Thursday, April 29 - Music and Mocha Cake

We had our Thursday session at my house this week - Alice made the best French dip sandwiches and I made a salad.  The best part.... Alice made a delicious Mocha cake - I'm talking DIVINE! It was so, so good!

Then we went off into our "study" zone and Alice shared the outline for a praise song she had written.  It combines an old hymn with a new inspired song that came to Alice in the middle of the night.  She envisions multiple instruments and lots of harmony involved! She taught Shelley and I the basic melody and we recorded a rough draft of it.  Now we can all practice some harmony and sing it up next time we meet!!!

Several times in Psalms the phrase "new song" is mentioned.  "Sing to him a new song!" (Psalm 33:3) "Sing to the Lord a new song!" (Psalm 96:1)  "He gave me reason to sing a new song, praising our God." (Psalm 40:3)  Each of these scriptures has notes on NETBible as follows: A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the lives of his people in fresh and exciting ways. A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the world as its just king. A new song was appropriate because the Lord had intervened in the psalmist’s experience in a fresh and exciting way.
It seems the "new song" is new and fresh way to praise the Lord!

In Revelation 14: 2-3 it says: "²And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. ³And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth." 
Commentary from Bible Gateway says:

They are identified first as those redeemed from the earth, and their reward is the privilege of learning a new song (v. 3). Because they are redeemed, there is reason to believe that redemption will be the theme of their song. The only "new song" mentioned before in Revelation was that of the living creatures and elders in heaven (5:9), and it was a song of redemption: "because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." It was accompanied by the music of harps (5:8), and the word for "purchased" in its lyrics was the same word used here of the 144,000 in the phrase redeemed from the earth (v. 4). This time the song comes not from the living creatures and elders themselves, but from an anonymous voice from heaven in their presence, like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder, and like that of harpists playing their harps (v. 2). Both the words and the music are left to our imaginations.

Exciting that such a song can only be learned by those who are redeemed - hope I'm one of 'em - that would be really cool!

Anyway, Alice wrote this "new song" in very inspired way and I'm really excited to learn it better and sing praises to God!