Psalm 96

Psalm Category: A Royal Psalm

Central Thought: “Glory is due to Him who comes to judge the earth” (Andrew A Bonar, Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms, p. 290).

Two things seem perennially undesirable even to Christians. One is the day of our death when we go to our God and Savior. The other is the day of judgment when our God and Savior comes for us, if we are alive at His coming (1 Thess. 4:15). The proof of this is that we fight to stay in this world as if it is our best life. And we shrink from Jesus’s second coming as if it is, in the common usage, “the end of the world”! Should not Christians be expected to open their arms to Jesus on both occasions, since He has conquered sin and the grave, and since the “great day of his wrath” is the believers’ day of resurrection?

This is where this psalm comes in. This is one of the most exciting songs in the history of the world. It is exciting because it is about the Messiah’s victory; it calls us to praise Him for His salvation and His coming again. David first sang this song at the bringing of the ark of the covenant to Mt. Zion.

Christ has come for salvation (vv. 1-6). God’s Messiah is the answer to both physical and spiritual death. Three times the church is called to praise with a new song, and to proclaim the good news, the glory and the wonders of God to the whole world (vv. 1-3).

Three reasons compel this witness. God is sovereign and to be reverenced “above all gods” (v. 4). Other gods are to be rejected as idols (v. 5). And God is glorious in His church, for “strength and beauty are in his sanctuary” (v. 6). What a calling we have to praise and proclaim our Redeemer!

Christ is coming for judgment (vv. 7-13). God’s coming Messiah—who has come in the person and work of Jesus Christ—answers to both our present predicament and the destiny of His world and His people.

Again three times, we are called to “give”—or, better, “ascribe”—to the Lord “the glory due his name” (vv. 7-8a). To “bring an offering and come into his courts” (v. 8) is not about bringing your tithe for the weekly offering, but is about the offering of your whole self, as in Romans 12:1, “present your bodies a living sacrifice.” The injunction that follows—“Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness”—sums it up perfectly (v. 9). This is about what the poet Robert Burns calls “the language of the soul”—hearts and lives filled with love and devotion for the Lord who first loved them (1 John 4:19).

Consequently, we are called to proclaim the messianic King (vv. 10-13). Three great encouragements are given to move us to evangelize the world: The Lord reigns, the creation rejoices and the Lord is coming to judge the world with righteousness. While this anticipates the first coming of the Messiah, it is clear that the psalmist is reaching to His second advent and the consummation of all things, the day of resurrection and the last judgment.

In a sense, Jesus is coming for us when our earthly pilgrimage is over. This should concentrate our minds. Are you ready, even eager for that day? Richard Alleine observes that “worldly men, if they could help it would never die. They would rather live among the dead, than die into a better life. They are dead while they are alive, dead in sin, and they wish that this [life] would be their eternal state. If they might be allowed an eternal day to sin in, what other heaven would they wish for?” (The World Conquered by the Faithful Christian, p. 95). The point is that death is the end of the line for the unconverted man’s best life. It is, however, the homecoming to glory for those who love the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is quite literally and bodily coming for us on the day of judgment. The Westminster Shorter Catechism catches the scene beautifully: “At the resurrection, believers being raised up in glory, shall be openly acknowledged and acquitted in the day of judgment, and made perfectly blessed in the full enjoying of God to all eternity.” Jesus is coming. Jesus is the King of kings and Lord of lords who comes conquering and to conquer throughout history. Are you one of His? Then in Christ you have this victory—now, hereafter and forever. Well may the Lord’s people testify, “He has put a new song in my mouth—Praise to our God; many will see it and fear, and will trust in the Lord” (Ps. 40:3).