1 Sing joyfully to the Lord, you righteous;
it is fitting for the upright to praise him.
2 Praise the Lord with the harp;
make music to him on the ten-stringed lyre.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is right and true;
he is faithful in all he does.
5 The Lord loves righteousness and justice;
the earth is full of his unfailing love.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
their starry host by the breath of his mouth.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea into jars;
he puts the deep into storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord;
let all the people of the world revere him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to be;
he commanded, and it stood firm.
10 The Lord foils the plans of the nations;
he thwarts the purposes of the peoples.
11 But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever,
the purposes of his heart through all generations.
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord,
the people he chose for his inheritance.
13 From heaven the Lord looks down
and sees all humankind;
14 from his dwelling place he watches
all who live on earth—
15 he who forms the hearts of all,
who considers everything they do.
16 No king is saved by the size of his army;
no warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 A horse is a vain hope for deliverance;
despite all its great strength it cannot save.
18 But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,
19 to deliver them from death
and keep them alive in famine.
20 We wait in hope for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
21 In him our hearts rejoice,
for we trust in his holy name.
22 May your unfailing love be with us, Lord,
even as we put our hope in you.
My thoughts -
There are a couple of things that I love about this psalm for different reasons, the first superficial and the second significantly less so. As a guitarist who takes great pride in the ability to play the instrument well I love verse 3:
Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully, and shout for joy.
Some of you who know me better may also appreciate the "shouting for joy" bit in there as well, as my "singing" style (yes, the air quotes are necessary) errs on the side of shouting. When my wife and I first met I was leading a worship service at her church and the first thing she noticed about me was my big mouth.
But seriously, when we worship with music we should do it in a way that is both as skillful as we can while also passionate. This is our offering. We should give all that we can.
The second thing I love about this psalm is something that I have found frequently while studying the psalms for the brief amount of time that I have. Again, in this psalm, we find God's concern for justice and righteousness placed directly in the worship. It's all over this psalm. You can't get away from it. I would love for our worship to voice these concerns as openly and often as the psalms. That's something for me to work on.
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