Reflection on “Sing to the Lord a New Song!” September 3, 2024
Sing to the Lord a new song; Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Psalm 96:1-2.
“The Lord your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.” Zephaniah 3:17. (NSV)
When I first read Zephaniah 3:17, when I was 80 years old, I remembered when I was about 8 years old and washed dishes. To pass the time, I sang and knew I needed a microphone. The window over the sink became my microphone. I knew singers often sang in different languages, so I enjoyed using non-words. Mother said I sharped. I did not know what that meant, however, I soon received voice lessons.
Our Creator made us after His own image. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of gladness with your Presence! Acts 2:28.
What can His Presence bring us? The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness, For His Name’s sake. Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Psalm 23:1-3, 6.
O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving, Let us shout
joyfully to Him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, And a great King above all gods, In whose hand are the depths of the earth, The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, And His hands formed the dry land. Psalm 95:1-5.
When we walk in God’s world, we see the heights of the mountains and the depth of the valleys, the designs of color in flowers, and we know God created the world we live in. We praise Him. How can we help but ask?
What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! Psalm 8:4-5.
Each time I feel like singing, I want to raise my arms to Him and sing His praises. The Bible is the way our Lord God communicates with us His Love.
But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13:13. In verses, 4-8 of this same love chapter is the definition of Love.
Where does Love come from? This is the answer! Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. By this, the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. I John 4:7-9.
When I first read about the fruit of the Spirit, I realized I was reading what God is like and why He rejoices over us with shouts of Joy. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23.
The first three are LOVE, JOY, and PEACE! These qualities do not leave room for boasting, challenging, or envying others or our desires. ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:37-39.
Have you considered what the voice of God sounds when He sings over us? Then this scripture with the heading, the Voice of the Lord in the storm! The voice of the Lord is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders. The Lord is over many waters. Psalm 39:3.
Since He created us after His own image, we have no secrets from Him. O Lord, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thoughts from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down and are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. Psalm 139:1-4.
Still thinking about what God’s Voice sounds like and stopped. In an hour, I heard rumblings, and then I heard the loudest thunder and bursts of lightning as rain poured from the sky for two hours. Then I enjoyed the most peaceful sleep I can remember for a long time.
From the time I was a little, I have heard about Eternal Life. How does one prepare to go there? John 14:1 begins, “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” John 14:1-3.
What is Eternal Life? This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. John 17:3-4. Jesus is God’s only Son, who glorified His Father by dying on the cross for the sins we commit.
This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was. Colossians 3:16-17. Trust, Believe, Wait on the Lord, Endure, Love the Lord God!
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