psalm 96: a new song for Christmas... 2nd week advent tuesday

Today we reflect again on psalm 96.  Today we are called upon to sing a new song.  If you notice as you grow older you like to sing old songs – the old songs that became a hit when we were in high school or in college.  And we call these songs our songs because we sung it then and we can sing them even now.  Last week when we had our alumni homecoming we hired a band that can sing our songs because we like their style and their choices of songs.

Today however our psalm is asking us to sing a new song, not an old one but  a new song.  This new song can only be understood in the context of the Prophet Isaiah in chapter 42 when the prophet also invited the people to sing a new song.  Why because in the verse before the invitation to sing a new song, the Lord said, “See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.”  The former things have come to pass, we have become a new people, we have received a new identity, thus the old is gone and the new is here, thus we need to sing a new song.

In the coming days as Christmas approaches we will receive so many new things – new clothes, new toys, new shoes, new things.  But we should not forget the real reason for the coming Christmas season, the real newness which this season should bring. 

What newness would I allow the Lord to bring into my life, what should I make new in myself?  Some of us year after year, are asked to do something for our academics, for mathematics or science.  But then amo man sa gihapon.  This time do something new.  Indi ka lang magsiling, wala na ako da pag-asa.  No that is not the attitude of advent.  Advent is hope.  I can still do something, I will do something new.

So what new song would you sing this Christmas?