In multiple places in Scripture, we are told of the blessing that comes with singing a new song. But this is an easy phrase to misunderstand—we tend to think it means a recent song. But the idea of the new song is that of a fresh song. It refers the quality of the song, and the quality of the singing. A song composed ten minutes ago could be sung as though it were a dirge, and a song grounded in the ancient wisdom before the foundation of the world—worthy is the Lamb that was slain—is new every morning.
But of course, if we in our lethargy and sloth sing the ancient glories like we were dragging a rope, then we are slandering the good news by our musical behavior. And the quality we are looking for does not come primarily from the diaphragm, throat, and mouth, but rather from the heart. If we have an attitude about the music, then whatever it is we sing, whenever it was composed, it is not the new song that Scripture talks about.
Now I need to directly state one implication of this. This means that to the extent we avoid what is called contemporary music for our worship service, this is not because it is
contemporary at all. It is because as a general rule we believe most music in that category does not offer the same scope that other music offers for singing the new song that God sets before us. It is too limited. In saying this, we are not saying that a song that does offer the scope will be one that the congregation will necessarily take advantage of. We frequently do not, and so we want to stir you up to love and good notes.
Many contemporary services are full of saints whose hearts surpass their music. If we are not careful, we will stumble so that our hearts lag far behind our music. If that happens, and it has happened many times in the history of the church, we should take solemn warning. It would be far, far better to be someone who did not have the musical vocabulary for his heart than to be someone who did not have the heart for his musical vocabulary.
One other thing. You probably picked up that there was an implied musical criticism of much contemporary Christian music in what I just said. Because contemporary Christian music gets a bad rap from all directions, I would like to add an exhortation. Too many young people turn up their noses at contemporary Christian music (because they hear such criticisms), but then they turn to secular music that has all of the faults of contemporary Christian music, and none of the virtues. And once they have settled there, they are deaf to all criticisms, which shows what is actually happening.