#DailyDevotion Jesus Gives Us A Reason To Sing A New Song
Psalm 96, v. 2
2Sing to the Lord! Bless His name! From day to day tell the news of how He saves. Sing to the LORD a new song! Sing to the LORD, all the world! 2Sing to the Lord! Bless His name! From day to day tell the news of how He saves. 3Among the nations tell about His glory, about the wonderful things He does among all the people. 4The LORD is great and should be praised very highly, and should be held in awe above all gods. 5All the other gods of the nations are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens…10Tell among the nations: “The LORD is King!” He made the earth stand firm so that it can’t be moved. He will judge the peoples fairly. 11Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad; let the sea roar like thunder and everything in it, 12the fields be delighted and everything in them. Then all the trees in the forest will sing joyfully 13before the LORD because He is coming. When He comes to judge the earth, He’ll judge the world fairly and the people faithfully. 2Sing to the Lord! Bless His name! From day to day tell the news of how He saves.
This is a most appropriate song for Christmas midnight as the gospel text from Luke tells us of how the angels sang out with praise when Jesus was born. The birth of the Savior indeed is cause for singing to the LORD a new song and blessing his name. The antiphon invites us to tell the good news of Jesus Christ from day to day how he saves. He saves us by joining us in our humanity, taking our humiliation from our sins upon himself, dying for those sins and rising from the dead in glory.
The Christmas angel tells the shepherds, “I have good news of great joy for all people.” So the psalmist tells us to tell about his glory among the nations about the wonderful things he has done. What greater thing has the LORD done then become man, die for our sins, rise from the dead and ascend in glory? By his dying and rising again he has saved all people even those who will not believe in him. He has cast out Satan from accusing us before our God anymore. Our Father will not take up any cases against those who put their faith in His Only-Begotten Son.
Because the LORD has done this great thing, we should casts aside all our idols, everything we look to for every good, for comfort and strength. All the gods of the world are empty idols. They are nothing. It is the LORD who made the heavens. It is the LORD who becomes man to save us from God’s wrath. While many peoples of the earth worship graven images or creation or things in creation we often forget the idols of the modern man: wealth, power, food, sex, drugs, alcohol, credit, work, family, kids, government, political parties or leaders, the Supreme Court, sports, entertainment and entertainers or whatever it is you look to to provide you comfort, strength and hope. They cannot provide you these thing without great costs to your soul and life in the most damaging ways.
Jesus, the LORD is coming again to judge the earth fairly and faithfully. To those who put their faith in him, he will strip away from us all that is not of faith but what is of faith will remain. To those who did not have faith in him, they will only receive what judgments they are guilty of, all of which includes the Lake of Fire. Which judgment will you receive
?
Heavenly Father, you sent your son Jesus Christ into our flesh to redeem us from our sins. Give us faith to open our mouths and to sing his praises for all is wonderful works. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.