Someone recently paid me a complement. He said that I embraced the future and that I looked forward to it. I want things to get better and to have happy endings to stories. And it is true. I do get discouraged from time to time but I always come back to this idea that things can get better. How can we live another day if we did not think that tomorrow had the potential for being better than today?

I do not think that this is my natural disposition and I sometimes find conflict with myself. The reason I can look to the future and think that better things are on the way is because of my faith in Christ. If we believe that we have been redeemed by Jesus and that through his blood sacrifice that we have been forgiven of our sins and that we are being made new, then how can we not look to the future?

I believe in the power of the Word when I preach. I believe that it will accomplish its appointed purpose when I preach. It will either bring judgment or bring us closer to

God and will create in us a little more of God’s future for us. But in all cases, I cannot abandon preaching because I am convinced that God has ordained it to be used to proclaim his kingdom until he comes again.

I believe that one day that Jesus is coming again. How can we not be optimistic about life if we believe that? I believe that for all who love Jesus a new life awaits them and that death will not have the last word. The world could collapse tomorrow under a nuclear attack or natural catastrophe and I think that God still has the final say in our fate. And his final say is that those who love him will live with him forever. We will be raised. In fact, right now we are raised up with him. And though we die we are alive in him and with him. The future is certain and secure, how can we be anything else but optimistic? We look forward to what is around the next corner. Our worship expresses our hope in the future. We need to worship because we need to be reminded that life cannot defeat us and that God is in charge of our destiny.

So, is it any wonder that the Psalmist calls us to worship God with a new song? Only those who are redeemed can sing a new song. The angels cannot sing a new song. Only we who are recipients of God’s grace can sing a new song. Worship should reflect our constant renewal we have in Christ. It is ok to sing an old song, but don’t you think that God has done new things since then? If your idea of worship means that you sing the same old thing over and over again, you have missed the joy of worship. When God does new things for us and in us, we should celebrate the joy by singing a new song before him, one that expresses what he is doing for us now!

And please notice, it a command, Sing! I realize that some of us can’t sing too well. My singing voice gets worse with age. So what? A major part of worship is singing. This is how we express ourselves as the body of Christ to our God.

There are three imperatives in this text regarding singing. Sing a new song is a command, it is not an option. And we are to sing to the Lord. Of course, the word Lord here is the personal name of God, Yahweh, it is very specific and very personal. Our worship, our singing is to be unto God himself. He is the audience. We are the performers. What does it look like to God to see only a handful of his people singing his praises?

It is an imperative, a command that we sing a new song to the Lord and that we sing and bless his name. The Hebrew word for bless means to kneel down. Bless God with bended knees. We are to never forget who God is and who we are. We are sinners saved by grace. We are unworthy and his holiness is our undoing. He is the holy, righteous God, who dwells in unapproachable light, and all sinners who come before him are undone. Yet, God in his mercy has removed our sin from us and made us his Children. We come before him with all the honor and praise due unto him, as his children. And he receives us as his children. We come in the humility of a child recognizing his greatness, his rulership over us and his boundless love with which he loves us. In Isaiah, we saw the thrice holy God. In this psalm, it is the thrice singing command, Sing, Sing, Sing unto the Lord!

The content of our song also is given as three imperatives. Imperative number one, we are to praise his name. Think about it. How many times have you praised your favorite football team or baseball team or NASCAR driver, or singing group or favorite movie? Is there any reason why in worship or in ordinary life that we should not be doing the same with our God? We don’t need a command to tell us to praise these things but for some reason we need to be reminded that our song should be praise to our God.

Imperative number 2, our worship should proclaim the good news of his salvation! We know in our hearts that the Church is called to be an evangelistic Church. But did you know that part of our worship should include telling about the good news of Salvation? Our worship is meant to be over heard. And why not, don’t we who are saved have something to say? Should we not be excited about our salvation and proclaim it for all to hear? The world needs to hear a new song about wonderful grace we have received from God.

Imperative number three, we are called to tell of God’s glory among the nations. Everyone has a story to tell. People tell their stories in song and in books and on TV and in movies. People tell their philosophy, some with great excitement and perseverance. Michael Moore is known for making left wing documentaries. His most recent is Fahrenheit 911 which is a hate America movie. He has gone to great extremes to push it and get people to watch it. What have we done to tell of the glory of God? We have such a privilege to be the children of God. We need, we must proclaim the glory of God in our worship with a new song that comes from a new heart.

We worship because of what happened in the past. Certainly we need to sing of The Old Rugged Cross on a Hill Far Away. We need to Crown Him with Many Crowns and Sing out Holy, Holy, Holy to our holy God. But our worship is also about the present and the future. We have an old story to tell, but we should have a new story as well. God did not stop acting in our lives way in the past. He is active in the present. And if he is not active in your life in the very present, something is wrong.

I don’t want to live in the past. The past is where all my darkness and sin and shame and suffering are. I don’t want to have anything to do with them. God took that away from me. I want to look to the future. It is to the future that we are drawn. We are called to a place that is forever being made new and where only a new song can capture what God is doing. When we gather to worship, we remember the great and mighty work that God has done the cross. But we don’t look back to the past. Remembering is one thing, looking back is quite another. We sing of the present and the future because that is where the great promises are. When we sing together, we bless our God and we proclaim his salvation and his glory. When we sing, we yearn together for the future. We remind each other that God is not finished with us. We remember that our suffering, though great, will not have the final say over life. When we worship, we are declaring, to the world, both the glory of God and the greatness of his salvation that is granted to all who come to him by faith.

So, let us worship. Let us worship him with gladness. Let us worship so that we may honor our king.