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Day 170, or June the 19th. Always be relevant. Our thoughts today are rooted in Psalm 98,

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verse 1. Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things, his right hand

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and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.

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And now the big picture surrounding this verse. Today's selection of Psalms includes another

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two, which were written by David, and a further four that are anonymous. Most of these songs

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aim at improving our worship. Sing a new song, exalt the Lord, serve the Lord, live a holy

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life, always pray, and bless the Lord, all you people. This is helpful guidance to worshipping

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God as he deserves, and keeps our worship both refreshing and relevant. Our thoughts

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today focus on one part of one of these anonymous ones.

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And now our action step for today. I remember a Methodist minister friend of mine who said

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that in years gone by so many churches from his denomination were split over the issue

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of godless pipe organs, which were being used in order to make the most of some of the great

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Wesley hymns. Then later, when these same organs were being removed as irrelevant, old-fashioned,

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and expensive to maintain, many churches split over losing such a great aid to worship. Sadly,

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so many fellowships have disputes over music. Today's psalm urges us to sing a new song

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to the Lord. I don't believe this means instead of the old ones, but it does seem to tell

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us that one of the most traditional groups in the world, the Jews, still wanted to find

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something new to improve their worship of God. Many hymns today reflect a bygone age,

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and are basically out of date, but some of the new ones are so shallow as to be almost

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worthless. When we are urged to sing a new song, I believe it's reasonable to take it

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as a reminder to be as contemporary as possible in order to attract all who need to hear the

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gospel. The gospel hasn't changed, but the way it is proclaimed has. So always be sensitive

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to change, but make it change the way living, not change to announce dying.