Sermon for July 8th, 2018

Psalm 40:1-11

To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry.
2 He drew me up from the desolate pit, out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure.
3 He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. 
Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.

4 Happy are those who make the Lord their trust,
who do not turn to the proud, to those who go astray after false gods.
5 You have multiplied, O Lord my God, your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us; 
none can compare with you.Were I to proclaim and tell of them, 
they would be more than can be counted.

6 Sacrifice and offering you do not desire, but you have given me an open ear.
Burnt offering and sin offering you have not required.
7 Then I said, “Here I am; in the scroll of the book it is written of me.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”

9 I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;
see, I have not restrained my lips, as you know, O Lord.
10 I have not hidden your saving help within my heart, 
I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love 
and your faithfulness from the great congregation.

11 Do not, O Lord, withhold your mercy from me; 
let your steadfast love and your faithfulness keep me safe forever.

Sing to the Lord a New Song

For many people, the first psalm they ever learn by heart, the first psalm they hear set to music, the first psalm they ever fall in love with, is psalm 23. It remains, to this day, the most popular of all 150 psalms. But it wasn't my first or favorite psalm. In fact, for a narrow generational window of people that includes me, my wife Amy, my high school best friends John Wahrmund and John Feighery, Craig Field (and possibly Amy Field, too), you are more likely to hear that the first psalm we ever fell in love with and committed to memory (at least the first three verses) was this one...psalm 40.

Why? Because of an Irish rock band called U2. For many years in the 80s and 90s, U2 would close every concert with their rendition of Psalm 40. To be fair, I did not memorize it because it was a psalm...I memorized it because it was a U2 song, and I memorized the lyrics to most of their songs (this was in the days before the internet, when you couldn't just google they lyrics to a song you liked; if you wanted to sing it in the shower, you had to memorize it).

Sing to the Lord a new song. Those words appear with some minor variations in seven different Psalms--Psalm 33, 40, 42, 96, 98, 144, and 149. By contrast, if you google search through the Psalms for the words "old song" or "familiar song" you get nothing. That's not because singing old, familiar songs is bad.