Pray: that Jesus be exalted and that we would be a worshiping people empowered for mission and urgent and joyful in light of the Lord’s returning

[Psalm 96] “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, 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! 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 peoples in His faithfulness.”

If you remember from last week the background of this Psalm is 1 Chronicles 16 when David is bringing the ark of God, the symbolic throne of the Lord, into Jerusalem. He is dancing and rejoicing before the ark and offering a sacrifice of praise to God. As the ideal Israelite he is unashamed of his God and undignified in praise before the Lord! He is God-conscious and in stark contrast to self-conscious Michal, David’s wife, who thinks David has lost his mind! But David shows us what the true worshipper looks like and in his action we see what we should be like. We see where our hearts should be and where we’re lacking.

So this Psalm in its context is about the arrival of the true King coming into His kingdom to sit on His throne, which points forward to a greater reality, and that is the coming of Christ to earth in His return. If you didn’t know, Psalms have a prophetic piece, in that, they foretell something else, namely, Someone else: Jesus so this Psalm points us forward to this day, this night as we await the return of Christ.

And before the coming of the Lord, this Psalm shows us how the people of God, the nations, and all of creation should respond as we wait. Many commentators call this a Missionary Hymn, which is a right assessment and in it we will see the worldwide and cosmic effects of salvation, and we’ll answer this in 3-parts tonight…

1. How Should the People of God Respond? Sing! Sing! Sing!
2. How Should the Nations Respond? Ascribe! Ascribe! Ascribe!
3. How Should Creation Respond? Let! Let! Let!

1) How Should the People of God Respond? Sing! Sing! Sing! (v.1-6) 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.

How should the people of God respond to the coming of the Lord to Judge the earth? With singing! You might find it strange that we look forward to Christ coming to Judge, but we do, and we do because before Him we are innocent! We have been counted righteous in Christ! As the hymn says, “God the Just is satisfied to look on Him and pardon me.” So before His coming we sing! We sing as those innocent! We sing with joyful singing that reflects the joy that God has in Himself, and expresses the joy that He will give us when He comes! There is to be a gladness and a delight that floods the hearts of those who love and long for His joyful appearing. In Verse 4 David captures this relationship when he says, “God is great and greatly to be praised.” Because God is great, His praise should be great!

My daughter in her childlikeness understands this better than we do sometimes. This has been her verse for the last few weeks as I’ve been studying this at home, and what we do is get her to fill in the blanks, so we say, “God is what?” and she says, ‘Great!’ “and greatly to be what?” And she says, ‘Praised!’ and then she throws her hands up in the air and says, “Woo! Woo!” We need to recover this kind of childlike wonder and response before the Wonderful God who does marvelous works! We can’t be cool and be worshippers of the living God at the same time! Michal was looking for a way to do this, but not David. David lost his dignity and pride as king before the King of universe and why should we who have no standing at all be more dignified and proud than he was? Singing is the appropriate response and this singing is to the Lord, but why is singing the appropriate response? Look at verse 6…

Verse 6 says, “Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.” Singing is a reflection of God’s character which is both strong and beautiful, and last time we talked about how singing is the appropriate response to God’s strength and beauty because singing is 1) a powerful medium to communicate truth (if you don’t believe just turn on the radio and prove the point) and 2) singing is a way to appropriately reflect the beauty of such a God who has splendor and majesty before Him. You see, you can’t just talk about Him! If you know Him, you have to sing about Him!

Lovers understand this don’t they? Lovers just don’t talk about each other, they sing about each other! For example, many of you know my wife Jody and many of you could tell people a lot about her. You could talk about her character and personality, her hair and eye color, her clothes, her silliness and sarcasm, but you won’t talk about her the way I talk about her. We might even say the same things, but here’s the thing, you would say them…I would sing them! It’s because I love her and know her, because I have studied her and we are in a covenant-relationship with one another. The same is true for those who know the Lord and are in covenant-relationship with Him, they don’t just talk about Him; they sing about Him, and O is He worthy of our songs! There was a minister who preached during the days of the Puritan Samuel Rutherford and had this said to say about him, “Many times I thought he would have flown out of the pulpit when he came to speak about Jesus Christ. He was never in his right element but when he was commending Him.” That’s how a true David-like worshipper responds to God’s greatness…they sing about Him and are never in their right element except when they are praising God!

But the coming of the Lord doesn’t just cause us to sing, it causes us to move in action. In other words, the praise of God leads to the proclamation of God. Here’s what the people of God need to see, our singing and great passion and feeling for the Lord should fuel us in mission. Another way to say this is that worship is the fuel for missions. Pick up in Verse 2 where he sings, “Tell of His salvation from day to day.” He’s saying, ‘Speak it continually wherever you are! Never stop. Day to day it must be told!’ This is good news and our words should reflect it. In Verse 3 he sings, “Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples!” Here’s our message: His glory! And because this is a parallelism, the second part of verse 3 tells us what the glory is: it is “His marvelous works!” We are to tell people the gospel of the glory of God in Jesus Christ who has died for sinners! The glorious One has been crucified for sin! This includes declaring Jesus’ sinless life, His atoning and wrath-satisfying death, His powerful resurrection whereby He destroyed sin, death and the devil, we are to declare His ascension to the right hand of God where He reigns in supremacy having completed His work, and we are to declare that He is coming to Judge the earth, and that now is the time to repent and believe in this Christ and receive His life freely through faith!

We are to tell His glory among those who do not know Him! We cannot keep this truth in the walls of the sanctuary, we must go where there is no fear and worship of the true God, because as verse 4 says, “He is to be feared above all gods.” And verse 5 tells us why “For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” In Hebrew this is a play on words, it says, “All the (elohim) of the peoples are (elilim).” Literally, their gods are no gods or their somethings are nothing! And this truth doesn’t just apply to those who bow down before images or sculptures…idols are anything that people love and give worship to other than God alone! You see, God demands exclusive worship, and He’s worthy of it, He can do that! And He knows we exist to praise Him! Our lives only make sense when we’re glorifying God.

So whenever people give worship and love and praise and sacrifice to anything other than God Himself it is idolatry. Idolatry is worshipping creature rather than Creator and this can be the worship of a sports team to the worship of celebrity or the most common idol: self. None of these so-called gods are God at all! They have no glory, they can do nothing, they are nothing! Only God is something, only He holds weight, only He has made the heavens! So look up, you see the God who stretched out the heavens, that you cannot fully see and the stars that you cannot number…He holds all that in His hands! The glory is His! Fear Him!

Do you all remember the song, “He’s got the whole world in His hands?” Have you ever really stopped to think about what you’re singing in that song? I mean really. Think about what’s being said, “He’s got the whole world in His hands!” That’s awesome! You know I don’t think clapping and bobbing your head is always appropriate…someone should stop the song and tell everyone to just get on their faces. This song should be sung with muffled voices because everyone’s face is pressed to the floor! “The Lord made the heavens!” Everything we’ve ever known, the furtherest science has gone and man has imagined has not yet made it out of the palm of the hand of God! Let that sink in! Oh, the nations must know Him! How can we who know this God, let the world perish for lack of knowledge of Him? What will move us to go?

What is driving the world-wide spread of the gospel? I believe this Psalm tells us that it is worship that is head-strong and heart-felt. Worship that is in spirit and in truth. Worship that knows God deeply and feels God deeply! That’s why we must go deep in God’s Word and why as a student ministry we’re not going to just go all surfacey and entertaining on you and that’s why we’re not going to be about hype. We’ve got to go deep in God’s truth in order to feel deeply about this truth, and to go to the furtherest corners of the earth with this truth! In Acts 1:8 Jesus says to His disciples and to us, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” If we’re going to go to the end of the earth…we need head-strong and heart-felt worship!

So this is how the people of God should respond to the coming of Christ, but what about the nations? What about them? Well this Psalm has a message for them…

2) How Should the Nations Respond? Ascribe! Ascribe! Ascribe! (v.7-10) Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength (omnipotence)! 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! Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.”

Before the coming of the Lord the nations who have been ascribing glory (weight and worth) and strength to gods who are nothing should now ascribe or give the glory and strength to the true God! Notice that the song doesn’t say, “We think it would be a good thing for them if they gave the glory to God or what about giving God the glory now.” No, it is bold and unbending! Give the glory to God! It’s not just a good idea, it’s the only idea! Give the glory due His name! Bring a sacrifice of praise to the Lord! Stop giving your life and your praise and your money to something that is nothing! Sing for no other! Join in the worship of the true King of kings and Lord of lords all the ends of the earth!

We are to tell them to come and “worship, literally bow down before, the Lord in the splendor of holiness.” He alone is holy transcendent other! He sits in the splendor of His holiness and He calls people to worship Him in holiness! Jesus said, “You must be holy as the heavenly Father is holy.” Mark it down: this is what is needed to be in His presence, and this what all men and women are lacking, and how you get this holiness is not by being really good or by not being really bad…you get this holiness by coming empty to Christ in full-surrender and open-handed receiving His holiness in exchange for your sin! It is the Great Exchange, and this is what is offered in the cross of Jesus. Your sinfulness for His holiness, and only then can you come before Him! This is a call for conversion!

And before this Holy God in holiness there should be trembling! “Tremble before Him all the earth!” Those who come by way of the cross to the Holy God should not tremble as those frightened before the Lord, but as those who have been saved from the wrath of this awesome and Holy God! It is a trembling joy! The kind of joy that you have when you’re sitting on the side of the pool because you’ve just been saved from drowning! And then once the trembling nations rise before the Lord in the splendor of His holiness, covered in the holiness of Christ, they should join the song of declaring the glory of God among the nations. They too are to go! No one who has encountered this God can keep from singing or stay still! That’s what David is calling for in verse 10, “Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns! Yes the world is established; it shall never be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity (fairness).”

Tell the world the Lord is sovereign King, ruler over the world and it will not be moved and as it is not moved so His judgment will not be moved and He is on His way to judge the peoples with equity!

And that’s how the nations should respond. So now we have the people of God singing, the nations giving the glory to God as the singing people go out telling about the salvation of God, and now David turns…to creation? That’s right…creation should respond the coming of Christ…number 3…

3) How Should Creation Respond? Let, Let, Let! (v.11-13) 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 peoples in His faithfulness.”

Now we see, the cosmic effects of salvation and the word from David is “Let the heavens be glad, Let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar, let the field exult and everything in it!” What he’s doing is covering everything in creation and he’s calling them to stop groaning and start rejoicing. The language of “let” is one of calling something that is in bondage or in slavery to freedom. It’s like saying, “Let’s stop doing this…and start doing this! Let us no longer be sad, but be glad!” But this sadness that should be turned to gladness is not for us here…but for creation! And this is astonishing! Most of you have probably never considered how creation is affected by sin, and how it is and will be affected by the cross of Christ but this song calls attention to this truth.

Go to Romans 8:18-23 so we can understand this. Paul says here, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed to us. All right, so what’s going on now in this age, is not going to be anything like what is coming. There is glory coming that will be revealed, and Paul will tell us what this is… For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. Get this, creation is waiting with eager longing for something and that something is the revealing of the sons of God. The glory is the revealing of the sons of God, that’s us! Creation is waiting for something to happen to us, but why is creation longing for this? Here’s the reason: For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope 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. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”

This is why creation is to sing and to rejoice! When Christ comes and we’re glorified creation will be set free from it’s bondage to sin! Sin will not be found anywhere and it will not exist anymore! The only traces of the curse of sin will be the scars on the body of Jesus as an eternal reminder of His marvelous works! When He comes there will be a new heavens and a new earth! Creation will not just be back to normal as it was at the beginning, but it will be better than the beginning…it will be new and it will be new in Christ! And just as creation bore the curse of our sin, so now, creation will bear the blessing of our freedom and creation will join in our song of praise and we will eternally tell of His salvation! “Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord!”

The Underlying Urgency In This Song
But behind all this joy and all this celebration there is an underlying urgency in this Psalm…He comes to judge the earth! And yes, there is singing, and proclamation, and gladness spreading throughout the world, but it is spreading with urgent passion and this is what I want you to feel! I’m so scared that few people anymore ever feel the urgency of the coming of Christ! We get familiar with the Scriptures and the warnings and the sermons and unfortunately we get familiar with a reality that we aren’t meant to be familiar with. This is one thing in Scripture that should constantly wake us up. Have you ever seen those sticks that people break and put under people’s noses who have passed out? They wake up from their slumber in a hurry right? Well, the truth of Christ’s coming is to be like that! Any time we read it or hear it or sing it we should come to our senses, and this truth is here as well that those who do not know Christ might wake up to His soon coming and turn from their sin!

In 1 Thessalonians 5:2-6 Paul says it like this, “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night No one ever expects a thief and his coming is never pronounced. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. Some of you are saying this and thinking like this. You might not be using the same words, maybe you’re saying, “I’ll commit to Christ later.” You don’t have time! Or “I don’t understand enough now.” Let the reality of His coming make you seek harder to know Him! Or maybe you’re saying, “I don’t feel anything! It doesn’t bother me at all.” Oh may the Spirit of God blow the cold wind of His coming upon your heart that you may feel for a second the majesty of Christ coming in His glory! Be bothered that you’re not bothered!

Paul continues, “But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of the light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober.” That doesn’t mean don’t take naps and don’t drink, that means don’t give yourself to anything that dulls your senses to the reality of Christ’s coming! Don’t put yourself in the sway of entertainment that makes you drunk in it’s mindless pleasure. Don’t put yourself in the sway of company that doesn’t keep you alert to the true Reality! Don’t let your mind slip into the drunkenness of indifference and worldliness! Keep awake and be sober you children of the light!

So rejoice, Christian, go the world in singing and praise, declare His glory for He is coming and He will be marveled at among His innocent saints who stand in Christ!

And repent, O sinner, go to the throne of grace in humility and lowness of heart and receive the gift of God’s grace in the cross of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins. All your elohim are elilim! Do not give your praise and glory to them! All the glory is God’s! Only He is Something and without Him you are nothing and less than nothing! In Acts 17 Paul is standing in the midst of the Areopagus in a sea of idolatry and he closes his sermon with these words, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, (Why?) because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” The times of ignorance are over, you know the truth, you are responsible for the truth and the command is simple: repent of your sin, turn from your sin and believe in this Christ…you can be assured He is coming! In fact He is on His way. Amen.