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Psalm 96
In my last devotional, I mentioned that I have several unfinished projects at my house. These projects are unfinished for a variety of reasons; my time gets consumed with other things, I lack the tools to complete the project, some part is missing from the project, so I have to call customer service and order the right part…, and wait for its arrival, or I’ve taken on a project and lack the necessary skills and knowledge to get it done.
When a project is beyond my skill set, I usually call one of my friends to see if they could come by and lend me a hand.
It’s always a relief when they show up because I know that the project will finally be finished, and everything will be set right in the end.
Like many of the Psalms, we don’t know the circumstance concerning when Psalm 96 was written. However, Psalm 96 is a Psalm of celebration that is boundless in time. The Lord is praised and worshiped for what He has done in the past; for His mighty works, the revealing of His glory, His salvation for all, and for who He is in splendor, holiness, and majesty.
All of those aspects fuel the psalmists call to praise and worship the Lord in the present and we see that in the series of calls that the psalmist issues for people to sing, to ascribe to the Lord, to worship the Lord, to enter His courts, and proclaim His sovereign reign over all creation.
And the praise and worship also point to the future when the Lord will come and set things right in the end as He comes to judge the people with equity (vs. 10). I want to encourage you not to get hung up on the word “judge”. It’s true that there is a necessary negative element in judgment, but that must be weighed with the truth that the Lord is restoring the whole of creation with His rescuing love, fully revealed in Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection.
Wickedness, evil, and every aspect of sin will be no more, and creation and humanity will be renewed and reconciled with the Creator.
As N.T. Wright notes in his book The Case for the Psalms, “YHWH [the Lord] is the creator and is to be worshiped as such, but he is also the one who will come to put all things right at last.”
All of creation will celebrate the coming of the Lord with the seas roaring and all that is within them, the fields and everything in them will rejoice, and the trees of the forest will sing for joy at the coming of the Lord.
And for those of us who have entrusted our lives to Jesus, our privilege is to be the first to lift our voices in worship and praise.
How might your life and voice be lifted in praise and adoration to Jesus today?
God bless you and know that you are prayed for constantly.
Scott
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