“Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise in the assembly of the godly!”-Psalm 149:1
Psalm 149 begins with these words again reminding us that this is our calling as believers. There are at least two things going on in this one verse…at least, I say…because I am absolutely sure God intends more…He always does! The two things that I will highlight briefly are Praising the Lord as a practice and praising the Lord in song.
This passage and passages like it speak, first of all to our preparedness to “Praise the LORD”. The command is to “Praise the LORD!” Now is this what we are thinking when we rise in the morning and then lay our heads down at night and many time during the day? Over and over again we are reminded by the psalmist to “Praise the LORD!” Is this because we forget…or is it because we are not usually ready to do so? The answer is probably both. We have not prepared ourselves to awake with the Lord and praise Him and give thanks for the new day of life. I was talking to a cancer survivor the other day and when asked, How are you? His answer, “I’m alive.” I have heard others say, “I’m breathing the breath God has given me for another day.” Most of us are so attached to this world and the things of this world that we forget to give thanks and praise the Lord for the basic things even before we begin our day. Each day we rise from our beds and we are in the presence of the LORD…each night we lay down in His presence for rest…for He is ALWAYS with us.
Many of us have a routine in the morning…get up wash our faces and brush our teeth before we even get coffee some days. This is how we should begin our day with the Lord …we need to Praise Him recognizing where life and breath and blessings come from then we need to repent of our sins daily so that when we begin carrying out the tasks of our day we are prepared to meet with Him which then enables us to be prepared to meet with Him and His people on Sunday morning.
But then He commands, “Sing to the LORD a new song, His praise in the assembly of the godly!” When wewake up and praise the Lord every day is a new song …a new chapter…for us… as we worship before the LORD preparing to sing the praise of Him in the assembly of the godly. Now this is not performing…this is a heartfelt desire to carry out God’s commands to sing to Him because of the love and salvation He secured for us in Christ Jesus. Recognizing how close to death we are everyday enables the believer to give thanks to God for the gift of life and of life eternal. Singing has always been a natural way to express our delight. Have you listened to your children lately and what they sing? For such as these belongs the Kingdom of God! When THEY stop singing…we will have finally lost a great resource and reminder of how we should act before our heavenly Father.
Today, people listen to music…they want to be entertained by music but most people don’t sing as a rule…except, maybe, in church where we sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs…and it is “good” for us to do so according to this passage. But in reality not everyone sings in church. They are missing out on following God’s commands and the blessing that comes with singing to Him “…in the assembly of the godly.” For it brings God glory and centers us on the object of our affection.
SIDE NOTE: Look at what God Himself calls us… “godly.” That is sometimes a hard pill to swallow for we know our short comings and many of our sins. SPOILER ALERT: God does too, and because we are in Christ we are loved and His grace pours out upon us even through His discipline of us! In God’s eyes and heart we are “godly” because God in Christ has declared us to be holy and acceptable before Him… Christ has imputed to us His righteousness which is never ending and we are being transformed by the Holy Spirit from one degree of glory to another. “And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” (II Cor. 3:18)
So let us Praise the LORD daily as we prepare to Praise the LORD in song this Sunday… “in the assembly of the godly”.
God Bless y’all.
In His Grip,
Pastor Mike
