Make a Joyful Noise

A Reflection on the Psalm for Sunday, December 24th, 2023:
Fourth Sunday of Advent

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Psalm 89

R. Forever I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord.

I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens. 


R. Forever I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord.

I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, forever; with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations. I declare that your steadfast love is established forever; your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens. 

R. Forever I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord.

You said, “I have made a covenant with my chosen one, I have sworn to my servant David: I will establish your descendants forever, and build your throne for all generations.” 

R. Forever I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord.

He shall cry to me, “You are my Father, my God, and the Rock of my salvation!” Forever I will keep my steadfast love for him, and my covenant with him will stand firm. 

R. Forever I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord.

Pause. Pray. Reflect.

With the fourth Sunday of Advent sharing a date with Christmas Eve this year, please forgive me for skipping ahead to the manger. Let’s be honest – we’re ready for this baby to be born.

This psalm is a song about singing. When we sing (even badly) we can express a joy, joy, joy, joy down in our hearts that mere speaking cannot produce. Appropriately enough, on Christmas Eve, Christians all over the world gather in churches and town squares just to sing. Is there any occasion for strangers to deliberately come together to sing beloved songs other than a good ol’ fashioned carol-sing? (Answering my own question, I thought of programs for seniors where musicians will sing songs from their youth. I defy you to find a more joyful heart than an octogenarian belting out Presley hits. Just sayin’.)

In another psalm, we are exhorted not just to sing any song, but to “sing a new song.” And God’s faithful have waited, unknowingly, for the birth of a child in Bethlehem to sing their new song. Because to sing a new song, we have to be the new man. And the new man came at Christmas.

“The old man has an old song, the new man a new song,” said Saint Augustine. “The Old Testament is an old song, the New Testament a new song.”

So then, what was the first new song?

We know the angels rang out their Glorias – but the celestial choirs have sung His praises for all eternity. Theirs isn’t a new hymn. They are not the new man.

The first song of the new man had to be sung by a man – or rather, I posit, a woman. 

The first new song, the first song of the new and eternal covenant, was a lullaby.

We know Mary sang, as she sings her timeless Magnificat. Saint Augustine said there are three criteria for a hymn: singing, singing praise, and singing praise to God. I imagine Mary, wrapped in blankets with the bundled up infant Jesus on her lap, singing the first century Aramaic equivalent to “You Are My Sunshine.” And lo, the first hymn, the first new song of the new covenant, is sung by the new humanity.

Join in the Alleluias and Glorias and Fa-la-la-la-las this weekend. As Saint Augustine said, “Love itself is new and eternal; therefore is it ever new, because it never grows old.... And this song is of peace, this song is of charity.” And as Bert and Ernie say, “Don’t worry that it’s not good enough for anyone else to hear. Just sing. Sing a song.”




Kate Mosher

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