The Music Ministry and New Songs in the Church
Sing a new song to the LORD! Let the whole earth sing to the LORD! Psalm 96:1 (NLT).
The music ministry must understand the place of songs in the church of God, and the role it plays in the life of every child of God, hence, she must be ready to champion always singing a new song unto the Lord so that the church can keep enjoying the fullness of the blessings of God.
There is joy in singing a new song unto the Lord for everyone washed in the blood of Jesus. This is also the major duty the angels in heaven are doing, they sing continuously to glorify God and worship His majesty.
What is a new song unto the Lord? It is proclaiming the greatness of God through a new understanding of who He is, and what He can do. There is no other group of people better positioned to receive this kind of understanding than those in the music ministry. David was a musician, an anointed one indeed, and by virtue of this position, he was able to receive great revelations from God, which he put into songs to preserve for posterity.
Every Christian musician must wait upon God to receive new revelations from Him, which they will express in songs.
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea…Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Ex 15:1-11 (KJV).
This was a new song on the day the Israelites sang it. Apart from the words of the song, the circumstances surrounding the singing tell of the mood of the singers on that day.
For over 4 centuries they were in serious bondage with no hope of ever getting free, each day brought more suffering, misery, and hopelessness. But the Lord came to deliver them after punishing the land with 10 serious plagues.
The people of God left with a high hand, but not without spoiling the Egyptians of their gold, and silver. They collected the wages of 400 years in one night.
When Pharaoh taught on these, he decided to give them a chase with 600 chosen chariots and riders, he pursued heard after them and met them just by the edge of the red sea. His intention was to pursue, overtake, and destroy, but God had another thing in mind, He had drawn Pharaoh and his soldiers out to prove to His people that He can save to the uttermost and that even the sea does obey Him.
He parted the sea and made His people pass through dry land in the midst of it. He made their enemies foolish, and follow after them, making sure that they got to the middle before He closed it up.
The Israelites saw their pursuer dead by the seashore, and they burst into a new song. The reality of the deliverance dawn on them and they could not help singing a song they could not sing for over 400 years.
They did not sing when the 10 plagues were ravaging the land of Egypt, nor on the day they left the land, but on this occasion, it suddenly dawns on them that their God is a great deliverer, then the inspiration came through Miriam to sing a new worship song unto the Lord.
If gospel musicians can cultivate the habit of waiting upon the Lord for inspiration, they will receive new songs on a continual basis, and the whole ministry will change from following the worldly trend of singing into a soul-winning department of the church.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary, and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:31 (KJV).
Every Christian washed by the blood of Jesus is like the Israelites in this story. You might not have spent up to four centuries in the land of bondage, but each day you spent in the world before you knew Christ was getting you closer to eternal damnation.
If the Israelites could sing because God delivered them from four hundred years of bandage, how much more we that He delivered from everlasting suffering and gave eternal life through His Son Jesus Christ.
Our songs should talk about the victory that we have in Christ, and the joy that awaits us in Heaven. This will make God indwell our worship, equip the music ministry the more, and show to us great and mighty things that will confound our enemies, as we savor the joy of singing a new song unto the Lord.