The Composition of a New Song
If you’re like me, you’ve been in church for… a while! I became a Christian over 25 years ago, and I’ve been active in church ever since. (To the point of becoming a preacher!) With this kind of church background, I know what we tend to do and/or say frequently enough to be called habitual.
Well, if you’ve been part of the church long enough (especially a Pentecostal church), you’ve undoubtedly been in worship moments where the presence of The Lord became so evident, and the sweetness of the anointing moved into the room. When this happens, it is not unusual for a worship leader, or maybe the pastor, to grab the microphone and encourage the room to sing a new song to The Lord. At this point, you’d probably hear the same individual start singing extemporaneously in the spirit.
“Sing a new song” is a phrase we hear often in church. Typically we nod in agreement, shout amen, wave our hand… but is it something we have any real comprehensive understanding of? I don’t think we do. In fact, I think this is one of those things we say in church that gets repeated so often that it becomes background noise.
As often as we hear this, you’d think the Bible was flush with this admonishment, but the phrase new song only shows up in the Bible nine times. Can you believe that? Only nine times!
See: Psalm 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 98:1, 144:9, 149:1; Isaiah 42:10; Revelation 5:9, 14:3
New Songs are about New Victories
New songs in the Bible are more than just spontaneous songs of praise. They mark significant moments of victory in the life of God’s people. For instance, the kings of Israel and Judah would have songs written about them when they would win battles against enemy armies.
When we sing a new song to the Lord, we’re not composing a song out of thin air. No, we’re taking the obvious moments of God’s great favor and grace in our lives, and we’re presenting them back to The Lord in our worship.
The Psalm that immediately comes to mind is Psalm 124.
Psalm 124 ESV
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side—
let Israel now say—
2 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
5 then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth!
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped!
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.
What a great template for a new song! If it hadn’t been for The Lord, I would have been lost and in despair. But because The Lord was on my side, I’ve found myself blessed and highly favored!
(And while I use words like lost and blessed, I would encourage you to get specific in your song!)
This Isn’t About Music
All songs are composed, meaning they’re put together with a plethora of elements. Song have notation, instumentation, dynamics, lyrics, tempo, textures… a song is composed of many elements.
I’m not going to focus so much on the musical composition of a song but rather on the spiritual and experiential elements of a new song.
The first component of a New Song is a RESPONSE
The first component of a new song is accessible to every believer. Whether you’ve been in the faith for 100 years or 10 seconds, you can sing this new song to The Lord.
Ezra 3:10–11 ESV
10 And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the Lord, according to the directions of David king of Israel. 11 And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord,
“For he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.”
And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
Allow me to give a little bit of context to this scripture…
Ezra is written at a time when Israel and Judah had lost the land that God had promised and provided to them. Enemy armies had come in and taken a majority of the Jewish inhabitants captive in foreign lands (often referred to as exile). The Jewish people were so distressed by this misfortune that one Psalmist wrote, “How can we sing the song of The Lord in a foreign land…?” (Psalm 137:4)
However, some of the exiled Jews find themselves in governmental service and somehow find favor with various kings and officials, to the point that they are granted permission to go back into Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple that the same enemy armies had plundered and torn down decades before.
These priests and men of influence gather workers and start making progress toward a brand new Temple in Jerusalem! It must have been an incredible time. They grab the wheelbarrows and the shovels and start clearing the years of ruin and decay from the once pristine site.
In my imagination, these Hebrew construction crews are approaching this like any major project; the workers have their heads down, and they’re focusing on getting the job done. After clearing the site, the laborers lay the foundation for the new Temple, and as the supervisors gather for a quick pow-wow with their yellow hard hats, pressed jeans, and blueprints in hand… they look up and see a priest standing at the threshold where the sand stops, and the stone foundation starts. He has tears in his eyes and, under his breath, whispers in a mixture of disbelief and anticipation, “It’s happening…”
Sudden composure grips the priest as he turns around, looking at the herd of hardhats, and firmly declares, “This is a significant moment… we’re pausing construction!”
With little delay, the priest begins assembling other ministers and musicians. He builds a congregation of construction workers and sends invitations to all the Jews that have remained in Judah. As they gather and prepare to sing songs of worship, they realize they have a major problem… Nobody is writing worship music anymore. New music has seemingly ceased in the exiled state of God’s chosen people.
Finally one of the trumpeters decideds to break the akward silence and quietly says, “Maybe some of you will remember this song…” Then he begins to softly play a solo melody line from a song King David had penned hundreds of years earlier.
Slowly you hear other instruments joining in and a chorus of voices begin lifting the lyrics in competing volume to the instruments. And within minutes one lone trumpet has turned into an avalanche of music pouring out of the temple mound into the rest of Jerusalem with an ancient theme, “He is Good and His love endures forever!”
You Start With A Response
A new song isn’t always going to be written from scratch.
When you go to sing a new song, I find it’s best to start with a song that’s already in the room. Meaning that, you’re attending a church and they’re singing songs that you can make your own. Whether it’s written in a hymnal or projected on the wall, you can take the songs the church sings and allow them to have a powerful impact on you.
A Song Changed My Life
I’m a first-generation convert, and when people learn about my background, it’s not infrequent for them to ask, “How did you turn out so well…?” (And I’m not kidding; I get that response about 80% of the time.)
To be completely transparent, I’ve wondered the same thing over the years. But one day, I was sitting at the piano flipping through my mental Rolodex of songs, and I remembered a song that we used to sing around the time I became a Christian. It’s a song written by Darlene Zschech that says:
I will never be the same again.
I will never return. I’ve closed the door.
I will walk the path.
I will run the race.
And I will never be the same again.
I really believe it was that song that anchored me in the faith. I didn’t have it all figured out. However, I got saved and started singing, and I’ll never be the same again. And guess what! I was never the same again! Twenty-five years later, I’m still walking the path and running the race. Hallelujah!
Singing a Song of Response
You can have the same experience. As you sing the song in the room, you can let that song start sinking down into your spirit, and eventually, that song can help shape your life.
Suddenly you’ll start seeing the goodness of God working in your life and on your behalf and the song of response turns into a song of testimony.
A New Song Includes A TESTIMONY
Again, as you sing that song of response and it starts to shape your life story, you’ll see the goodness of God working for and through you in a way that you will start collecting specific testimonies that are unique to you. When you have these experiences, they become part of your new song.
For instance, there are two specific chapters in the Bible I want to bring to your attention. The first is Judges 4, which is the account of the prophetess Deborah. It records the details of a specific portion of Deborah’s ministry. The second is Judges 5, where s song. You see, Deborah’s experiences with the powe’s with the power of God became the content of her song!
In my life, my own personal experience, I’ve seen God do incredible things. Very few are more significant that the birth of my second daughter, Allison.
This all happened in 2013. It was the night before Easter, and all through the house, not a creature was stirring… but my wife was suddenly going into premature labor. To say it was scary is a gross understatement.
Allison was born at 24 weeks (four months early) at 1 pound 13 ounces. It was a bleak beginning, and frankly, we thought she was going to die.
However, we started leaning into God’s promises for healing, and over the next three months, she got better and better. Today, she’s eleven years old and completely healthy! Praise God!
But that’s not the only miraculous thing that happened…
Allison’s birth came with a nearly $1,000,000 hospital bill, of which our insurance only covered $10,000.
Hospitals usually have a financial assistance department, so Ashleigh set up a meeting. She sat in front of a lady who typed away on a computer until her jaw dropped and her eyes enlarged. “Mrs. Mayfield, I’ve never seen this before, but your bill is covered 100%.”
Ashleigh started to ask a follow-up question, and before the third word passed her lips, the lady at the computer held her hand up to stop Ashleigh and plainly stated, “Mrs. Mayfield, I’ve never seen this before. My best professional advice is that you stand up, walk out of here, and never ask another question.”
The computer lady might not have known what was happening, but let me give it to you plainly… Jesus paid Allison’s hospital bill!
Not only did God supernaturally heal her, He picked up the tab!
Our experience with Allison has become a testimony that builds the new song we sing.
And now, when we face issues with health or finances, we look them dead in the eye and sing the song of Allison Mayfield! We don’t get discouraged because we’ve experienced the miracle-working power of God. We have first-hand accounts of the ability and willingness of The Lord to move on the behalf of His people.
The New Song Becomes Prophetic
As you allow a song of response to shape you and a song of testimony to be written in your life, you’ll start to see the prophetic element crescendo in your new song.
This reminds me of David and Goliath, and incredibly encouraging Biblical account found in 1 Samual 17. David, who is a young boy, goes out on the battle field and defeats this overgrown bohemath of a man named Goliath. It’s an incredibly story! But what fascinates me is found in the chapter right before it.
King Saul has been found guilty of egregious sin, and the anointing of God has been removed from him. In its place, a demonic spirit comes to torment Saul. Those who attended to the king would see him reel and writhe as the spirit inflicted him. At some point, one of Saul’s attendants had an idea that music might soothe the king’s agony.
Let’s look at what the Bible says…
1 Samuel 16:18,23 ESV
18 One of the young men answered, “Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence, and the Lord is with him.”
23 And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his hand. So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.
It amazes me that before David ever stepped out to approach the Goliath, he had a song in his spirit. The song that David had been singing in his father’s sheep field was a prophetic proclamation of what he could do on the battlefield,
Not to mention that there’s a measure of common sense in this prophecy. David played his instrument, and the evil spirit would depart. Before approaching Goliath, I have to imagine David thinking to himself, “Well if I can handle a demon with a guitar, I should be able to kill a giant with a slingshot!”
As your new song is being written through response and testimony, you’ll have a prophetic song rise up that pushes you into a life of victorious exploits. Because new songs are about new victories!
The First and Last Songs
I’d be remiss to talk with you about new songs and not take a moment to address the first song in the Bible, which is recorded in the Bible is in Exodus 15.
In the process of escaping their captivity in Egypt, the children of Israel find themselves trapped between an Egyptian military determined to kill them all and a considerable body of water that several million people have no way to cross. This is, of course, the Red Sea.
As the people begin to panic, The Lord instructs Moses to look out at the Red Sea and lift his walking stick. As Moses obeyed the command, something amazing happened. The Red Sea’s waters begin to part and stand in place like walls, creating a pathway of dry ground. The ground wasn’t even muddy. Even the water that was inside the seabed of the sea was parted!
All of the Israelites cross over the Red Sea in what was possibly the world’s first aquarium and come out safely on the other side. As the last Jew steps over the threshold of the shore, they see the Egyptian military in the newly opened pathway through the Red Sea. With faith in his eyes, Moses looks directly at the front line of chariots and lifts his walking stick in the air a second time, and the water walls collapse, destroying the agency of impending death that pursued God’s people.
Standing on the bank of the Red Sea, safe and free for the first time in hundreds of years, the Israelites sing a song recounting the miraculous and marvelous work of God on their behalf.
Now, if you flip to the end of your Bible, you’ll see the last song that’s recorded in the Bible. Exodus 15 has a song called The Song of Moses, but Revelation 15 has a song called The Song of the Lamb.
Here’s the incredible thing… they’re the same song!
See, your new song will be comprised of a response, a testimony, a prophetic element, but it’s the same song!
The same song they sang at the Red Sea is the same song they will sing around the throne of the Most High God! And it’s the same song that your song will be. It’s a song of deliverance, a song of salvation, a song of the miraculous power of a loving God providing for His children!
It’s the same song because the same God still saves. He still heals. He still delivers. He still sets the captive free!
When you call on His name, He is faithful, and He responds every single time!