Introduction:
There are computer games available which offer you the position of "Master of the
Universe". This Psalm proclaims the position already filled, and it wants the whole
world to know (v10a)! Yet the conflict and suffering that characterise human life centres
precisely on "Who rules? Who is in charge?" It is at the heart of the
international tension that dominates the global village; at the root of terrorist
incidents and the reactions of governments; at the centre of the political debates.
"Who is going to rule?" At the heart of conflict in places of work, our homes,
even in the Church. In all those situations--two options or answers to the question,
"Who is in charge?": "I am / God is". No need to ask which the more
popular. "I am" means getting my own way; can dominate a summit conference or a
church committee. "God is" indicates a totally different outlook on the world,
including me and my opinions. The Bible is committed to the second, and this Psalm helps
us to see why we should be and what that will involve. No other issue more
frequently reveals whether we are Christians in word or in truth. Two great themes in Ps
96 explore for us the characteristics of lives that affirm Him.
1. PRAISE THAT PROCLAIMS GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY, vs 1-6:
This Psalm has as its major theme the rejoicing when David brought back the Ark of the
Covenant to Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 16). It may not have been composed then but it was
certainly a fitting expression of the glory and triumph that God's people experience when
they know the presence of the King with them. The remarkable thing about this Psalm is its
world-wide concerns. V3a could be a summary of God's command to his people in the
Old Testament--something we often overlook. Yahweh, the God of Israel, no mere tribal
deity. He made the heavens (v5), the living God, creator and sustainer of the universe,
ruler of all nations, Lord of history. While the Psalm proclaims the Lord as judge of all
the earth (v13), it also calls upon his people to proclaim his salvation to all the
nations. The Sovereign God is the God who saves--the great motivation to praise (vs2-3).
True, the OT perspective is not so much one of Israel going out to win the nations as of
the nations being drawn to the Lord, flowing to Jerusalem, gathered in to worship Yahweh.
Only after the resurrection, with all authority given to the risen Lord Jesus, does
mission (disciples going out to the nations) dominate the picture. But however it is to be
accomplished, the Bible is hostile to narrow parochialism on the part of God's people. It
flings us out into God's world to declare him King, gives us a new global consciousness,
and shatters sinful preoccupation with our own cosiness. As we start to judge things on
whether we are comfortable with them, we desert the Biblical doctrine of the universal
kingship of God, which imposes the unending obligation of universal proclamation. Any
praise that does not proclaim is empty. We cannot worship the God of salvation if we do
not share his heart for his world.
Movement up (vs 1-2a) leads to movement out (vs 2b-3). The exhortation is to all the earth because only when the whole earth is praising its creator does the Lord receive his due. Obsession with me doing my little bit, in worship or service, as if that is all that matters, is self-indulgence, not worship. Praising God we are caught up in a world-wide chain that never ends, united with the worship of Heaven, declaring his glory; the content of all true praise, all about God! The song (v1), a new song (always fresh) because all about God, who is never stale. Vs 2-3 elaborates: praise to his name (= nature or character) and his glory (v3a), the outshining of his character to us - the "heaviness" or bulk of God (lit. Hebrew) - seen in his marvellous deeds, which are acts of salvation. You cannot praise a God like that without wanting all the world to know.
V4 - that familiar linking word "for" which we are beginning to get used to, gives us the reasons for the exhortation. The world needs to know because they are in danger of ignoring the only true God and succumbing to idolatry. The reality (v4c) - beside Yahweh the so-called gods of the nations are useless, lifeless, never made anything. This God, the only true God, made the heavens! We call everyone to worship God, because everyone owes everything to this creator. You can exalt gods of human reason, science, chance, but none can give a clue to the meaning and significance of life on earth, because it is life in God's world, and unless we worship him we shall never discover our true identity. One God, and he is King over all. V6 shows him dressed in his regalia, the attributes of his sovereignty. They were symbolised in the OT Ark of the Covenant, which combined the tablets of the Law (strength, moral purity and righteousness of Yahweh) with the Mercy Seat (his pardoning grace so freely offered to sinners like us). These attributes will never fade or fail; day after day he is the same. So vs 2-3 - we are called to go into our community, challenging its false gods of getting and keeping; "me first"; its fundamental rebellion in the assertion that man is in charge. A worshipping Church must be an evangelising Church. 1 Peter 2:9 "that you may declare"; not just in the formal occasions of worship, but in the hurly-burly of every-day in the world, our work, our homes. Our God reigns!
2. SUBMISSION THAT CELEBRATES OUR SECURITY, vs 7-13:
Ps 95 - praise leads to prostration before God: here the same movement is
paralleled. If the nations are to know this God, exalted in majesty and power, it will
only be on his terms, not ours. Revelation of who God is demands recognition of his
sovereignty. Vs 7a-8, "Ascribe" x 3 matches "Sing" x 3 vs
1-2. To know God is to worship him, and that requires not just recognition but
reconciliation. For he dwells in the splendour of holiness. In answering "Who is in
charge?" by "I am" every one of us has usurped his sovereignty in our part
of his world. Rebellion may be forgiven but cannot be ignored. Two alternative courses of
action: vs 8-9, how people who have been remote from God can come near. It involves
submission to his sovereign authority (v9) and that means bringing an offering (v8b). This
is to accept his salvation and to rejoice in his sovereign rule in our lives. Or we can
sit it out, continue in our rebellion, and face him in the future when he comes to be our
judge. For make no mistake, he is coming (v13).
What "offering" can we bring to God? The word is used of gifts a subject would bring to a king, but what have we to offer? Only ourselves, tainted by sin and rebellion. We could never enter God's presence. Not an unfamiliar problem to the Old Testament. The most graphic illustration Ex 40:33-35, then read straight on to Leviticus 1:1-2: the only way for a sinner man to enter the presence of a holy God was by way of sacrifice. In David's day the animal sacrifices of the Law, always inadequate, so often repeated. Hebrews 10:5-10, NB v10: Christ our offering. He has made a full atonement and sacrifice when he gave up his life for us all. If we claim that death on a Cross as effective in our own lives, that is the only offering God requires; not penance, not ascetic acts of self-denial, not good works. "What can take away my sin…nothing but the blood of Jesus". The only way reconciliation can be ours--at the expense of the life of the King's Son. But it can be! Our trembling will be in awe and wonder, not in fear and terror. We celebrate the security of knowing that our case has been dealt with and we have been forgiven, when we stop fighting and submit. Let God be God.
The stark alternative is equally certain; v10 - just as surely as God reigns, so he will judge. The King is going to put things right in his world! Against the backdrop of raging nations and collapsing empires, God is working his purpose out, and there will be a day of perfect government when he comes. That is why the whole creation is jubilant at the thought expressed in the poetry of vs 11-12. Where God rules there is always singing and joy; the whole world knows it. The day when he will come, equally certain and sure. But he comes to judge; he has standards. They are his own character of righteousness, revealed in his own word of truth. That is why the world needs to know his glory and his salvation now. It will be a day of exultant joy--the curse of sin finally removed, the whole creation singing for joy as it moves into liberty and fulfilment. He is coming, the King, and he is going to set it all to rights! He is not an absentee monarch, or a disinterested deity. He is King of the whole world, and he is either our judge or our saviour.
© 2001 David Jackman
David Jackman is Director of the Cornhill Training Course in London