daily java

Jesus Christ, by Matt Redman

Daily Java: Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise from the ends of the earth. (Isaiah 42:10)

Singing is kind of strange when you think about it. It is a group of people uniting their voices in a common series of words and tones. If you had never heard it before, it would be weird.

But we have heard it before and we like it. Almost every culture that has ever existed has some from of common singing. It just feels good.

Singing as a group of people does two things. First, it unites the group that is singing. There is something about singing together that makes people feel good about themselves and what they are doing.

We sang as we marched in the army. They were stupid and non-sensical songs, but we sang them and we marched together better. People sing to go to war or when engaged in some common activity. People enjoy hearing the singing because it imparts that bit of strength to the listener, too.

Second, singing teaches. The more you sing something, the more you begin to believe it.

That is what happened with my generation. So many of the songs we heard were revolutionary songs. They helped to change our minds about morality, war (especially in Vietnam), patriotism – a lot of stuff. Unfortunately, most of it was for the worst.

Even if you couldn’t really understand the words (and many were almost unintelligible) enough came through that it impacted your mind.

The same is true when you hear a car drive by and the young man or woman driving has a rap song blaring that talks about things that are not good, using profanity, encouraging young men to hurt young women or to rob or steal. You hear it enough and sooner or later you begin to believe it.

That is a value of Christian music radio. Yes, many of the songs are simplistic and sometimes banal. But they speak of praise. And God did say sing a new song. Sing something new. Write enough new songs and some of them are going to be good.

Christian music does three things. It teaches, it praises and it encourages. The old songs did
those well, especially the teaching. Some of them were nothing more than long musical Bible lessons. And musically, some of them were superb.

But you can only listen to the same thing long enough that sooner or later it becomes commonplace. That is why God wanted a new song. He wanted something fresh and new and able to touch us again where he wanted us touched: our minds as well as our hearts.

Nostalgia singing is big business right now and will last for another 20 years or so before it dies. Boomers love to hear their old songs. But the more you hear them, and the more you finally understand the words you couldn’t quite get before, the more you realize that these were quite simple songs, sometimes with goofy messages sung by kids. 40 years later, they sound a little silly.

Part of the problem with our national music scene now is that there are no new songs on the pop charts that are really worth anything. So we keep going back to the old.

That is not true in Christian music. There are many good ones, as well as many silly ones. But the ones that are good touch us again. They are fresh.

And I know God likes them for that reason. After all, he said so in this verse.