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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Quiet Time: New Song Blues

New Song Blues

Read: Psalm 33

Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.                        - Psalm 33:3

For the most part, people hate change (that goes for worship songs as well).
We love our old songs; after all, we know them and can sing them best. We feel good singing them, so why add another song? Don’t we have enough already? Well, I suppose we have plenty of songs to sing, and, yes, they really are good, but where would we be today without “Blessed Be Your Name”, “Give Thanks”, or “Desert Song”? How about “Our God Saves”, “You Are God Alone”, or “Shout to the Lord”? Obviously, these were all new songs at one time, yet today they’re a regular part of most song sets.


As a worship leader I’ve introduce many new songs to congregations throughout the body of Christ. Many were received and sung well, but just as many were held at arm’s length and responded to with skepticism and halfhearted effort. I’ve often wondered about the best way to present a new song and I’ve finally decided that there is no good way.

Although it is a fact that old songs actually were new once. The blushing truth is that these new-older songs often succumb to a blasé’ and ho-hum effort by a complacent worshipper. And, we've all been complacent at one time or other.

Perhaps that’s why the psalmist encourages us to sing and develop new songs regularly.

New songs require that we think before we sing (1 Corinthians 14:15) and that’s a good thing.

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