A Call to Worship the Lord the Righteous Judge.
96 Sing to the Lord a new song;
Sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, bless His name;
Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.
3 Tell of His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are [a]idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.7 [b]Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
[c]Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 [d]Ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name;
Bring an [e]offering and come into His courts.
9 Worship the Lord in [f]holy attire;
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved;
He will judge the peoples with [g]equity.”11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea [h]roar, and [i]all it contains;
12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
13 Before the Lord, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness.
In the middle of this psalm, declaring the glory and strength of God, there’s one verse that has an almost “odd” translation. Accurate, but still interesting: in v. 5, the NASB reads, “For all the gods of the peoples are idols…” Yet the word for idols also means “non-existent things”. Every other deity is made up, fictional, a fairy tale or myth.
One might say, but what about God, how is He any different? And with the psalmist, we could tell of His deeds, how He made the heavens, and established the earth, with all its fields, trees, and more. All of it is amazing, incomparable, and yet myths and legends tell a different story still.
Of all the gods in this world, only One came down to meet His people, only one chose to dwell with them, to live in and with us. Only God is both judge and creator, and yet also Emmanuel: God with us. The God who did all the amazing things in this psalm, did them because He wants you to know Him.
Even if you have already surrendered your life to Him, every day is new, and you must intentionally invite Him into your day and into your life. It’s far too easy to get busy with life and forget who He is. To see Him as majestic and awesome and neglect the fact that He is also personal and created you for a relationship with Him. He’s knocking, open the door already!