"'Now behold, I have brought the first of the produce of the ground which You, O Lord have given me.' And you shall set it down before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God; and you and the Levite and the alien who is among you shall rejoice in all the good which the Lord your God has given you and your household." (Deuteronomy 26:10-11)Today, as Christians, we no longer have to journey to a physical place to bring our offerings to God. Under His new covenant, God has chosen to abide in each believer rather than in a physical temple or some single location. "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands." (Acts 17:24) "Do you not know that you are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?" (1 Corinthians 3:16)
Similarly, today our offerings most often do not consist of physical items such as produce or sacrificial animals. Speaking of the coming of the Christ, David says, "Sacrifice and meal offering You have not desired; my ears You have opened; burnt offering and sin offering You have not required." (Psalms 40:6) Under His new covenant, God has not asked us to offer up such physical items in our worship, but there is something He does ask us to bring in our worship. "Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name." (Hebrews 13:15) God is not interested in our physical possessions as much as He is in the gratitude of our hearts as expressed through our praise and worship.
David exhorts us to "Sing to Him a new song; Play skillfully with a shout of joy." (Psalms 33:3) Fortunately he goes on to say what he means by a "new song." "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God; many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord." (Psalms 40:3) The "new song" David is talking about is a song of praise; a song that is new, not because if was previously unknown, but because it is new in the context of our praise. When we sing to God a song of praise that is born out of something new God has done in our lives, even if it is an old song, it can be a new song of praise unto God; it is new because of the new thing God has done in our heart.
As God is continually moving and working in our lives, there are continual opportunities to worship God with a "new song". While it is good to recall and thank God for what He has done in ages past, our worship should never be solely focused in the past, rather our praise must be contemporary and filled with the reality of what God is doing presently. We must not allow our worship to become stale; singing the same old songs we used to sing ten or twenty years ago. Rather our worship should always be fresh and new; born out of our daily life and experiences with God. Let us take the advice of David to heart and daily find new reasons to worship God with a new song.
David Robison
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