After God's own heart (Psalm 96)
(The Psalms are full of honest heart expressions of our affections before God - every colour of them! It's no wonder that the language of the Psalms has informed the prayer of believers through the centuries. The most natural thing to do is allow them to express our own worship and prayer with all the personal and specific elements that make it our own. Here, Paul Eaton’s recollection invites us to consider how to make this prophetic Psalm our own...)
During my time living as a student, each Saturday morning, I would cycle over to an old methodist hall in the centre of the town. It was a cold, simple and unimpressive space with wooden floorboards and chairs stacked high around the borders of the room. It also happened to smell like fried chicken as KFC was next door! I can still smell it now...
There were no decorations on the wall and there was a small stage which we used for storage. Each Saturday morning 5 or 10 of us would gather to worship God for 2 hours. We normally had one guitar and a keyboard plugged in at the wall.
One particular man, David, came every week. He opened our time by reading a Psalm and proceeded to walk up and down the hall praising God with many different songs, always with a smile on his face. He wouldn’t mind me saying this but he sang out of tune and very loudly. But he didn’t care! Every week he turned up and sang just like this: ‘We bless you. We honour you. We love you Lord’
Nothing would stop his singing week after week. No circumstance, no interruption, not even the smell of fried chicken would stop his singing! I remember thinking to myself this man doesn't need to do this each week, no one is asking him to but he continually turns up joyfully singing a new song. It's like he actually loves to worship God and doesn't seem to get bored! I was intrigued so I began to spend regular time with David. I ended up living with him for 6 months.
I quickly realised this was a man who’d sit down with a latte in the morning, before his kids had woken up and prioritise time meditating on scripture. David would regularly be moved to tears as we spent time together. Walking in the park, washing up or sitting around the table eating a meal, tears would cascade down his face as he remembered his father’s love. He’d spend time alone in nature, often in the hills, being moved by God’s beauty. David truly was a man after God's own heart.
“Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens. Honour and majesty are before Him; Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”
— Psalm 96:1-6
Psalm 96 commands praise. These verses instruct the reader to sing to the Lord, to sing a new song and to bless his name and tell of his salvation. To declare his glory among the nations and his works among all people.
It goes on to describe the nature of God. That the Lord is great that he is feared above all gods. That he made the heavens. That splendour and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
As I think upon this beautiful Psalm and David’s life, I can’t shake that praise can only come at a revelation of God's nature.
I wonder if we can only really sing a new song if we realise what God is really like. We cannot help but sing a song with our lives as we wake to Christ’s compassion, saving grace and lordship. Like David, as we spend time daily looking at Jesus and considering truths in scripture, we can be moved and discover God's nature. Our new songs spill over into our friendships, households, workplaces and ministries.
Are you ready to sing a new song? If not, have you really discovered God's nature?
The bible often speaks of the "new song" and we’re taking this season to meditate on a few key passages. By singing His word, we can grow together in our understanding of who God is, why worship and prayer are important to Him, and how He will use houses of prayer and praying churches across the earth to see the fullness of His plans come to fruition.