We turn in the Word of God to the Gospel of Luke and then Psalm 98. And we will stand to read the Word and give our diligent respect and attention to God who speaks. In the next weeks, Pastor Mooney and I plan to be preaching a number of sermons about that first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are reminded of the same here from the Gospel of Luke, and then from Psalm 98, one of the places in the Old Testament where the praises of God's people erupt in anticipation of the coming of the Lord. Here, a fulfillment, Luke chapter two. It came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. The census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city. Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David. To be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife, who was with child. So it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling claws and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over the flock by night. And behold, an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. Then the angel said to them, Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you, You'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger. Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Turn in the Old Testament to Psalm 98. Song of praise, anticipating the coming of the Lord. A psalm. Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory. The Lord has made known His salvation. His righteousness He has revealed in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth in song, rejoice and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm, with trumpets and the sound of a horn. Shout joyfully before the Lord, the King. Let the sea roar in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord. He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness, he shall judge the world and the peoples with equity. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of the Lord endures forever. We turn in the word of God to Psalm 98 for its preaching. Before that, we will join in prayer. Lord our God, we have been taught to pray to you that your light and your truth would lead us to your holy hill. And Lord, we know that that deepest of human longings can only be met by the knowledge of you, the shining face of your glory. Lord, with communion with you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, That this world is that dry and thirsty land in which there is no water. But. You are the Lord God in heaven, refuge and strength of your people. And there is that river that makes glad the city of God. We long to taste of that water of life again, to drink from that river of life, to feast on the bread of heaven, that you would fill us by your word and spirit and equip us again and carry us to that better day when we shall see face to face. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. We turn again in the preaching of the word to Psalm 98. Psalm, as I said in the last weeks, we're going through a series of Psalms. Last week, Psalm 19, Psalm 98, and then we'll pick up that Psalm series again a little bit in the new year. Tonight, Psalm 98, with a particular thought towards the coming of the Lord. The psalm is a very exuberant psalm, and it places, in a place of secondary importance, though it begins with this note, it places a great importance on the matter of singing. Of exuberant song. As a matter of fact, it opens with the command to sing to the Lord a new song. It is a, in principle, this psalm is simply this, a command that you would sing, and a command with reasons. The greatest saints of history have loved to sing and pen songs in response to God's saving mercies, and you can think of a good number of names in your Bible, You can think of Moses and Miriam. You can think of David. And then you can think of those who, you can think of Mary, the Song of Mary. You can think of Zacharias, the Song of Zacharias. And then you can think of others that we know sang. We think of the priestly choirs in the Old Testament. We think of our Savior who sang a hymn with his disciples at the table. We think of our Savior who's described to us in Psalm 22 prophetically as being the worship leader of His church in the New Covenant. We think of Paul and Silas when they were in prison, singing. We think of Paul writing to the churches at Ephesus and Colossae, reminding them to be those who sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in their hearts to the Lord. And we go all the way to the end of our Bibles, and we will find heavenly glory filled with those around the throne who are singing, and repeatedly in that book, singing the new song in praise to God. Not only is this pattern in the Bible, but as I said a moment ago, there's direct commands to sing. We have this in this psalm, and together with the psalms around it, you will notice a significant theme. Psalm 95, O come let us sing to the Lord. Psalm 96, O come let us sing to the Lord. Psalm 98, oh sing to the Lord a new song in a similar way. Psalm 100, make a joyful shout to the Lord all you lands. Serve the Lord with gladness and again come before his presence with this specific activity of singing. And then Psalm 101 is David himself singing, I will sing of mercy and of justice. We're in a section of this altar where this theme comes up again and again, that we were created by God to respond to his saving acts of love and mercy in song. Singing is simply part of being a Christian. Sometimes I think we, and I've said this before, maybe in Sunday school, I can't recall where, but in our age where we simply consume media, where we put in our AirPods, where we put on our noise-canceling headphones and we cut off the world, we sing a lot less. We just listen. But we were not designed simply to listen. We were designed to sing. We were given these faculties to bring glory to God. Singing is simply part of being a Christian, and this psalm is a challenge to sing praise to God. And we will study that challenge and the two reasons for it this evening. It's clear, first of all, that the principal command in this psalm is to sing. We'll see that in verse one. And then we'll ask a question, why does this psalm command singing? And there's two reasons in the psalm. The first reason is found in verses one through three, and the second reason is found in verse nine. In between, the command, O sing to the Lord, is repeated with intensity, through the psalm and gathering in with imperatives all humanity and all creation to join in that new psalm. So that at the end nothing is left that is not praising God. Something of the note that you have the whole book of psalms ending with Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Or Psalm 148, the heights, the angels, the host, the sun, moon, and stars, the stormy wind, mountains and hills, fruitful trees and cedars, beasts and all cattle, young men and maidens, old men and children, let them praise the name of the Lord. That picture of universal praise runs through the psalm as well. Which means that none of you are accepted from the command. So we have the principle command, we have the reason for the command, and then we will look at what it means to obey that command. So the principle command in the psalm, you look at the text, it's very straightforward, it's a psalm. First of all, that inscription tells us that it was meant to be sung, it's for the public worship of God. As an aside, though I do not hold to the position of exclusive psalmody, the church would do well in our age to return to the psalms and sing them. They are the basic pattern, the outline of what it means to respond to God. It's interesting, we just read and then we sang Psalm 98 and what's happening there is God is teaching you how to sing. He's giving you words to say. He's leading you by the hand to bring you to the throne and to help you give him glory. The principle way in this psalm that we give him that glory is by singing the action commanded, is to use the voice to make music, and that music is a combination of a melody or a tune with words. Again, to use your voice to make music, that music is comprised of a combination of a melody or a tune and words set to that tune, and that's the basic definition of sinning, and the divine imperative command is that you would sing. Why, or to whom? Sing to the Lord, Yahweh, I am who I am, the God of Israel, the God of the Bible. So there's some, if the pie chart of your life, if you could put it, imagine that in your mind, there needs to be a portion of that that is devoted to this activity of singing to God. It is a clear command of the scriptures to the Lord, the Lord God of Israel. And specifically, it is this new song, a song of praise to God. It's a specific kind of singing that is commanded here. It's worship. It's singing where the object that the music is directed to, the one who sits on the throne who made the heavens and the earth and saves sinners. Just singing in general, it's singing in order to bring him glory. A very specific kind of singing. The content is that new song, and the new song is repeated, the language of the new song is repeated all through the scriptures, and you might ask, what does it mean that that song is new? In Psalm 40 we get a bit of a hint of what that means. That's rescue, deliverance, conversion, salvation in poetic language. He has put a new song in my mouth. Praise to our God, many will see it and fear. The new song is that song which is given to the redeemed in which they, seeing the glory of God and his saving love and mercy, begin that new life with a new expression of praise to God for that saving mercy. You see the same language in the book of Revelation in chapter five and verse nine and chapter 14 and verse three. It's the response to God's saving love. It's the response of a new heart that begins in a new way, and central to that is singing praise to God. Here's the command, use your voice musically and direct the praise to God. Part of your life. This is interesting, it also tells us something about human nature. God made us musical and to sing, some of us more or less than others. Psalm 100 helps us there, make a joyful shout to the Lord, serve the Lord with gladness. The command in the scriptures is not a command to perform for others or to reach a level of technical excellence before you begin. The command is simply to respond to the love of God in Christ for you by learning to use your voices musically to praise God. Music's powerful. There's a powerful link in music between word and emotion. Thoughts and emotions. And it works two ways. It's interesting. A composer uses that often to link ideas and emotions in your head, which is why music can be used dangerously or deceptively. It can make you feel the wrong thing with the wrong words. And probably most of our music in America today, every now and then we have a song on in the car. Just this week I found a new song. It sounded, not the new song here, a different song. And I don't know if it was in the car, it was at the house somewhere, I can't remember, maybe it was in the car. And we were driving along with a few of us, and it sounded good, and then we started to listen a little bit, and it still sounded good, but the words weren't that good. Music has a powerful way to get into your heart, into your mind, to move your emotions, to shape your thinking. It's very powerful. designed to express experiences, and it particularly does that, to recreate, in remarkable ways, you think of the Song of Moses in Exodus chapter 15, where he, what pours out of him is the emotion of the deliverance in the Red Sea. And there, there's a right use of the medium by Moses. As a listener then, music duplicates that experience in us. This is why a culture's music is the key to its spirituality, which does not say much for America right now. What association is being made? Is there truth being spoken? The power of music is remarkable, and many governments have used it. I think at Nebuchadnezzar, he had music as part of his allegiance. I was in North Korea years ago, and one thing that struck me is the amount of time government-sanctioned music was playing. It would almost drive you crazy. But it was used to send messages. It's not incidental that the first musicians in the Bible were rebellious, and that they used the medium. They weren't from the line of Adam, they were from the line of Cain, not the line of Seth, the line of Cain. They were rebellious. Words and the tune together has the power to implant ideas almost effortlessly in your mind. And you need all to think about that. You, young people, think about the place and how you use music in your life. It's also interesting how music forms culture and draws people together, which isn't all bad. We can enjoy it. God's given us, it's a great gift. But we also have to realize that it has the power to shape culture and shape your mind. So you need to think about it. More profound is the question of why we are actually musical. And what it appears is that God made us to be. Fundamentally. to bring him praise, to glorify his name, to sing to him and together, to encourage one another. He made us musical creatures in order to reflect and communicate his beauty and his glory back to him, and then also to meditate on the beauty and glory of the things that he, his world and what he has done. And again, if you think about, Those in the scriptures, on the page of the scriptures, the significant names you remember, they sing. Moses and David and, like I said earlier, Paul and Silas, but also all creation, the birds in the hills and the choirs of Bethlehem, the angelic choir we just read about. The angels in heaven before the throne, the spirits of just men made perfect. This is an enduring feature in heaven of what it means to know God. So here's the question, that's the command, why? Why sing? Keep reading. Four. There are two fours in the psalm that give us the two reasons. The first one is immediately following in verse one. The second one is at the end of the psalm, verse nine. And these two fours give you the reason, the impetus for the singing in the psalm. What is the content of this new song? What is it driven by? What are the reasons that drive the music from the singer to God? The first thing is for things that he has done. He has done marvelous things. The first section of the Psalm, verses one through three, is focused on God's past glorious and powerful works of salvation. If you look at it, it's all past tense. He has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gained him the victory. He has made known. He has revealed, He has remembered, all the ends of the other earth have seen. Completed acts of God are in view here. He has gained a supernatural public victory which is so unmistakable that it declares in verse 3 that He remembered His mercy and His faithfulness to the house of Israel and that all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. His right hand and his holy arm, Calvin means, it means not by human means or in an ordinary way, but he did these things with unprecedented divine power in history. Unmistakable divine power is in view here. And what has he done? Marvelous things. He's gained the victory. He's made known his salvation. He's revealed his righteousness, his moral uprightness. He's remembered his mercy. He has shown his salvation universally to the entire world. Where and how? As we saw this morning, and I didn't think that I would repeat this theme twice in one day, but what is the great saving act of God in the Old Testament? If you were here this morning, you know that it's the Exodus. Egypt versus Israel. Promise and victory. Conquest. Israel took the land under Joshua. Promise and victory, same thing again. And this song, Psalm 98 here, springs from the previous victories of God and also the singing of Israel in response to those victories. I'll think of some songs. Back to the song of Moses, Exodus 15. I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song. He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him. And then later on, who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you? Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them, for in your mercy you have led forth your people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation. And then later, the people will hear and be afraid. The world will take notice. that God sent the 10 plagues to Egypt, brought Israel to the banks of the Red Sea, divided the sea, carried them through, gave them manna, crossed the wilderness to Sinai. And the world does know this right now. The history of redemption, as recorded by Moses in the first five books of the Bible, has reverberated all through human history and has been taught generationally across the world and across the ages. The things that God has done, regardless of whether or not people believe it's true, it is true. And it has had an effect. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. When it happened, what's interesting is that when this happened, It immediately reverberated through the ancient world and caused the nations of the world to fear. Let me give you some examples. After God brought Israel out of Egypt, Israel defeated Og and Sion in warfare. Then chapter 22 of Numbers, then the children of Israel moved and encamped in the plains of Moab. Now Balak the son of Zippor saw that all Israel had done to the Amorites, and Moab was exceedingly afraid because the people were many, and they were sick in dread because of the people of Israel. The reputation of Israel's victories under God spread. Another example, a famous example in the book of Joshua, chapter 2, where we have Rahab. And when she hides the spies, this is what she confesses. Now, before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof. So this is Rahab. The camp of Israel, Joshua sent out spies to Jericho. The two spies have been received. They are being tracked down in Jericho. Rahab, this woman, hides them in her house. And she begins speaking to the spies as she's hiding them. Now before they lay down, she came up to them on the roof and she said to them, I know that the Lord God has given you the land. I know that the terror of you has fallen on us, that all the inhabitants of the land are fainthearted because of you. For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea. For when you came up out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Emirates who were on the other side of the valley, Sion and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. As soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted. Neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you. For the Lord your God, He is God in heaven. above and on the earth beneath. Now, therefore, I beg you, swear to me by the Lord. that you will spare me." The reputation of God in history spreads across the earth. These are the acts of His right hand, His holy arm, His victory, His salvation, His righteousness, His mercy and faithfulness to the house of Israel, and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. This is the public vindication of Israel's God reverberating through history, through the mighty and powerful works of the Exodus. Psalm 48 reminds us. The same was connected to the enthronement of David and the establishment of Jerusalem. Mount Zion is the subject of Psalm 48. And there, David, you remember, he takes Zion, conquers the hill, takes it from the Jebusites, and we read this in Psalm 48. For behold, the kings assembled, they passed by together, they sought, and so they marveled. They were troubled, they hastened away. Fear took hold of them there, and pain as of a woman in birth pains, as when you break the ships of Tarshish with an east wind. God will establish his city forever. These Old Testament saving works, through which the reputation of God and faithfulness to Israel and in judgment against his enemies, the public vindication of Israel's God reverberating through ancient history to the ends of the earth, His great coming on the world stage with righteousness, victory, judgment, and salvation resulted in, again and again, in what we could call global awe, terror, and respect of the God of Israel. Isaiah could preach about this. The Lord has made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. You see, there's a principle here. It's exactly lifted from Psalm 98, that when God acts, the world takes notice and either shrinks back in fear or in faith and trust, bows down and worships in songs of praise. Part two, second reason. The psalm moves, the psalm moves to an anticipation of a future glory. This is very important for you to understand the Old Testament. The movement of this psalm begins with an expansion of those praises. You'll notice the ends of all the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Verse four, the psalmist now turns to the world and says, join the worship. That's the call of the gospel. The father is seeking worshipers who will worship him in spirit and in truth, Jesus said. The call of the gospel is be reconciled to God and bow before his throne and join the everlasting worship of the triune God. Lift up your voice and sing. That's a gospel call. Now, from Israel singing implicitly, the world is being called to sing. Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth break forth and song again. Rejoice and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of the song, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Shout joyfully before the Lord the King. And then something quite remarkable happens in verse 7. This universal praise of musical song offered to God spreads to the inanimate creation. The entire created order is in view. I read for a moment, a moment ago from Psalm 148. Here's a condensation of Psalm 148 and Psalm 98. Look what it says. Let the sea roar in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord. There is a sense in this Psalm as it begins to move that what God has done, is leading to a sense of anticipation and liberation of the entirety of humanity and the creation. And I don't mean that in a universal salvation sense, but what I mean is that there are global implications of this saving work that is seen in seed form in the Exodus. This breaks in anticipation to verse 9. Now we look future, we were looking back, now we're looking forward. The highest point in this psalm is captured in these words, for he is coming. He's coming again to judge the earth. With righteousness he shall judge the world and the peoples with equity. Notice the shift from past to future. The future hope of a divine visitation. This tells us something about the nature of the Exodus. This is very important. Again, I said earlier, understanding of the Old Testament. The nature of the Exodus is that a believer knew already. that this was but a small down payment of a future glory and a coming that would encompass more than Israel and Egypt, but would have global implications of the reputation, name, and glory of the triune God. Call the world to repentance and faith through a second coming, not the first of the Exodus, and I'm not mixing up second coming with the second coming of Jesus Christ, but the idea of another coming of the Lord in history. that the one who penned this understood the Exodus already in the Old Testament to be a circumscribed, a limited typological event whose glory had not yet been fulfilled in history, that there would be a future coming of the Lord, which brings us to the idea of the day of the Lord in the Old Testament. After the Exodus, the Old Testament is pregnant with the idea of God showing his power and glory and coming down. A day of the Lord, a day where His glory would shine, where He would rend the heavens, Isaiah 64, and come down and visit His people. A day that Joel talked about as the coming of the Lord, a day that the prophet Micah powerfully describes, the prophet Micah powerfully describes that day in his prophecy, if you listen to the language of Micah chapter one. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place. And this is far later in the history of Israel. Isaiah and Micah are somewhere around the time of Hezekiah, late in the period of the kings. All through this period, there's this hope. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place. He will come down. He will tread on the high places of the earth. The mountains will melt under him. The valleys will split like wax before the fire. He is coming. is this drumbeat of Old Testament hope and prophecy across its pages, across the prophets. Joel chapter two, Micah chapter one, Isaiah 62, Zechariah chapter 14, captured again in the great cry, oh that you would rend the heavens and come down. And it is the great hope of the Old Testament until the very last pages of that book. When we read the messenger of the covenant, Malachi chapter three, In whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord. The son of righteousness is about to arise with healing in his wings. There's a great longing here for a divine visitation. So what do we have? We have a taste at the beginning. So a remembering of what God has done. And at the end, the second reason is an anticipation or a hunger for future glory. And the taste of what he has done, combined with the hunger for future glory, is what drives the song, the new song, which sweeps up all Israel, the world, and even the mountains and the hills and the rivers. That there is something anticipated, so glorious, not yet experienced in the Old Covenant, that will rightly call all creation without exception to worship the Lord. Fulfilled where? In the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. We just read from the birth narrative. Before that, the wonder begins in Luke chapter 1 when the Holy Spirit overshadows the Virgin Mary. And then those little words that we just read, which are the description of the birth of Christ in the scriptures, and she, Mary, brought forth her firstborn son. All of that Old Testament hope and longing, God says, here's the down payment, the deposit, the sign, the token of my saving love, the exodus. But just wait, because if that makes you praise, and if that makes the world tremble until I appear, the Lord, on the stage of human history to do the greater things that your heart longs for and to make all creation praise forever. This is the great day of the Lord that is prophesied here. This is what the angels sang about when they said, glory to God in the highest on earth, peace, goodwill to men. This is what Simeon sang about in Luke chapter two. And if you turn there, if you read Simeon's song, particularly Simeon's song, He understands the Old Testament with all the longing together with Anna of the new covenant glory. He has been waiting. He has been waiting for the Lord to come. He says, Lord, you are now letting your servant depart in peace. According to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. He already, when he saw Jesus, The child in the temple, he knew that he had come and that this was the salvation that all Israel had hoped for in the promise of the coming of the Lord. Now, what does it mean for he is coming, verse nine? To understand this rightly, you have to think about what some interpreters of the Scriptures have used a big phrase for this, prophetic foreshortening. What does that mean? In the Old Testament, we have promises that He is coming, the Lord Himself will descend. We have prayers, oh that you would rend the heavens and come down. And we have a repeated mention, as I said, from Joel chapter two or Zechariah 14 or Micah chapter one of something called the day of the Lord. Now, when the Old Testament prophets were prophesying of a coming, they were doing something like this. I think it's Louis Burkhoff, in his book Principles of Biblical Interpretation, uses this illustration, and he says, it's like you're driving across the plains and you see a mountain range. As a matter of fact, I was telling my children about this, Sam and Naomi, in the Bible reading yesterday, to help them understand. So you see a mountain range. If you see a mountain range on the horizon, it looks like one line, one rocky wall. But you know that when you get into the mountains, the variegated beauty of the valleys that that range can spread for, can go ahead of you for a hundred miles. So the whole thing is one, but the details of the thing are more complex once you get there. And he used that illustration to explain how little phrases, for he is coming to judge the earth, encompass the fullness of the work of Jesus Christ. Not only his birth, But His death, not only His death, but His resurrection, His ascension, His present reign, and His second coming, in order, if you keep reading, to judge the earth with righteousness, He will judge the world and the peoples with equity. That in a glance, this psalm is anticipating as the second reason for praise, the entirety of the condescending, covenant-fulfilling, God-with-us ministry of Jesus Christ. It's fulfilled all in the complexity and the glory of Christ. And it's interesting that our Savior in Matthew 24 uses the language of coming and uses the language of turning to the Lord, the language of waiting for the day of the Lord. Jesus uses that language of the coming to judge the nations in his Olivet Discourse. The coming is for what reason? If you turn to Ephesians, Ephesians chapter one, You will see that it's with an end in mind. Ephesians chapter one, verses nine and 10. Having made known the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times Christ might gather, that he, the father, might gather in one all things in Christ in heaven and on earth which are in him. Why do I use that verse? Because all that is in the psalm Israel receiving her covenant mercies, the world receiving the proclamation of the gospel, and the whole creation that Romans 8 groans and travails for the day of its retention. All of it together is brought together in Jesus Christ, and everything promised, prophesied, and foretold in this psalm is fulfilled in Him. Now, when we pull it all together, what was the command at the beginning of this psalm? Sing. Sing. all humanity, all creation, the whole Old Testament, what God has done and what God is presently doing in Jesus Christ. If you understand it, grab hold of it, live by faith in Jesus Christ, you must sing. You must respond with shouting joyfully before the Lord, the King. You know, some of us can go to a football game And the great accomplishment of someone getting the little leather ball pigskin over the line can make 80,000 people erupt. And when you think about the accomplishment, There's much more to it than just that motion. There's a whole season of preparation and training and strategy and all these things. But in the course of history, the touchdown doesn't mean anything. It's a small, insignificant moment. What happens to the stadium? Explodes. I've been there on my feet. Something that captures us. Christ has come. What happens to your heart? He's coming again. What happens? How do you respond? Are you singing? A few instructions on obeying the central command of the psalm. The first lesson is this on meditation. There's a lingering consideration of the word that we often do not engage in the way that we should. Do you ever feel badly as I so often do? I remember years ago walking down a street in Ontario in the darkness thinking about preaching the gospel and wondering if I could ever do it, and I still wonder. Because the things of which we preach and believe are so much greater often than they, so much greater than the response of our heart. That here we believe in things that are eternal, glorious, never ending, salvation, a king of glory who came the first time, coming a second time. And my heart and life can often sink into the lowest horizon of the most passing things. What I believe to be true is massive. We live between the first and second comings of Jesus Christ. I believe that what we just read here, He is coming to judge the earth. With righteousness, He will judge the world. The peoples with equity, that's the future end of this world. If you're a Christian, you believe that. Does it move you? Do you ever ask the question, how could I just fall into the same old sins or be strangely unaffected by something that when I see it, will strike me to the core of my being like nothing I could ever think or imagine. Antidote, meditation on the word of God. Psalm 98, great example of this meditation. You're reading not just to figure out how to live the good life, though you want to live a good life for God, but you read with a steady contemplation of the works, the character, the attributes, and the glory of God. And you pray over it, and you say, Lord, show me that glory. Help me understand what you have done, what you've done for me in Christ. Power of the cross, the glory of the empty tomb, and the second coming, and then, Lord, help me live in light of that glory. What you have done, what you will do, Lord, with Christ at the center. And the next week, you're gonna learn more about his birth again. Let your mind run from there to his death, again his resurrection, his present reign. Set your mind on things above, his second coming. Our citizenship is in heaven, Paul writes to the Philippians, from which we eagerly await a savior, Jesus Christ. We're waiting. Paul says that we're to comfort one another with these things, the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3. Nevertheless, we, according to his promise, We expect a new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells, eagerly expect. The first reason why we might not sing is because our minds and hearts are not saturated in the saving acts of God with faith and love towards Jesus Christ. Then you won't sing. You need to pray that the truth of the gospel would so captivate you. Pray for the spirit's help that you would sing. Meditate on the word, number one. Number two, if this meditation is successful, it'll find two outlets in the Christian life. If it's successful, there'll be two outlets. Outlet number one is exuberant worship. And here's a little phrase that you could think of. Perhaps if we hardly sing, we hardly believe. Go back to the football game. The guy at the football game, he can yell, can he sing? Look at the language of the text. Shout joyfully, break forth in song, rejoice, sing praises. Shout joyfully before the Lord, let the sea roar, the whole world, rivers clap their hands, the hills be joyful together, sing to the Lord a new song. There is an exuberant energy of worship here. And one way to ask yourself is do I love to sing? Do you ever sing on your own to God? On your own, you ever done that? You ever found a place or walked in the woods? Is there a melody in your heart to the Lord? Again, those who have gone before us, Moses and David and Paul and Silas would say yes, for Christ, yes. You will sing about what you love. The world sings about what it loves. Christians, we sing about who we love, Jesus Christ. That's a great hymn, when he comes, our glorious king, all is ransomed, home to bring. Then anew this song we'll sing, hallelujah, what a savior. Is there something in you that wants to sing? Second outlet will be holiness. An increasingly focused, consecrated life, the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace, and you meditate on your death and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not morbidly, because death is the doorway to glory. And you aim for that. And then you say, Lord, reorder my entire existence to make me ready for that better day. Everything. It has to change your life. For he is coming to judge the world. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. And the function of these responses in history is what? Witness. It's glory to God first, it's witness to the world as well. I've said this before in preaching and I'll say it again. What, especially simple reform preaching, reform worship rather, what would make boring worship, reluctant participation? And the root of that would not be outward show, but it would be, Lord, warm my heart to praise. Give me greater love to Christ. And help me sing the new song. Lord, captivate my heart with what you have done for me and your son. And focus my eyes on what you will do for me in him. And then make me sing. All have seen the salvation of the Lord in him, in Jesus, verse three. Lord, make me sing. Do you see a pattern? As an aside here, it's one of the reasons why we don't have a choir at Covenant, I've said this before, because we're all singing. And the audience is the Creator and Redeemer, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And what we do here every week is a rehearsal for what will happen when Christ comes again. So we sing. We do it for mutual edification, for witness, and for the glory of God. Until the King comes, either in his providence to carry us one by one, or to stand us all before his throne forever. Sing to the Lord a new song. Let's pray. Lord our God, we pray for grace that we might sing now and forever to you. The response of our heart would be such that we would count you to be worthy. We would take the instruments you've given us, Lord, our very lives and then our worship and offer it back to you. Or that we would think on what you've done and anticipate what you will do. And in between those two great pulls, Lord, offer ourselves in praise forever. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Go now with the blessing of the Lord. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you his peace. Amen.