Matthew 26:30 “And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives.” I am so glad that hymn is included when Jesus went out with his disciples for the last time before he went to the cross. Not all the gospels included this, but Matthew felt it needed including. Sometimes we have wondered what hymn they sang, and what number they sang that day. It seems very likely it could have been one of the psalms, and there is a good chance it could have been the 22nd Psalm in reality we don’t know. One thing we do know those that were singing that day, not only singing hymns and singing songs they had learnt to sing the Lords song.
There is something about singing the Lord’s song that is more beautiful, and it has nothing to do with the notes. One of the nicest pictures of hearing the Lords song, and you are at convention and you are outside the tent, and from a distance you hear the singing, there is something lovely about that. It is God’s people singing the Lords song. Singing like no professional orchestra in the world could sing it, there is a quality there. Once we heard our hymns sung by a professional orchestra, and someone had hired them to sing them, just to hear what they sounded like. I don’t think I have heard our hymns sung so perfectly, but it was empty. But when we hear God’s people singing them, and not every one on key as we know, and there is a beauty that is in no other people. It is not in how it is being sung, or why it is being sung, it is because it is being sung.
The most important thing about learning to sing the Lords song to go through the process so we could learn to sing, and because of one thing we know about heaven, if we are going to be there, first of all we must learn how to sing. It tells us in Revelation it is not a matter of getting our masters in singing or practicing every day, it is not what goes into learning the song it is through the Lord’s work in our life, and we will learn that song. It speaks about a day coming for those who have learned those songs, and day is today we are learning to sing the Lord’s song.
We like to do something at our preps, we normally have a Bible study or a Gospel meeting. A few years ago, we asked all the staff if they would attempt this year to write a hymn for the next year. Some were very alarmed at that, and felt they could not. This one fellow who was just starting in the work, and he could not carry a tune, and he has learnt to carry a tune since then, and he said I would rather be excluded from this because I cannot sing. We said sometimes people write a song, and other people put a tune to it, and he said I will try that. He wrote the nicest poem, and it found its way into one of the collections they have. It is good to think of the Lord song. It would be good if we could have that confidence I can learn to sing.
There are several parts in the scripture where it speaks about singing the new song, in the Psalms there are about 5 or 6 places it says about singing the new song. The song was not new, as a fact it was older than any song on the earth, this song never gets old, it is always new. Hundreds of years later Isaiah speaks in the 42 Chapter and it is still a new song. And in Revelation 5 and 14 and 15 they are going to be singing a new song, by that time many things will be old, but that song will be new. Are we ready to sing that song or are we singing already? Sing to me the songs of Zion.
Psalm 33 v 3 “Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.” How loudly do we sing when we are singing the Lord’s song? As we look at the hymns we see it shares some of the verses from the Psalms in it. Great and marvellous are thy works, and if we think we have done a lot we may sing that loudly. It is not the song I did it my way, like praising ourselves, it is the song of our soul. We like to be singing that song louder and louder. Anything in my life it is because of what God has done in my life. Praise to the Lamb, and praise to the redemption that made it possible that we could sing the song.
In Psalm 40 it tells us a little of how to learn the song. Perhaps you have sung some of Kenneth Dissmore’s hymns, and one time a young brother worker, he felt he would like to write hymns also. This young worker wrote to Kenneth and said I would like to write hymns; how do I go about that? And Kenneth said how do you answer that question? How do you instruct someone to write a hymn, and maybe that younger brother was thinking there would be some technical pointers?
David was a hymn writer, and when you write a hymn where do you start? David could answer that Psalm 40 v 1 – 3 “I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined onto my and heard my cry. He bought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath and put a new song in my mouth even praise until our God; many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.” It was not a study or ear for music, it was an experience that he had. I was reading that Psalm one time and tried to figure out what time of David’s life that was, that he was in the pit. He was a model child and at 17 years of age had a wonderful testimony. We never see that he departed from that.
We read later on in the Psalm where he said I delight to do thy will O my Lord, that is not David talking it is Jesus talking. It tells us in Hebrews 10 that was Jesus talking. It was Jesus talking and it was a time he was in the pit. Why was Jesus in the pit, so he could keep our soul out. It was at that moment in his life when God turned his face from him, And Jesus said “My God, My God why hast though forsaken me?” He went through that experience so you and I would never have to go through that experience. Hell was not created for mankind, and do you remember what Jesus said, He created hell for the devil and his angels, it was never for God’s people. He has done everything to keep us from that pit, but we are on that course for that pit until Jesus comes, until Jesus redeems us from that. That is what the Psalm came from and that is why he had such a beautiful song. Jesus is the only one that ever came to this earth that always sang that song. He never had a sour note in there, he never lost that joy of salvation, he kept the song alive, he was willing to go to death for you and I.
It says he opened up my ear, and we have to hear the song to know what it is about. We know about an ear for music, some are born with that and some are not. It is wonderful when we are born again and we are given an ear for his song, and he gives us a love for that new song, and we love to hear others singing it. It says he has put a new song in my mouth, and many will hear it, and many will trust in it. It was getting a picture of Jesus singing the song. It was not only getting a picture of Jesus in the pit, but we need to get the picture that he went there for us.
The disciple’s the day after Jesus was crucified, and even the first day of the week, and they had no comfort and they had no joy. They knew that Jesus had died on the cross, they had a picture of Jesus’ physical suffering that we will never have. It took the resurrected Christ sing the song in order for them to have peace. Jesus came in amongst them and said peace be unto you. We are very tankful today when we can get fresh pictures of Jesus singing the song, and we in our part try to sing
It says in the Psalm later I will sing in the great congregation, that is something we need to understand this is not a solo act. This thing of singing a song is not how well I sing, how well do I sing with my brothers and sisters. One time there was a group of musicians they sang in harmony together, and there was a singer who became available, so they hired him, and he was much better than the singer they had before. They found out he was only good when he was singing by himself. It is something we got to be aware of. Not so much singing individually, but it is the way we sing together.
There was a time when this lady sang very well, and she sang in a group of people. She sang in such a way that once she was singing hardly anyone could here her, and when she didn’t sing, they missed her. She added something as she was singing in parts. They said how do you do that? She said when I sing, I try and sing so I get lost in the music. It would be good if we could be singing in harmony with our brothers and sisters, and sometimes we find we get a little off tune. We have to keep looking to our Master, and giving an ear for him, and watching Him.
In Psalm 144 v 9 “I will sing a new song unto thee, O God; upon a psaltery and an instrument of ten strings will I sing praises unto thee.” The psaltery was one of the instruments that David made. He also made harps, also a instrument of 10 strings, and we are not really sure what those instruments were like. One thing about this psaltery and it is outstanding, because it was a psaltery it was specially made to play songs. A psaltery doesn’t sing. It backs up the singer.
I like thinking of a picture and someone having an instrument and playing it in the back ground. Maybe you have had the experience of someone playing in a very nice voice. There is one string out of tune on the guitar and you would like to lean over and fix it. What is the instrument in our lives? What is the thing that adds quality to our singing? Is it not the testimony or the life behind it, our life needs a lot of work before it can tribute to the song. Then the changes take place. The Lord is the Master and he will work with our lives.
There is one part of making an instrument that I have appreciated; it is the matter of the sound board. It is the top of an instrument and you have to take wood away from it, and then you start tapping it, and for a while it just goes thud. You take a little more wood away and it opens up, and it sings. You got to be careful you do not take to much wood away. As God looks there and he sees there is potential there and we could respond. We can be in harmony with the sound that comes from heaven. We have to get a lot of the wood taken away, and only God can do that, he knows what to take away, and he knows what to leave, and he knows just how much to take away. I would like to have more of a testimony that would back up the song, and not only words from my mouth.
Jesus as one who had authority. Some may think he had a loud voice, but that was not it, there was the authority in his words, everything was in harmony, and everything backing that up, and adding to the song.
Sometimes this matter of making instruments, and we get a sour note, and in Psalm 144 it says there would be no complaining. The thing is how do you get rid of complaints? I never think the Lord meant never to have a complaint in our hearts, the Lord knows that when we see something that grieves us, we would also be grieved, and he is grieved. What do we do about it? Don’t take it out into the streets and don’t make it part of your song. Psalm 142 v 2 “I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.” That is a wonderful place to get rid of sour notes in the secret place with our Father. Do we have that confidence when we are alone with our Father that we can completely to talk to him about anything that we feel we need to? You parents, it is like when your children come home from school and they have some complaints and they are pouring their hearts to you may not agree with it all, but you are happy that, that child is happy to pour out to you. If we spent more time pouring out the sour notes before our Father in the secret place, we are less likely to pour out sour notes in our song, and in our street.
There are different things that will put sour notes in to our song. We will go back to when Jesus and the disciplines were singing the hymn. Judas did not sing that hymn, neither did Judas have the right song in his heart, and he had sour notes. If you are sitting beside someone who is singing off tune it is so hard to keep in tune. When Jesus faced all those experiences, he did not let his brothers off tune affect his tune, because Jesus always continued to sing a song. When you think of Jesus, and you think of the one who was one of the twelve, and what a wonderful privilege he had, and Jesus loved him as much as he loved the others, and for Judas to do something like that, and to go behind his back and to betray him for 30 pieces of silver to sell his Master. If you had a real good friend, and he did that to you, what would you do, and I think I would lose my song, and I am sure there would be a few sour notes there especially when I was talking about him. Judas came with a band of soldiers to the garden, and Jesus came up to him and called him friend. Jesus never allowed the spirit of another to affect his spirit. We are thankful the Lord can give us help to keep our song.
Isaiah 42 v 10, 11 “Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voices… let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountain.” I love the pictures of those who go down to the sea, that is the workers, the inhabitants and that is the listeners. If we expect as we go forth to peach the gospel the best thing, we can do is to just sing the song. It is not a matter of telling them what they have to change or whatever. It is just singing the song ourselves. There is something about singing this song that encourages others.
One time we were in a place and it was my first year in the work. There were a newly married couple who wanted to buy a piano, in that area there were pianos made, and there were a lot of people with grand looking pianos. They found this piano and they wanted us to go with them as they could not play a piano. We went in and it was a beautiful piano, just like it was brand new. As you know a piano would have a better tone a few years after it was made. We took the front off and it was very clean, we played a few notes and it was still in tune. We said to our friends that this piano was good and it was worth the money. The owners were looking at us and chatting between themselves, the lady came up and said we are very sorry, we have decided not to sell the piano. If you are singing your song well, it may encourage your brother or sister to buy the truth and sell it not. They had forgotten the value of what they had in the home; we can sometimes forget that.
Paul and Silas in the prison, and it became midnight, it could be a pleasant time as you would be asleep and forget for a about why where you are. Paul and Silas were not sleeping, they were singing at midnight, aren’t we thankful today for those who sang at midnight. When we were walking in darkness, and when we were in the prison, and before we got delivered, and we would have a time when we would but it out of our minds. Then there were our parents and some of the workers were singing songs at midnight keeping us awake. That is another part of this, that we would grieve that they would not be part of this, the very best thing we can do is to just to sing the song ourselves.
In Revelation 5 it speaks about the book. On the back of the book there were some things written there. So, it was written in the book, and on the back of the book. You know what is written on the back of the book, it is the end of the story. When you read the end of a story, and especially the end of this story, and you want to know what is in the book, as you want to know what lead up the end of the story. It was said there was no one worthy to open that Book. When you know there is something in the Book and you can’t get into it. John felt bad about it. It says he wept, because there was no one worthy to open the Book. Then those wonderful words “Weep not, behold the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the Book.” They turned and saw a Lamb as it had been slain.
It says they sang a new song; it was the same with David singing a new song. They sang “Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and we shall reign on the earth.” Is that part of our song today, that we have been redeemed and we are thankful for it, that God had a plan for us to make us into kings and priests? Can we really sing that work is taking place, and we know the work is not finished yet. It was priests to bring the cares of the people to God. It was the kings that bought the needs of the people to God. Good kings and priests in the Kingdom helping to keep the connection strong between God’s people and God.
Revelation 14 v 2 “And I heard the voice from heaven as the voice of many waters, as the voice of a great thunder; and I heard the voice of harper’s harping with their harps.” It is speaking about harping in a very positive thing. In Revelation 5,14 and 15 everyone there had harps. Everyone there had, had a work done in their life, they were not only there with a song or a belief, they were there that there was evident that there had been a work done in their lives, and they had a testimony that backed up the song they were singing. They were singing a new song, and no one can learn that song unless they were redeemed.
Chapter 15 v 2 “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and them that had gotten victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” That is something we need to do, before we can sing the new song, to learn to stand where we could not stand before. Peter will be there as he stood on water as no man had done that before. As we go through life’s experiences the Lord will enable us to stand where we have not stood before, where we would not be able to stand on our own power. All praise will be to him, who enabled us to stand there, to stand with a good spirit, to stand with forgiveness, to stand with respect for our brother and sister. There are so many things that can cause us to fall, there are so many things that can take away out heart. It speaks of these people that got victory over the beast, there is so much that can take away our testimony, they were standing there having harps. The Lord would like us to understand there is no reason that we all can’t be there singing that song. It says they would sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb.
Great and marvelous are thy works, it is nothing about what we have done. I am just so thankful for what Jesus has done. Have you ever seen two songs you can sing together in harmony? You can sing the song of Moses, and the song of the Lamb together in harmony, put them together and sing them and it is the Lord’s song. When Peter, John and James went up the mountain of transfiguration they were all singing the same song, all in harmony with one another. We are very thankful today we have this privilege today learning how to sing. We stood before and sang, we sing better when we are standing, it is the way the body is made. Singing the new song sounds better when we are standing. As long as we keep our head lifted, and as long as we are standing it will help us to sing that song, may it be so for us all. Amen
Truth Archive 