Whenever you see something repeated in the Bible, you know it is important. If you see it used THREE times, it is of utmost importance. That is why I perked up when I read the opening verses of Psalm 33 again. NOTICE: the THREE-FOLD emphasis on singing:
:1 “SING for joy in the Lord”
:2 “SING praises to Him with a harp of 10 strings”
:3 “SING to Him a new song”
— This 3-fold emphasis tells us that singing is VERY important in the worship of God.
— Notice also the different slant on singing in worship that each of these verses gives:
Our singing is to be “TO HIM” (:2); i.e. we are not singing for each other’s benefit; GOD is the Audience!
Our singing is to be “for joy” (:1) — no drab ritual here!
We are to sing with instruments (:2) — that is not unscriptural!
We are also commanded (notice it is a command!) to sing new songs (:3) — as we have seen before, we sing new songs reflecting the fact that God continues to do new things for us, which we celebrate with songs which reflect our recent deliverances. Also we can never fully capture His glory with the songs we currently have; thus we should always be writing and singing more new songs! We could do this for all eternity, and still never fully exhaust His glories!
So as we head off to worship today, let’s do it with Psalm 33:1-3 in mind, and go to “SING, SING, SING!”