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“If you’re able, please stand.” Read Psalm 96. “Thanks be to God.”
“How big is your God?” Life confronts us with that question a lot. In our church we have a lot of single women in various stages of life. And that question is very real in those seasons of life.
A single woman trying to raise children on her own faces that issue: “How big is your God?” Big enough to provide financially? To help you parent on your own? To help you make ALL the practical decisions throughout the days and weeks?
An older divorcee wondering who is going to take care of her as she gets older?
Widows more alone than they wanted to be and wondering that, too? What about my health when it starts to fail? “How big is your God?”
Psalm 96 is a call to worship the God is above all gods, who is powerful and able and present and a perfect Judge. He is the great God who is “greatly to be praised” and the right object of worship by all people and all creatures and the creation itself!
And he knows each by name. Let Psalm 96 help you lift your eyes and see the one who is able to help you. Worship him!
This brief series as a follow-up to our summer Wednesday night series on worship. And also anticipating our September vision series on loving God.
In these three stanzas we are given a massive “call to worship” and then a “reason to worship.” I say “massive call to worship,” because it isn’t the usual suspects who are invited and commanded to worship God. The Psalmist here goes big!
Each stanza has a massive “CALL TO WORSHIP” followed by a REASON TO WORSHIP.
Sermon: “Sing to the LORD a New Song!” (96:1–6); (2) “Ascribe to the LORD glory!” (96:7–10); (3) “Let all Creation Rejoice!” (96:11–13)
Psalm 96 has a fascinating history. We see it first in 1 Chronicles 16. In 1 Chronicles 15–16 King David is establishing worship in the new capital city Jerusalem. To prepare for it:
David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. (1 Chr 15:16)
Then in 1 Chr 15:25–29, “the ark of the covenant of the LORD” is brought to Jerusalem “with rejoicing.” Sacrifices.
So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music on harps and lyres. (1 Chr 15:28)
Then the official worship teams were established by David from among the Levits (1 Chr 16:1–7).
Then on that day David first appointed that thanksgiving be sung to the LORD by Asaph and his brothers. (1 Chr 16:7)
What follows in 1 Chr 16:8–36 is a kind of mashup of various Psalms:
The dominant note, though, is giving thanks, “for he is good”! Psalm 96 is right there in the thick of this moment.
Read Ps. 96:1–6.
The CALL TO WORSHIP begins with three identical commands, one of the most basic responses of worship: “Sing!…. Sing!…. Sing!” Each time the exact same Hebrew command.
“A new song” — because there are new works of his to celebrate. Each of us has new works we can add to a new stanza or a new song.
But the call goes out to “all the nations” (Ps 96:2). And that will echo throughout this Psalm. It is not just a psalm of corporate praise, it’s a psalm of global praise!
“Tell of his salvation from day to day” – It’s even an evangelistic psalm. The verb used in the Greek OT for “tell” is the verb evangelize. The Hebrew verb is used by Jesus in the synagogue in Luke 4:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18–19)
That’s interesting, isn’t it, to think of evangelism as a kind of worship. You are proclaiming God’s “salvation,” as we do in worship. It’s just that we’re doing it in front of others.
But if our God is that great, it makes sense that we wouldn’t stop talking about him, even when we’re with people who don’t worship him.
What is the REASON TO WORSHIP? Why should “all the earth” sing his praises?
Because of “his glory” (96:3) – He is the “glory” behind everything we’ve ever encountered that was “glorious.”
Because of “his marvelous works” (Ps 96:3) – Consider his specific works in creation and your salvation and his providence in your life.
Because he is “great” and “greatly to be praised” (Ps 96:4) – Who he is…is great!
His greatness can be seen when we compare him to all the “gods of the peoples” (Ps 96:5).
When you hold all of these up and their billions of followers, they are simply “worthless idols.” Hebrew has various names for idols and false gods. But this word is getting at the idea that all these gods are “nothings.” There’s nothing there. When you pull back the curtain like in the Wizard of Oz, you see a person pretending. It’s all made up.
But the Psalmist then makes a comparison: “But the LORD made the heavens” (Ps 96:5).
So, “Sing to the LORD!” (v. 1) and “Declare his glory!” (v. 3).
But there’s one more REASON TO WORSHIP given here.
His sheer beauty and splendor (Ps 96:6). In verse 6, four terms piled on top of each other but are very hard to distinguish: “splendor,” “majesty,” “strength,” “beauty.”
The combination is meant to communicate “everything desirable, beautiful, but also powerful and royal.” He is all of these!
Application: Give to God intelligent praise.
Read Ps. 96:7–10.
Again, the CALL TO WORSHIP. “Ascribe to Yahweh” three identical times. Three imperatives, commands. “Give to Yahweh!” “Give Yahweh glory!” Which means, “Give Yahweh praise!”
But we’re also called to “Ascribe to him” what is true of him: “Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.” This is a declaration that he is glorious, and he is mighty!
Who? Once again, it is a global call to worship. Not speaking to my soul, like in Psalm 103:
Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! (Ps 103:1)
Or just speaking to the people of God:
Oh come, let us sing to the LORD; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! (Ps 95:1)
Now the call is a global one, like in Ps 96:1b: “Sing to the LORD, all the earth!”
Here it is “Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength” (Ps 96:7).
“Families of the peoples” echoes with Gen 12:3,
“I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:3)
Then the scene here with the call to “bring an offering,” “come into his courts,” “worship the LORD in holy attire.”
These words are like the scene described in 1 Chronicles 15–16 with the worship in the tabernacle being established in Jerusalem.
We should stop a moment on this word, “worship,” though. The Hebrew (and the Greek used in the Greek OT) ia perhaps the most important OT word for “worship.”
The verb is in a unique form, histaphel, apparently named for this verb in this very form, since the verb here sounds like histaphel. The most important Hebrew dictionary today (HALOT) says the form is “attested in Hebrew only for this verb.”
Its basic meaning is “to bow down.” It is found 170x in the OT, used often of people “bowing down” (Gen 17:2; 19:1; Exod 20:5) but sometimes as “worshiped” (Exod 24:1; Ps 22:27; 66:4; Isa 44:15) and sometimes in the phrase “bowed…and worshiped” (Gen 24:48; Exod 4:31; 12:27).
The Greek word used in the LXX is proskuneō, which has a similar range of meaning from “bow down” to “worship.” It is used 206x in LXX (greater number due to Apocryphal occurrences). Also found 60x in NT, again with “worship” (Matt 2:2, 8, 11; 4:9–10; John 4:21–24; Acts 8:27) and “bow down” (Matt 8:2) or “fall down (piptō) and worship (proskuneō)” (Rev 4:10; 5:14).
The connection between “bowing down” and “worshiping” is important. While not all “bowing down” is worship, all true “worship” has some element of “bowing down,” recognizing we are in the presence of something or someone greater. We lower ourselves as an expression that before us is something above us.
“Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness” (Ps 96:9). Not an easy phrase to translate. Is it God’s holiness? Or does it speak to “holy attire” like some translations have (NASB, NET)?
One thing that tilts it to us being clothed in holiness is the flow of the passage: bring an offering, come into his courts, clothed in holiness, tremble before him.
It makes sense that these “families of the peoples” coming to worship would need to be given new clothes, a new covering. They need to be “clothed in holiness” as they approach the LORD in all of his glory.
The REASON TO WORSHIP is given in Ps. 96:10: “Yahweh Reigns!” “The LORD reigns!”
Because of that, “the world is established” and “shall never be moved.”
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Col 1:17)
As the ruler of “the world,” he is also its Judge. And “He will judge the peoples with equity.”
First of three references to how he will judge the world—see Ps 96:13. Here it’s his “equity” that marks him as the perfect Judge.
“Equity” means perfect justice. The scales of his justice are perfectly level, balanced. He judges without any partiality.
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. (Deut 10:17–18)
We tend to prefer a separation of powers—the executive branch on one side and the judicial branch on the other. The reason for that is human sinfulness. He want “checks and balances,” the ability for a branch of government to keep in check another branch of government.
There’s no separation of powers in the Godhead. He is both Judge and King. And rightly so! He is perfectly righteous. We want him to have more power, not less. When there’s a sinless, righteous, worthy, good, just Ruler, you want him to have more power, not less!
Application: Be clothed in holiness
Remember that as we come into his courts and into the holy place to worship him, we need to be clothed in holiness.
If you’re not clothed in holiness, the last place you want to be is in the presence of God!
As we come into his courts, remember that Christ has clothed us in his holiness! We draw near as holy people, because he has covered us in his holiness!
Read Ps. 96:11–13.
Again, the CALL TO WORSHIP. Those called to worship are once again UNEXPECTED! Before it was unexpected because it was “all the earth” (v. 1) and “families of the earth” (v. 7).
Now the repeated refrain involves the created order. It’s not just people and heavenly beings who are invited to worship, but the creation itself.
The whole creation is called to worship:
And it is pictured rejoicing:
The creation is in perfect harmony with its creator, and it is “joyful” in that endless state of harmony.
This way of speaking of creation in such human ways connects to Paul in Romans 8, too. Remember this passage from our summer sermons:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. (Rom 8:19–21)
But now those trees are fallen trees. We know that they're fallen trees...because they do things like fall on cars! Saturday night at dinner I got a call from John McLeod. "Uh, I hate to say this, but a tree just fell on your car." "What?!!?" He sent me the picture. Yep. A tree fell on our car. I know what you're thinking, "Well, of course, those hurricane conditions last night!" Except you're not thinking that, because the weather was perfect. No wind anywhere. Just a tree that decided to fall on my car while it was innocently parked in John's cul-de-sac.
You might be thinking, too, "This sounds familiar." Yes! Because the exact same thing happened to our very old Volvo about 20 years ago. A perfectly clear day and a pine tree decided it had had enough. So, it, too, fell on our car.
The trees out there are fallen trees! One day they won't be!
That’s the CALL TO WORSHIP. But then we get the REASON TO WORSHIP. You might expect that since creation is in view, the REASON TO WORSHIP would have to do with Yahweh as Creator. But it’s not. It’s the LORD as JUDGE.
The REASON TO WORSHIP has to do with his perfect judgment.
He is coming, but he is coming “to judge the earth.”
And when he does it will be “in righteousness” and “in his faithfulness.”
To judge “in righteousness” means to judge according to his own standard of perfect integrity and righteousness. He himself is perfectly righteous and defines what righteousness is. There is no higher standard than his own.
To judge “in his faithfulness” means to judge according to the promises he has made to his people—to vindicate his people and condemn their enemies. That is his commitment to us as our covenant God. The Psalm is reminding us that it will happen.
There’s a connection between God’s future perfect judgment and the joy of the creation. It is God’s future judgment that is a part of his renewal of the creation. His making all things right must involve his judging all that this world is and does.
The Old Testament spoke of Yahweh “coming” on “the Day of the LORD.” But in the New Testament we understand that more clearly.
It will not be God the Father who comes but God the Son who breaks through the clouds. The coming Son of God is also the coming Judge.
Christ the Judge in John 5:
For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. 24 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. (John 5:22–24)
All will be judged in Revelation 20:
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. (Rev 20:11–12)
The Son will Judge: “According to what they had done”—with equity, in righteousness, in his faithfulness.
But that Judge offers you now “his salvation” (Ps 96:2). He offers right now to clothe you in his holiness.
Receive it! If you face that day of judgment with only “what you have done,” you will be condemned!
2 Corinthians 5:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor 5:21)
Cry out to him for “his salvation” and mercy! He offers you salvation and mercy. He offers you his own righteousness.
Psalm 96 is like a massive call to worship that only Christ and the Church can fulfill.
It is Christ the coming King who shall enable this vision of worship to be accomplished.
Because of Christ, “all the earth,” all the “families of the peoples” shall gather together one day and worship our God for his glory and wisdom and salvation!
It is Christ the King of kings who shall answer the eager anticipation of fallen creation that cries out to become a “new heaven and new earth” (Rev 21:1).
It is Christ who will come and bring that day to pass!
This King is also the Judge of the living and the dead, who will judge “with equity,” “in righteousness,” “in his faithfulness.”
But this King offers right now to clothe you in his holiness, so that you will be judged RIGHTEOUS and not condemned. Receive it!
And if life has you as a woman in a season you didn’t anticipate or want, remember the LORD as he is held out to you in Psalm 96.
He is the LORD who reigns (v. 10). Because of him “The world is established” (v. 10)—and you are “established” and “shall never be moved.”
He is the God of “splendor and majesty” and “glory.” His “marvelous works” are everywhere in your life—see them!
Join the chorus of all nations and all creatures and “Worship the LORD!” (v. 9).
Let’s worship him!
Prayer and closing songs (“All Creatures of Our God and King,” “Yahweh Reigns”).
Here are some other recent messages.
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