November 17, 2009
New Song
Sometimes a music leader will introduce a new song to the congregation and it takes a few weeks of singing the same song over and over before we can really sing with confidence. There are some praise songs that, for whatever reason, I just don’t do well with and I need more practice. When the Lamb returns, we’ll have a new song to sing before the throne. “No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth.” (Rev 14: 3 ESV) I’m really hoping God has set aside some practice time for us.
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Don’t worry. I don’t believe the new song will be set to a worldly tune. The really difficult to learn praise songs seem to be set to tunes requiring a higher degree of musical proficiency. Their qualities aim more at moving the emotions by subtleties than by basics and at grasping the hearers attention more by melodic familiarity with secular hits than with spiritual ones. Their movement is complex and their aesthetics depends upon a precise interplay of vocalization and instrumentation. I’ve often noticed these new songs are tunes you hear from Christian performers. Most people in the congregation are not master musicians and will never really get the nuances of these songs correct. Yet church leaders still use them because they seem to be more bent upon entertaining guests and seekers in praise services than upon encouraging and exhorting believers in worship services. So they wind up actually doing little of either.
-----There won’t be guests or seekers amongst the 144,000. So their new song will not be aimed at attracting the lost. It won’t need to be entertaining first and substantive second. The time for that will have past. The time for directing pure sentiments of worship, celebration, and praise to the Lord will have arrived. It will be a time of intimate relationship between only those who believe and the One believed. I can imagine the movement of that song will be as naturally familiar to the hearts of the 144,000 as the movement of the Meadow Lark’s song is to their babies.
-----And why would it be so natural? To the surprise of many church leaders, Jesus expected the unity and behavior of His followers to be the church’s attractiveness to the world, not the music. Jesus prayed that our unity would demonstrate to the world that He was sent from the Father. (John 17:21). Our oneness in the Lord is not a matter of doctrinal refinement or musical program. It is a thing of sincere love for one another that reaches through vocalization into action. It recognizes each other, seeks each other’s needs, and serves those needs. It cares less about look and style than it does about truth and effect, especially since the church’s existence extends through so much perilous time. That new song will involve the nature of heaven, which is this nature of unity in love.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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