Psalm 96

Psalms 96:1-3

This psalm stands almost word for word as 1 Chronicles 16:23-33, the song David gave Asaph and his brethren to sing the day the ark was brought into Jerusalem, and the commentators read Psalm 96 as that same song kept in the temple's later worship. A new song answers a new mercy, and the call moves outward at once, all the earth rather than Israel alone, declare his glory among the heathen a missionary note sounded centuries before the church existed to carry it. Sing unto the Lord, bless his name, shew forth his salvation from day to day sets praise as a daily discipline and not an occasional one.

Psalms 96:4-6

he is to be feared above all gods: The Lord is great, and greatly to be praised is set directly against the nations' gods, which the Hebrew calls elilim, nothings, worthless things, a wordplay the King James renders plainly as idols. The Lord made the heavens answers the whole claim in five words: the gods of the nations did not make anything, and the God of Israel made the very sky they are carved to represent. Honour and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary moves from the cosmic claim to the specific place, the temple where this song was first sung, as if the courts themselves argued the case.

Psalms 96:7-9

Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory and strength repeats Psalm 29:1-2 almost exactly, glory due unto his name and worship in the beauty of holiness carried over word for word, so the same call that once summoned the heavenly beings now summons the nations of earth. Bring an offering, and come into his courts turns praise from words into an act, a worshiper who enters carrying something rather than empty handed. Fear before him, all the earth closes the stanza where it opened, the whole earth in view rather than one people.

Psalms 96:10-11

Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth is the enthronement group's own banner line, the claim Psalms 93, 97, 98 and 99 each sound in their own words, that the world's true King is not in question even where the nations have not yet said so. The world also shall be established that it shall not be moved rests government on this king rather than on the nations' own strength, and he shall judge the people righteously promises the standard by which that reign will be known. Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad answers the announcement with the created order's own response, sky and ground both glad at the news.

Psalms 96:12-13

The field, the trees of the wood, the sea and its fulness are drawn one after another into the praise, a scene closer to poetry than to biology, the whole created order personified as a congregation. For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth is said twice in one breath, and the older writers hear in the doubling both a coming already true in providence and a coming still ahead, the same word the New Testament later fixes on the last judgment. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth closes the psalm on the same note that closed 1 Chronicles 16's song, judgment as good news rather than dread, because the judge is this king and no other.