Sing Unto the Lord (Psalm 96:1)

O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth.

Psalm 96 is my reading for today and verse one is enough, I suppose, to give pause. 

Singing is such a peculiar thing and yet common to all of life. Some birds do it endlessly. Some people do it poorly or not at all, mercifully. Yet here the Psalmist exults and admonishes: SING!

A minimalist response reads the text and moves on. Is that enough? What are we supposed to do with this, what should it elicit? Further, what is the place of the preacher and expositor? Why more is needed than reading and heeding and doing?

Good question.

The answer comes in trying to discern what the writer intended. This verse is "hortatory" language, a term taken from "exhort." The Psalmist is trying to stir action in the right direction.

What should the action look like? I am increasingly bemused at the deeply ingrained approach which causes me to think the action here is to be immediate, full-on, and full-orbed. What should the action look like? Burst out in boisterous singing, right now, obviously!

But David would surely be curious if, upon hearing the Psalm, the listener immediately began singing. So what does he intend?

Some ideas:

• Change of outlook from complaining to singing, from grumbling to gladness. The change is one of perspective.
• Change from inwardness to outwardness. Of course God deals with the inner life if He deals at all, for from the heart the mouth speaks, or sings. But we never sing if we are always focused inwardly. Singing is an outward thing, not always public -- again, mercifully -- but always out-from-ourselves.
• In this sense, singing is ec-static. Static has to do with stasis, being still, stuck, unmoving. Ecstatic is the idea of getting out of that stuck-ness. When someone is ecstatic they are outward, moving, energized. We don't live there all the time or early death would be the norm. But we need ecstacy to sweeten the drudgery that is normal and necessary to life. Singing helps us do that.
• There is another. This singing is for everyone, or so I surmise. Even the least musically inclined can and should participate in the congregation. This is perhaps a core reason why congregational singing should happen and we should engender it with our modes of worship. Many of us are not like me, singing too loudly and eagerly. Some of us cannot carry a tune, but we still need to sing. And we can if we are in congregation, carried along and covered over by the body of song. I hear this often in congregations where there are reluctant singers. I hear them intoning the words with common bass notes, but still singing! It is right and good.

There is more, always more. This singing is to the Lord -- He is our focus and that should carry us along.

So, to my somewhat surprise, there is more in a verse than meets the eye. David had something in mind and we are wise to heed it, adjust our attitude and live accordingly.

Thank you, Friend David. Someday I hope to meet you in person, hear you sing, and learn better all you meant with this wonderful Psalm. Until that day....