God from “whom all blessings flow.”  Praise is such a powerful thing.  It lifts you up out of earth realm into a connection with the divine.  It also prepares you for the new.  Like the scripture says, “you can’t put new wine into old wineskin.  The new will burst open the old leaving the new wasted and exposed.  Praise removes debris in the soil, and prepares it to receive the new wine – the seed – the word.  Praise bring deliverance and restoration.

The Lord is asking “What is your first song of deliverance?”  “What is your song of praise?” As the Israelites sang a song of praise after being delivered at the Red Sea, so now we should be singing songs of praise, salvation and deliverance. Songs that tell the everyone about salvation, joy, healing, and about our Holy God.  Praise songs help us to seek forgiveness for our sins and brings restoration with God.  They also deliver us from our enemies, and establish our rightful inheritance in the promised land.  Praise brings us closer to our Lord and Savior.  Praise prepares us for the new thing.

God is transforming our lives, and restoring us to our rightful positions as sons and daughters of the most High God.  As joint-heirs with Christ, we are entitled to receive all the “best” and all Christ has for us.  Glory and honor, dominion and power are ours.   This means we can possess the land, our communities.  Everything the enemy stole from us can be restored as God has appointed.   We can be reclaimed as God’s precious child.   When the praises go up, the blessings come down.  More praise will release more power, more wisdom, more love.  We become more like Christ when we praise.   What are you praising God for?  What is or was your first song of praise?

Sing a new song of praise.  Sing songs of His matchless power, and love.  Sing songs of beauty, and hope, and ones of His blessed salvation.  Jesus, our Lord and Savior is our strong tower, a mighty fortress is our God.    Focus on praising Him.   The enemy wants to come in, stop your praise, and take away “the seed” that was planted.  But praise and worship defeats all the plans of the enemy.  The joy of the Lord is your strength.  So sing unto the Lord a new song of praise.

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Hymnal

A hymnal is a collection of songs meant to worship or praise God, or express His relationship in human affairs.   Hymns growing up as a child were just songs we had to sing before the minister got up to preach.  “Jesus loves me this I know” was the first song I remember learning.  It was a cute, simple tune.  The congregation often smiled in approval, and an occasional “Amen” could be heard if we got it just right.  As I grew up I thought it was too cute to be sung by anyone.

As we grew older, we sung songs like “A Mighty Fortress“, “Rock of Ages” and “Blessed Assurance.”  I often thought why sing these old songs, doesn’t the preacher know anything modern?  Sunday after Sunday, we pulled out those hymn books, and turn to a page and begin singing as a church-one song-one voice.  Expressions on the faces were mixed. Some smiles, tears, blank or disinterested looks. I’m sure at times my face projected these same looks.  It was the words that struck me though.  Where did they come from, who wrote them and why?  It wasn’t until I got older and been through the storms of life, faced my fair share of challenges, gone down in defeat, battled the enemy, and felt the precious hand of Jesus did those old hymns become real to me.

Finally I understood.  Words to a song like “Amazing Grace” meant something.  These were expressions of love; of thanksgiving; of hope; of desperation; of grief and sorrow, frank and earnest conversations with Our Father which Art in Heaven.  And more importantly when sung now, within a community of believers, words such as “saved a wretch like me” are more profound.  Now when we sing them, we (the community of believers) become the hymnal.   We’re the praise, the thanksgiving, the love song to God.

Look at the pages of any current or past hymnal, and we are there, on every page and in every note praising God from whom all blessings flow with every song of tragedy, triumph, hope and redemption.  Yes, hymnal are a collection of songs, but as time passes they become so much more and so do we.

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