“Sing to Him a new song . . .” – Psalm 33:3a
We are to sing to God a new song. Yesterday’s rejoicing will not do. Recalling only God’s past work is insufficient. Being content to bask in the goodness of God at rare, pinnacle moments is not right. At all times, a new rejoicing is to be in our hearts. Why? Because “all His work is done in faithfulness” (Psalm 33:4, NASB).
God is never unfaithful to His children. At all times – and in all things – He remains singularly focused on His purpose. There can never exist a moment of time that our God is not steadfast, holding to His plan. Of course, moments and hours and months and years of time can feel senseless or haphazard to us, but “the counsel of the LORD stands forever” (Psalm 33:11).
Our desperate clinging to the Word of God is our salvation, for “the word of the LORD is upright” (Psalm 33:4). Circumstances are upside-down, and people’s actions are unjust, but God’s Word is upright. We must focus unwaveringly on the truth of the big picture. It is the enemy’s sly plan to get us looking to the left and right, at every unnerving and changing circumstance. It is God’s command that we gaze into the very heart of our Savior, whose plans will last throughout every generation (Psalm 33:11).
Yes, the plans of God’s heart go on forever. For that reason, we must sing a new song. If we find no reason to love Him and thank Him in the newness of this hour, then our focus is misplaced. God has sustained us through yesterday, and His work in this last hour is just as faithful and loving as His work will ever be. Our shortsightedness does not negate His perfect working. The question is: are we looking at His steadfast love, or are we looking frantically and randomly all about us?
Unrest and confusion abound for now, but only under the dominion of the God who made the heavens by His Word and the host of the heavens by His breath. He will – at a definitive point in the future – make sense of all He has permitted. He will finally and definitively overtake the world. His Word proclaims, “The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations. He frustrates the plans of the peoples” (Psalm 33:10).
Knowing God’s promises by knowing His Word, we are instructed to sing right now a fresh song – a song deriving from our observations of God’s goodness at this very moment. If we cannot rejoice in God right now with new adoration and love in our hearts, we need to reexamine our beliefs. Without equivocation, the LORD tells us, “the earth is full of [my] lovingkindness” (Psalm 33:5). Can we see it? Or do we need to get on our knees and ask God for better vision?