Yesterday our Sunday School students gave their annual Christmas program in lieu of the 10:30 a.m. Divine Service.  We had readings from the Christmas Story (from Luke 2, our Gospel for this Church Year), costumed characters moving to and fro, and of course, wonderful singing.  The sermon was based on the antiphon the students sang to Psalm 96, verse 1 of that very psalm:  Oh sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth!

I remembered this psalm from previous years and so was looking forward to their singing of the antiphon for it.  This psalm is comprised of three sections:  vv. 1-6 praise God's greatness, vv. 7-10 call for all nations to worship at the Temple, while vv. 11-13 call on all creation to worship the Lord Who will return to judge all people and deliver His own.  As mentioned in the sermon, this psalm was employed by David when he had the ark of the covenant brought into Jerusalem (see 1 Chronicles 16).  That was one of the happiest days in David's life!  Later the Temple (designed by David and built by his son Solomon) would be destroyed by the Babylonians under King Nebuchadnezzar, but at the dedication of the Second Temple in the final years of the sixth century B.C. this 96th Psalm was used for the occasion. 

The psalm opens with an exhortation to sing to the Lord a new song.  The book of Revelation speaks of this new song as part and parcel of the New Testament:  "new" here doesn't mean constantly creating something from scratch, but rather to sing to the Lord upon yet another experience of His redemption for His people.  Just as Psalm 96 was used in David's lifetime and five hundred years later (both during events having to do with a Jerusalem Temple), so also we make use of the psalms and other historical (even ancient) chants and hymns to sing to the Lord who has delivered us with His wondrous salvation:  "sing to the Lord, bless His name; tell of His salvation from day to day.  Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all the peoples!"

May the Lord bless your singing and chanting during these days of Advent and Christmas so that the message of these songs would be ever new for you and that the singing of them would renew your joy at the marvelous deeds God has done for us.