HE HATH PUT A NEW SONG IN MY MOUTH

Pastor James J. Barker

Text: PSALMS 40:1-4



INTRODUCTION:


  1. One of my favorite hymns is "He Brought Me Out." (The words were written by Henry J. Zelley and Hen­ry L. Gil­mour.)

My heart was distressed ’neath Jehovah’s dread frown,
And low in the pit where my sins dragged me down;
I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay,
Who tenderly brought me out to golden day.

 

He brought me out of the miry clay,
He set my feet on the Rock to stay;
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!

  1. God created man with a love for music. Patriotic Americans are stirred when they sing, "My Country 'Tis Of Thee" or "America the Beautiful" or other patriotic songs.
  2. A few weeks ago in Louisiana, softball fans gathered to watch the University of Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns play the Baylor Bears in an NCAA softball regional matchup.
  3. The officials planned to begin the game without singing the National Anthem, but the crowd took to their feet and joined together to sing “The Star Spangled Banner.”
  4. Man was born to sing. Church services, funerals, weddings, and other gatherings always include singing. And the Bible has much to say about singing.
  5. "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:18, 19).
  6. A Spirit-filled believer likes to sing!
  7. Stephen Olford said, "We have been created to sing. This explains why a nation has its national anthem, why the armed forces march to the strains of martial music, why a college has its alma mater, and why each of us has a favorite song. When we come to the Bible, we find the God of creation and redemption is the God of song" (Basics For Believers).
  8. Pastor Olford gave several examples of this. When God created the universe, "the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God (angels) shouted for joy."
  9. And when the LORD brought the children of Israel out of bondage in Egypt (Exodus 15:1-21).
  10. This song of Moses will be sung in heaven (Revelation 15:1-3).
  11. Some of us used to sing worldly songs before we were saved. But David said, "He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God" (Psalm 40:3).
  12. Therefore, this new song is a song of praise to God.

He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!

 

I. THIS NEW SONG SPEAKS OF DELIVERANCE (40:1, 2)

  1. "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit..." (40:2). This describes what it means to be delivered from the guilt and grip of sin.
  2. Guilty, lost sinners are sinking deeper and deeper into sin. They try to get a foothold out of the pit of sin, but they keep slipping and sinking deeper.
  3. They will continue to sink until they cry out to the Lord. Romans 10:13 says, "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."
  4. "Saved" means, "to be rescued from danger or destruction; to be delivered."
  5. The apostle Paul is quoting Joel 2:32, "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered."
  6. Delivered from the penalty of sin.
  7. Delivered from the power of sin.
  8. And some day, delivered from the presence of sin.
  9. But in the meantime, sinners will continue to sink until they cry out to the Lord.

I cried to the Lord from the deep miry clay,
Who tenderly brought me out to golden day.

 

He brought me out of the miry clay,
He set my feet on the Rock to stay;
He puts a song in my soul today,
A song of praise, hallelujah!

  1. The picture given to us in Psalm 40 indicates the misery of sin and the need for deliverance.
  2. The Hebrew word translated "horrible" (40:2) means "noisy" and "tumultuous." Sin drives people into a "horrible pit," a noisy, tumultuous pit.
  3. And if they do not get saved, they will go to hell, a horrible place of eternal torment. A place where they will never be able to escape the terrible noise of sinners, weeping and wailing, and gnashing their teeth.
  4. But when a sinner repents, he can say, "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings" (40:2). This is deliverance from the guilt of sin, and the grip of sin.
  5. Deliverance from the penalty of sin (hell) takes place the moment a man trusts Christ (40:4a).
  6. But deliverance from the power of sin is ongoing as we walk by faith and obey God's Word.
  7. By the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit we are constantly being delivered from the power of the indwelling sin nature. To struggle in our own strength is to sink deeper and deeper into the miry clay.
  8. But to walk in the Spirit is enjoy true deliverance from sin. Romans 6:18 says, "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."

 

II. THIS NEW SONG SPEAKS OF DIRECTION (4:2b).

  1. A.P. Gibbs was born in Birmingham, England in 1890; was raised in Johannesburg, South Africa; and preached in many places here in the USA.
  2. Referring to Psalm 40:2 and 3, A.P. Gibbs said, "Out of the mire, into the choir!"
  3. Or, "From the Guttermost to the Uttermost."
  4. "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them" (Hebrews 7:25).
  5. He "set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings" (40:2b). "Established my goings" means He "directed my steps."
  6. But this is more than just direction. The word "established" means to "make firm; to arrange; to prepare" (cf. Ephesians 2:8-10).
  7. It is slippery and dangerous in the horrible pit, but it is safe and secure on the rock (4:2). The LORD said unto Moses, "Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with my hand while I pass by" (Exodus 33:21, 22).
  8. Moses was safe up on that rock.
  9. David was safe up on that rock.
  10. And you and I are safe up on that rock. The apostle Paul said in I Corinthians 10:4, "That Rock was Christ."

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

  1. One preacher put it this way -- "the pit was exchanged for the rock, and slipperiness for security" (W. Graham Scroggie, A Guide to the Psalms).
  2. We have here our strong position in Christ -- He "set my feet upon a rock," safe and secure. And our progression in Christ -- He "established my goings" (40:2b).
  3. If you are saved, you are now heading in a new direction. "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (II Cor. 5:17).

 

III. THIS NEW SONG SPEAKS OF DEVOTION (40:3).

  1. Deliverance leads to direction, and direction leads to devotion. This is one reason why I object to singing worldly music in church (40:3).
  2. Does "contemporary praise music" produce fear of God and faith in God, or does it produce carnality and confusion?
  3. There is a great emphasis on Christian service, and that is important. But let us not forget that God desires our worship.
  4. Our Lord said to the woman at the well, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:23, 24).
  5. Where there is true worship there is effective witness -- "Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD" (40:3b).
  6. I remember years ago when ex-priest Richard Bennett preached here. At the time he was traveling with a young man who recorded his meetings and assisted him in various ways. This young man had an aunt living in Manhattan, and he invited her to our meeting.
  7. He told me his aunt was mixed up in the new-age movement. She arrived on time but ran out of here during the song service!
  8. The new song speaks of devotion and doctrine. I feel sorry for young Christians attending worldly churches for many reasons, but one of them is they are missing the beautiful messages of the old hymns and Gospel songs.

A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord,
A wonderful Savior to me;
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock,
Where rivers of pleasure I see. -- Fanny Crosby

 

And...

O safe to the Rock that is higher than I,
My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly;
So sinful, so weary, Thine, Thine, would I be;
Thou blest “Rock of Ages,” I’m hiding in Thee.

 

Hiding in Thee, hiding in Thee,
Thou blest “Rock of Ages,”
I’m hiding in Thee.

 

In the calm of the noontide, in sorrow’s lone hour,
In times when temptation casts o’er me its power;
In the tempests of life, on its wide, heaving sea,
Thou blest “Rock of Ages,” I’m hiding in Thee.

 

How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe,
I have fled to my refuge and breathed out my woe;
How often, when trials like sea billows roll,
Have I hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul -- William O. Cushing

  1. We have a wonderful heritage as Bible-believing Baptists, but the devil has been busy stripping away the old hymns, and the King James Bible, and old-fashioned preaching. This has resulted in weak, anemic, worldly churches.
  2. God help us to stay on "the old paths, where is the good way" (Jer. 6:16).

 

CONCLUSION:


Warren Wiersbe speaks of a "quaint country preacher" with a three-point outline from verses 2 and 3.

  1. God brought him up (vs. 2).
  2. God stood him up (vs. 2b).
  3. God tuned him up! (vs. 3).

Maybe some here today need to be brought up, stood up, and tuned up!

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