Sat, 30 September, 2006: Today’s Bible readings.
1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song; sound the tambourine,
the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the new moon,
at the full moon, on our feast day.4 For it is a statute for Israel,
a rule of the God of Jacob.
5 He made it a decree in Joseph
when he went out over the land of Egypt.
I hear a language I had not known:
The psalmist here has the people sing and play music, and gather at the appointed feast times. He tells Israel that God made it a statute and decree that they should observer these things. When He brought them out of Egypt, God ordered that they come together at the feast times and worship Him with song and instrument (and sacrifice, though the sacrifice is not mentioned here).
What do we learn from this?
This is an Old Testament command, and of the three parts (song, instruments, and festival observance), only the first (song) is given to us in the New Testament as a command we are to now keep.
The festivals were a time for the people of Israel to gather to worship God. They would come from their many dispersed places to join together in Jerusalem for fellowship and worship.
We no longer have to keep the Old Testament festivals, for these have all been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Now the only day we observe as special, according to the New Testament teaching, is the Lord’s day, when we gather together in our local congregations for the purpose of singing and worshiping God. We celebrate Jesus Christ’s birth, death and resurrection on the day that He resurrected from the dead, for it is His day. It is the Christian Sabbath, the one day in seven we set apart for His worship.
Now we are commanded to gather together, more than a few times a year, but once every week. We are to meet to encourage and build each other up, to worship God in word and song, and to be built up in grace through the preaching of the word.
Where is Christ in this passage?
Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Old Testament festivals, and of the sacrificial system (and hence of instruments as part of temple worship). He has fulfilled it all, by living the perfect life, doing all the law required. The festivals and the sacrificial system pointed to Him, and now that He has fulfilled them, they fall by the wayside, no longer necessary.
Jesus Christ is the point of our worship on the Lord’s day. We gather together to remember what He has done for His people. We sing His praises, and we hear of the redemption He has purchased for us. We are offered Christ as our salvation, and we express our faith in Him in our corporate worship.
