David was a great warrior.

David was a great worshipper.

I believe what made David a great warrior for God was that he understood how to be a great worshipper. He ran to fight Goliath with worship on his lips. Worship exalts God and belittles our enemy. How big you worship God is proportionate to how small you see your problems.

Yet before David faced Goliath, the Bible says Saul tried to outfit him with his old armor. Many scholars believe Saul was almost 7 feet tall, David only 5. And the obvious happened. The armor of Saul didn’t work for David. Here’s how the Bible describes it:

1 Samuel 17:39 (MSG) David tried to walk but he could hardly budge. David told Saul, “I can’t even move with all this stuff on me. I’m not used to this.” And he took it all off.

You know what I think this story is about? Worship is tied to warfare and we must allow each generation to wear it’s own armor. Music is generational. So is worship.

David couldn’t move in of Saul’s armor, he tried but it didn’t work. He needed something for his own style and fit. When we are tied to an old methods – it limits our effectiveness. We need to understand each new battle needs new weaponry. What if the U.S. invaded Afghanistan in battle line formation al la 1776 style? What if they fought the 2nd World War with guns from the Civil War? You get the idea.

You can’t fight new wars with old weaponry. Put on some new armor. Sing a new song. The Bible talks about singing “a new song” 9 times. And if worship is our weapon – it must change. We aren’t facing 9 foot tall giants in 2009, we are facing more subtle and even more dangerous enemies to our faith.

We should remember, one generation can never be forced into the musical style of another. If only Saul had embraced David as a teammate instead of an adversary. How many more battles they could have fought together instead of fighting each other. I pray the worldwide church can learn that lesson. There’s so many battles we must fight – we need each other.

Are you facing a new enemy? Sing a new song.

Psalm 40:3 (NIV) He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.

I love that our church embraces new forms of worship. Let’s continue to make a great team.

PT