Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJV) - The New Covenant
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Christian Worship & Scripture Songs
Hi and welcome to my page!
In June this year (2009), I was asked by my pastor to put music to scripture word for word, specifically to the 15 Songs of Ascents (Psalms 120 to 134). From the start of the first Psalm which I worked on (which was Psalm 130) to the completion of last one (Psalm 133), I have not ceased to be amazed, for the Lord has given me melody after melody to fit His words. I believe this is because we, the church of Jesus Christ, are entering into a season where these psalms will become more and more relevant, as we look forward to our Lord's return. (Please read the enclosed write-up for a clearer understanding of the Songs of Ascents).
I thank my pastor for allowing the Lord the use him to challenge me to the task. (Your feedback and guidance were crucial to keeping me on track.) I thank my church for enthusiastically learning and singing these psalms. (Hearing you sing them week after week gave me the encouragement to continue writing.) I thank my husband for providing me with all that I needed to work on these psalms. (You were the first to have the vision that we would sing straight out of out Bibles!) I thank my kids for their endless support and love. I thank my friends (in particular Pastor Wah Lok, Catherine Wong, and my sister, Grace Soon) for their help, feedback and encouragement. Most of all, I thank my God, my Lord and Master, for seeing me fit to be a channel for what He wants to bless the body of Christ with.
Here's a short write-up for a better understanding on the Songs of Ascents:
Psalms 120-134, also called the Songs of Ascents, are basically songs sung by the Israelites as they "ascended" in their pilgrimage to Jerusalem (Zion) to worship God at the annual feasts. The Songs of Ascents collectively have a Zion-ward movement and express a deep yearning to be in Zion, the eternal dwelling place of God. These 15 psalms can be divided into five groups of three. The first four groups (Psalms 120 to 131) share similar themes: the first psalm has the pilgrim crying out to God for help in a situation of distress; the second emphasizes the Lord as the deliverer; and the third rejoices the pilgrims' ultimate security in Zion where God dwells. The last three songs (Psalms 132 to 134) are all psalms of arrival celebrating the blessing of being and fellowshipping in the Presence of God in Zion.
Why sing the Songs of Ascents? Firstly, it is in obedience to God's command to use psalms in worship (Col. 3:16, Eph. 5:19, 1Cor. 14:26) and to meditate on His Word day and night (Psalm 1) that we might be blessed. Singing makes memorizing much easier. Secondly, many scriptures are prophetic of the end time, and none more so than the Songs of Ascents. These psalms teach and prepare us to face the distressing tribulations that the true Church of Jesus Christ will increasingly experience in this end time (Mt 24: 9-13, 22). The ancient pilgrims' cries of hope in distress are becoming our cries to God for our own deliverance. Furthermore, their joyful arrival in Zion encourages us to hold on to our blessed hope in Christ when He returns to take us to reign with Him in Jerusalem (Rev. 20:4). Lastly, the Songs of Ascents remind us that even now, we are all pilgrims on an inward spiritual pilgrimage Zion-ward as we await our literal ascent to Jerusalem. Therefore, we are exhorted not to love the world or the things in the world, to forsake all, take up our cross daily and follow Christ.
Story behind the song
The New Covenant, one not unlike the old covenant, made in the days of Moses, but exceeding it greatly. It is superior to the old covenant. The old covenant was, mainly, a foreshadow of this great covenant which was to come.
What is a Covenant? - an eternal promise made by the supreme YHWH, who never breaks His promises, ever.
The Old covenant was the covenant of constant sacrifice and the blood of sheep and goats. The new covenant was sealed in one great atonement of the great lamb, slain before the foundation of the world, the one who alone is worthy. The New Covenant that washes away the sins of the House of Israel once and for all, when the great YHWH Himself forgives their iniquities and remembers their sins no more.
Th Old Covenant had a human high priest, one that was fallible and indeed sinned. Yet in the New Covenant, we have a divine prophet, priest, and king, in the likeness and lineage of David and yet greater than David, who has been counted worth of more glory than Moses.
(Heb 8:1-13 The scriptures 1998+)
Now the summary of what we are saying is: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Greatness in the heavens, and who serves in the set-apart place and of the true Tent, which ???? set up, and not man.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and slaughters. So it was also necessary for this One to have somewhat to offer. For if indeed He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the Torah, who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly, as Mosheh was warned when he was about to make the Tent. For He said, "See that you make all according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." But now He has obtained a more excellent service, inasmuch as He is also Mediatorof a better covenant, which was constituted on better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, "See, the days are coming," says ????, "when I shall conclude with the house of Yisra'?l and with the house of Yehu?ah a renewed covenant, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Mitsrayim, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them," says ????. "Because this is the covenant that I shall make with the house of Yisra'?l after those days, says ????, giving My laws in their mind, and I shall write them on their hearts, and I shall be their Elohim, and they shall be My people. "And they shall by no means teach each one his neighbour, and each one his brother, saying, 'Know ????,' because they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. "Because I shall forgive their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawlessnesses I shall no longer remember."By saying, 'renewed,' He has made the first old. Now what becomes old and growing aged is near disappearing.
(Heb 8:1-13 The scriptures 1998+)
"Today, if you would hear His voice:
"Do not harden your hearts as in Meri?ah,
And as in the day of Massah in the wilderness,
"When your fathers tried Me,
Have proved Me,
though they saw My work.
"For forty years I was grieved with that generation,
And said, 'They are a people who go astray in their hearts,
And they do not know My ways.'
"As I swore in My wrath,
'If they enter into My rest...' " ?? ??? ?????? ?????? ?? ?????? ???? ??? ???? ??????? ???????
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???? ????? ??????? ?????? ?????? ?????
?????? ???? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ??? ?? ??? ??????? ?????
???????????? ???? ???????? ??????????
(Excerpt of Psalm 95)
Lyrics
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them,[a] says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”
