Psalm 96
Let’s hear from God’s word together.
Now, this is Psalm 96, and it says this. Oh, sing to the Lord
a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.
Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day
to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works
among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly
to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols.
But the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before
Him. Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to
the Lord, all families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord
the glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory,
do his name. Bring an offering and come into
his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor
of his holiness. Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord
reigns. Yes, the world is established,
it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with
equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let
the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything
in it. Then shall all the trees of the
forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes
to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness
and the people in faithfulness. Amen. This is God’s holy inspired
and an errant word. May he, put its eternal truths
into our minds and write them into our hearts. These last several
psalms we have looked at as we’ve made our way through 93 now to
96 are part of what we call the kingship psalms and they have
a lot to do with worship. They have a lot to do with giving
to God what is due his name. And so again tonight we think
of the subject of worship And I want us to think for just a
moment about how for many in the world today, and I understand
I’m speaking to the Sunday night crowd, you all came back, and
so preaching to the choir a little bit, but how worship for many
in America, maybe it’s many around the world, seems to be optional. We weigh out our Sunday options
between work and leisure and sports and other things. And
we try to decide what is going to win out for the day. And most
often now for many, worship is not the priority. In fact, if
you look at statistics, I think what I read was for the state
of South Carolina, worship attendance is declining 7% a year. We’ll do the math. When do you
run out of percents? Well, it’s after about 12 or
13 years. And so we have a great problem
with the decline of worship in America. Many of our missionaries
who come to visit us speak about how church buildings in Europe
are now nightclubs, they’re now beer halls, they have been repurposed
for other things, and maybe, sadly, that will come to America.
someday. But as you read through Psalm
96, as we did through Psalm 95 and through some of the others,
we understand that in these Psalms, when God calls us, his people,
to worship, it is a divine summons. It is God himself calling his
people to worship. Some of you can remember back
in the day when you were outside playing after school and your
mother called you in for supper. When she opened the back door
and hollered the word supper, that wasn’t a description of
what had been taking place in the kitchen. That was a verb,
right, an action verb. Supper with an exclamation point
means really get in the house and eat. Well, we need to think
of God’s call to worship much in the same way, but with more
weight, more importance. These are imperatives. Notice
how many exclamation points appear in Psalm 96. You can overuse
exclamation points if you’re not careful, but when they are
used many times here in a passage like this, it means this is something
to do, something to pay attention. And so in verses one through
three, you have at least six commands, six imperatives. Look
there, if you will. Oh, sing to the Lord, a new song.
There’s imperative number one. Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
There’s command number two. Sing to the Lord, bless his name. There’s number three and number
four. Tell of his salvation from day
to day. There’s number five. And then
number six, declare his glory among the nations. You’ve barely
gotten into the psalm. And as any of you will know from
your English grammar days, when there are six imperatives, that
means you better do it. You better get down to business.
You better do what you’re being asked to do. And so the command
is to sing. The command is to bless. The
command is to tell. The command is to declare. We are to worship God by telling
him who he is and what he’s done and how we love it. So is worship
optional? Well, some may think so, but
in God’s eyes, at least, it is not. And so the next thing we
ought to consider as we look at the beginnings of the psalm
is what’s its purpose? context. When was it written?
For what occasion was it written? Well, there’s a lot of guesses
because it connects to some other Psalms. It connects to some language
that we find in other places. But historically, it seems to
reach back to First Chronicles 16, where David brought the ark
from the house where it was lodged for a time, and he brought it
to Jerusalem. And what a great bit of excitement
accompanied the bringing of the ark, which was really the throne
of God or the presence of God. It was brought from that man’s
house where he received great blessing for hosting it, but
it was brought to Jerusalem where it might be near the people.
And so we think of Psalm 96 as a Psalm where the presence of
God or the splendor of his holiness was brought into Jerusalem by
King David and by the priest and the Levites. And so there’s
a new song of redemption, a new song of the presence of almighty
God. And this also has language of
worshiping with the church universal, with the people of God around
the world. So how do we look at this psalm?
How do we split it up after you get past these six imperatives,
these commands of God to worship. Well, it breaks apart into a
couple verses each to speak about different aspects of God. The
first aspect it speaks of is his glory. You’ll find that in
verses four, five, and six. So why should we sing to the
Lord a new song? Why should we bless his name?
Why should we tell of his salvation? Why should we declare his glory?
Well, there’s that word at the beginning of verse four. Four,
why worship? Four, great is the Lord, and
greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all
gods, for all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord, he made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before
him. Strength and beauty are his sanctuary. So this first section teaches
us about the glory of God, and it compares him to other gods.
We hear all the time in our world, Christians say there’s one way
to God. Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. But you hear out
in the world, and you’re even hearing it in the so-called American
Christian church, oh, there’s many ways to God. Jesus is just
one of them. but we know the truth of the
gospel, the truth of the scripture. There is only one true and living
God, and there’s only one true way to that living and true God,
and that’s through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we still
hear people banter on and proclaim there are many ways to God. Well,
it’s no different back in the ancient Near East. And here,
there’s a little bit of a play on words in this Psalm. You don’t
see it in the English passage, but in the Hebrew Bible, the
word for God and the word for gods are very close, Elohim and
Elohim. Elohim, you’ve probably heard
if you’re studied the character of God, Elohim is a word, just
a generic word for God. But Elohim is the word for idols.
And so you see just one little difference is the difference
between God and idols. And he’s saying here that our
God, the true God is worthy of worship. But what does it say
about the little gods or the idols? They are worthless. One is worthy and all the others
are worthless. And so our God is to be worshiped
above all gods. In fact, he made the heavens
and the earth and that is his sanctuary. Notice verse six,
it says, splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and
beauty are his sanctuary. So there’s the glory of God.
The second thing this passage shows us is the greatness of
God. Look at verses seven, eight, and nine. And it’s going to use
another worship word, and it’s the word ascribe. Ascribe to
the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord, glory and
strength. Ascribe to the Lord, the glory due his name. Bring
an offering and come into his courts. worship the Lord in the
splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. You know, this Thursday, I think
it is, is Valentine’s. Some of you will probably write
a little love note. I always think of Andy Griffith with the
love notes. We had a cassette tape and we’ve since converted
to iTunes now. I think it’s on the phones. But
he gives these funny little love poems. One is, sure is the, vines
twines around the stump you are my darling sugar lump some of
y’all will write those kind of little limericks this week and
what are you doing you are ascribing to your loved one Not the glory do them, but you’re
telling them what you think and feel or adore about them. And that’s what we should do
when we come into the house of almighty God for worship. We
should ascribe to God the glory do his name. Notice how many
times that word appears in verses seven, eight, and nine, ascribe
to the Lord, ascribe to the Lord, ascribe to the Lord, at least
three times there. And it’s in the imperative form.
It’s another command, it’s another worship word. We’ve bumped into
it before, I believe in Psalm 29. Ascribe to the Lord the glory
due his name. You know, sometimes we come to
worship and maybe we are speechless. but we should come to worship
so full of words to say back to Almighty God. And sometimes
we don’t have a way with words. And that could be because we
don’t know our Bibles and we don’t know who God is and what
he’s done and what he’s promised to do. And so we just don’t know
enough to say about him. That’s where a good hymnal can
help us. That’s where a good set form of worship can help
us. It can help us say what we wish we could have thought of
ourselves sometimes. after worship, maybe a day or
two into the week, there’s one particular member of the church
who always calls or emails me and they say, worship on Sunday
was really, it was really good. And I mean it in a good way,
not that they’re the judge of it, cause that’s God, right?
But what they always end up going on to say is all the songs, all
the scriptures, the words of the sermon, Everything came together
and it hit me right where I needed to be. It helped me say to God
what I needed to say to him and it helped me hear from God exactly
what I needed to hear. And so part of our work during
the week as a church is to get ready to lead the congregation
in worship so that you can ascribe to God the glory that is due
his name. But it also helps for you to
read your Bible. It helps for you to know your scriptures and
know the character and the actions and the promises and the attributes
of God and his weightiness and his glory and his majesty. And then we come to church and
we offer to God our worship. You know, sometimes we hear people
say today, I went to church, but I was bored. Or I went to
church and it didn’t do anything for me. And that’s really a backwards
statement. What that means is you didn’t
come ready. What that means is you didn’t prepare your heart
and your mind to worship God for who He is and what He’s done
and what He’s promised to do. And you know that we have different
moods and different days and different… I don’t know, difficulties,
but every week consistently we should enter the house of God
and we should have something to say to God for who he is,
what he’s done and what he’s promised to do for he is a great
God and his greatness is all over the pages of scripture.
His greatness is all over creation as we see his fingerprints in
the world that he has made, and it’s all over each other’s faces,
and it’s all over the pages of our everyday lives. And so we
worship God for his glory, but also his greatness. There’s one
last aspect this passage teaches us, and I couldn’t get a G out
of it, it’s a J, so forgive me for no consonation or whatever
it’s called. This is God the judge. You find
it in verses 10 through 13. Say among the nations, the Lord
reigns. Yes, the world is established.
It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with
equity. Let the heavens be glad. Let
the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let
the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees
of the field of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. Why? For he comes, for he comes. to judge the earth. Twice there
it speaks of him coming. And then in the final verse,
he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. We read in Romans chapter eight,
how all creation groans, all creation, the real world creation,
groans under the travails of living under the curses of sin.
And we understand that the world was subjected to futility or
creation was subjected to futility when Adam and Eve sinned. But
also we look and just watch your newscast, look at the unrest
in the world, look at the lack of peace in the world, look at
it locally and regionally and in our own nation, but also around
the world. And we see so much wickedness,
so much evil. that we say, like creation says,
come Lord Jesus, come take away our futility, come take away
the injustice, and come make all things right, come make all
things new. We want a good and righteous
king. You know, the… I should be careful how I say
this. There are people lining up to be president already. Let’s
just put it that way. And it don’t look so good. It’s already started. And we
want somebody good. We want somebody righteous. We
want someone who will respect the dignity of human life. We
want someone who will treat us fairly. And we have to know,
we have to understand that ultimately, that may not come in this life.
But we have to understand God rules now and God will rule later. We have to understand that God’s
people have always lived under political duress. I mean, how
many times do you read in the Bible about a king who did what
was right in the eyes of the Lord? Not very often. How often
do we experience in human history a king or a president who does
what is right in the eyes of the Lord? Not so often. And so
we put not our trust in princes, we put not our trust in horses
and chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God
who does rule now and he will reign forever and ever. We also must remember that God
moves in the hearts of people. Just think about During the exile,
God moved in the heart of Cyrus, the king of Persia, to let the
people of Israel move back to the promised land to rebuild
the temple, to reestablish their worship and their praise of God
in Jerusalem. They no longer had to sing the
songs of Zion in a foreign land, and God moved in the heart of
Cyrus, the wicked and pagan king of Persia. We can also think
about how God used in the New Testament era, the Roman Empire,
the roads, the Greek language, the systems and modern things
in place to let the gospel flourish in that part of the world and
now to us in our part of day. Or think about in 2008 when,
I think it was that year, when the iPhone came out. Little did
Apple know that through the platform of the iPhone and the iPad all
those sorts of gadgets and others have jumped in on this as well.
Little did they know that religion would spread through apps and
through updates and through tablets. And so we remember that God sees
all, he knows all, he rules and reigns now and he will rule and
reign forever. and the world will not be like
this forever. And so why should we worship
God? Why should we sing a new song? Why should we declare his
glory? Why should we ascribe to him?
Well, he is great, and the glory that is due his name can only
come from us, his loyal subjects. Remember, something that we talk
about often is this, missions exist because worship does not. And think about in America for
a moment. We’ve always focused our missions efforts on foreign
places, but when worship does not exist in America, what can
we do? We can make sure it exists. And so when we hold public worship,
when our steeple rises into the sky here on Saddle Club Road,
we can let the world know there is a God who is to be worshipped
and he is worshipped here. And though the world around may
not, we still do. and we want to continue. And
we do so in the strong name of the Lord Jesus Christ who has
saved us, who has bought us with his precious blood and is our
worship and our gratitude. We want to give him thanks as
we worship him each and every week. Let’s pause and pray together. Our great God, we come before
you tonight and we recognize that you call us to worship,
you command us to worship. And that’s exactly what we want
to be about in our lives because you have saved us. You have rescued
us and redeemed us. And we know that we’ll worship
you forever and ever. So help us. Help us to proclaim your
worship. Help us to be people faithful
to worship so that the world will see and know that there
is a God, a savior, and a redeemer. We ask it in his name. Amen.