"Sing a new song to the LORD, for He has done wonderful deeds. His right hand has won a mighty victory; His holy arm has shown His saving power!"
Of course we again have the idea of putting the old song behind us and singing the new song that God has put into our hearts. God has shown the vanity of the old song and great victory in the new song. He contrasts them by implication.
The old song is one of defeat and grumbling just as we saw the children of Israel doing during their delivery from bondage. But then we see the new song is one of victory as we see the faith of Caleb and Joshua and the song of Moses in Exodus 15.
The old song is one of pride, leading to loneliness and disappointment. The new song is one of dependence, leading to love and security in the Lord. We see this illustrated all over the Old Testament.
"All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation (victory) of our God." The contrast between the old and the new song is one of ignorance versus enlightenment. The old song is one of darkness and ignorance; the new song is one of light and enlightenment.
The new song celebrates the reign of the King with shouts of joy, songs of joy and with instruments of joy as we see in the latter part of Psalm 98. It is summed up in the words "make a joyful symphony before the LORD, the King!"
The last part of the Psalm reminds us that the new song will usher in the return of the King to judge all the earth; global judgement with righteousness and fairness to all nations. Global anticipation and celebrating the return of the King is seen in Revelation, along with the words "Sing to the LORD a new song!". Our worship then as now must have the new song as a part of it! God gave the song so we would sing it - glorifying Him! mjm
