Sing to the Lord a New Song

REFLECTION QUOTES

“It is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men.”

~C.S. Lewis in Reflections on the Psalms (1958)

“For me the most mysterious thing about the universe is that it is knowable at all.”

~Neil deGrasse Tyson, American astrophysicist

“Happiness is a matter of one’s most ordinary and everyday mode of consciousness being busy and lively and unconcerned with self.”

~Iris Murdoch (1919-1999), Irish-born author and philosopher

“Injustice is relatively easy to bear. What stings is justice.”

~H. L. Mencken (1880-1956), American journalist, critic, and language scholar

“Justice is what love looks like in public.”

~Cornel West, American philosopher and activist

“Any justice which is only justice soon degenerates into something less than justice.”

~Reinhold Niehbuhr (1892-1971), American theologian and public intellectual

“Optimism is psychological. Hope is theological.”

~Rick Warren, American pastor and writer

“It is a question of the freedom of God, which finds its strongest evidence precisely in that God freely chose to be bound to historical human beings and to be placed at the disposal of human beings. God is free not from human beings but for them. Christ is the word of God’s freedom.”

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), German theologian and pastor, executed for his opposition to the Nazis

SERMON PASSAGE

Psalm 96 (NASB)

1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.
3 Tell of His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name;
Bring an offering and come into His courts.
9 Worship the Lord in holy attire;
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved;
He will judge the peoples with equity.”

11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, and all it contains;
12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
13 Before the Lord, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness.