It’s time to sing!
Sunday | 12/24 | 9:30 am | Lessons and Carols and Communion
Sunday | 12/24 | 6:00 pm | Candlelight Service
Monday | 12/25 | 9:30 am | Festival Service
The people of God sing. It’s what we do. It’s what we’ve always done. I happen to think that Mount Lebanon does a pretty good job of singing with gusto!
After escaping from the Egyptians and crossing the Red Sea, the people of Israel sang a song to the Lord (cf. Exodus 15). It’s what David did when he was saved from all his enemies, even from Saul, who hounded him like he was a fox. It’s what Solomon did when he dedicated the Temple to the glory of God. It’s what Jesus and his disciples did before heading out to the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Matthew 26:30), though I suspect they sang more often that.
Singing is what we do. We sing songs when we’re happy. We sing laments when we’re sad. We consistently lift up our voices to sing a song of confession, a song of praise, a song of lament, a song of joy. The Apostle Paul instructed the Colossians, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him" (cf. Colossians 3: 16-17).
It isn’t surprising then when David tells us to sing in Psalm 96: “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name, proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (Psalm 96:1-3). David is actually telling everybody and everything to get involved in this song. He wants all of the angels to sing with joy because God has done what he said he was going to do. He wants them to sing because God has kept his promise; he has redeemed the human race. He wants the grasses and the trees, the oceans and the skies, the valleys, mountains, and all that inhabit them, to sing because their redemption is coming closer and closer.
The hero has come, and he will restore all things back to the perfection of Eden. And he wants you and me – he wants us –to sing the loudest of all. God has come with all his power and glory to save us. He has come to work in our lives to rescue us. He has come to work in our lives to shepherd us toward home in heaven. He has come to guard us, to guide us, to defend us, and to protect us from all harm and evil. This is God’s heartfelt desire for us. And it’s not just his desire; it is precisely what he does. Just as God parted the waters and rescued Israel from Egypt, just as God knocked down the walls of Jericho, just as God knocked down mighty Goliath with a stone from little David’s slingshot, so God has come to save us, so God has come to walk with us.
Yes, Christmas is the story of how God came down as a human being, as a little child, to live and die, to redeem and rescue you and me - and all of creation with us. God has come! He has come down to save us! It’s time to sing! (There will be lots of that over the next few days!. I hope you’re warming up your voices.
We are his!
Pastor Nate