Brother, may Our Lord’s grace and peace be upon you and all of your family on this fine Wednesday morning!
Read Psalm 96. Selah.
In subject matter, this psalm is related to both Psalm 97 and 98 – all three present the approaching advent of the LORD; and all three psalms refer to the righteous judgement He will bring with Him. So, my brother, since we too are waiting on the Lord, I believe our consideration of any of these three psalms is timely.
As you read Psalm 96, pay close attention to the following:
The psalm opens with an exhortation to sing a “new song” to the LORD. We encounter the phrase “new song” a number of times through the Psalms; and it also occurs several times in the Book of Revelation. While we could read this phrase to literally mean a “new song”, it could also be interpreted to mean taking a fresh approach to our praise of the Most High God – entering into His courts with anticipation and a renewed sense of awe and wonder as we praise the Great I Am.
Moving on into today’s scripture, the psalmist (likely David) shifts into an evangelical bent by instructing us, as Believers, to (vvs 2-3) “Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.”. Amazingly, this psalm, written almost 1000 years before the birth of the Messiah, is clearly directing us to daily declare God’s glory and His salvation plan to everyone!
In vvs 4 and 5 of the psalm, the LORD God is identified by His greatness and distinguished from all other “little g” gods and idols: “For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the LORD made the heavens.”. When we read these verses today, our minds tend to picture the historical idols of carved wood or a calf fashioned from gold. But I would pose this question – do we have any “modern” idols in our own lives that may need to be removed? Politics? Drama? Substance abuse? Sports? News programs? Work? Social media? Possessions? Relationships? You get the idea – if it keeps us from wholeheartedly pursuing the truth of the Word; from walking with Our LORD; from serving Him; if it hinders us from loving both God and our neighbors – then it might be an idol in our lives that needs to be put down.
Finally, the last verse of today’s psalm serves to encourage each of us because we are His (vv 13): “For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.”
My brother, let us praise God! Our Lord is indeed returning, and He will bring righteous judgement and truth with Him we He comes. And when He is with us, we will receive this promise (Revelation 21:4): “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”. Amen!