Have you ever had something happen to you so bad or hurtful that you simply couldn't do what this song in Psalm 98 asks, "Sing a new song to the Lord"?
I like to compare this psalm with the story of the two downcast followers of Jesus who left Jerusalem on Easter morning, believing He was dead (see Luke 24:13-24).
Those two disciples were in no emotional shape to sing. When Jesus came to them unrecognized, "they stood still, their faces downcast" (Luke 24:17). The hard reality of death had not destroyed their love for Him, but it had demolished their hope, as indicated by their past-tense statement: "We had hoped" (v. 21).
Like them, have you lost hope? A hard experience has slain your expectation of good things, but not your love for God?
This psalm asks you to "sing to the Lord a new song" (v. 1). Why? The psalm answers the question; but before looking at its response, let's probe our own hearts.
How fresh is your experience with the Lord? Do you feel He is not working in your life? Has depression placed a frog in your throat so you don't sing?
George O. Wood is the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God.
