PSALM 96 Sing A New Song of Praise to God
This Psalm is so uplifting. And when we follow
through with things said for us to do it lifts our spirits and highly motivates
us to look for opportunities to “Tell somebody about Jesus.” When you look at how you spend your downtime you'll find so many opportunities to express your heart to the Lord.
There are some quotes from Matthew Henry's commentary laced in this lesson. Anything in italics is from https://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/matthew-henry-complete/psalms/96.html
Psalm 96:1 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song! Sing to the
Lord, all the earth.
Matthew Henry said concerning this new song,
“Sing a new song, an excellent song, the product of new
affections, clothed with new expressions… the newness of a song recommends it; for there we expect something
surprising. A new song is a song for new favors, for those compassions which
are new every morning… A new song is a
song that shall be ever new, and shall never wax old nor vanish away; it is an
everlasting song that shall never be antiquated or out of date.”
Lamentations 3:22
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions
never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will
wait for him.”
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| Me with my old Martin 12 named Eva |
Good music is not mechanical, not
intellectual, not just ones’ ability to play the right note at the right time.
Rather it emanates from the heart, it flows with emotion. When was the last
time you turned the radio off in the car and just talked with Jesus while going
down the road? Do you break out into a song in the shower, or while walking? Do
you let your thoughts drift to praising the Lord from your heart? If you’re a
musician, do you forget about written music and just play from your heart and
maybe make up some words to go with whatever your fingers are doing? Sometimes
an old song wells up inside and you worship with it with a freshness like
eating Grandma’s Apple Pie while still hot. Sometimes church worship leaders
are moved way off script and a new song comes out, a Holy Spirit led,
spontaneous new song. I’ve been in services where people with little to no
vocal talent will sing a new song prophetically.
Take a minute right now, to sing
praises to the Lord. You can praise in tongues or your native language. You can be very
quiet and private if you must, or as loud as you like, just let the Spirit flow
through your lips in praise to the Father and Son. Don’t worry what it sounds
like. If you're a musician it's such a blessing to let it flow from your heart through your instrument.
Psalm 96:2 Sing
to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day
to day.
Let all the earth sing this song, … all that are redeemed from the
earth, learn and sing this new song. This is a prophecy of the calling of the
Gentiles; all the earth shall have this new song put into their mouths, shall
have both cause and call to sing it.
The 2nd phrase of this verse, "bless His name;" has
particular meaning that we so often overlook. The Hebrew word used in this verse
is barak, which is translated to
kneel down, to praise, to salute, to thank. Kneeling is sign of submission to
whoever you kneel before. It could be said that blessing God is to submit to or
placing ourselves at His service. When we bless other people we are either
giving them some gift or asking, “How can I be of service to you?”
The second part of the verse, "Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day," and the next
verse, take these concepts to another context. We are admonished to speak the
good news of salvation daily. May the Lord open up the doors of people’s hearts
to receive this good news as we speak it.
3 Declare His glory among the nations, His
wonders among all peoples.
Let the subject-matter of this song be his salvation, the great
salvation which was to be wrought out by the Lord Jesus; that must be shown
forth as the cause of this joy and praise.
Are we as excited about getting saved as we
were when that 1st happened? I was so excited that on the night I
got saved (Dec. 17,1971) I walked up the hill, on middle of the main road full of nice homes,
that went up to the college, in knee deep snow, jumping and shouting praise to
God in the middle of the night. For the rest of my time in college, along with
other students, we did all kinds of crazy stuff to tell people about Jesus.
Think about what this verse says to do, and the next verses tell us why.
Psalm 96:4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be
praised; He is to be feared above all gods.
The Lord is great, and therefore greatly to be praised and to be feared, great and honorable to his
attendants, great and terrible to his adversaries. Even the new song proclaims
God great as well as good; for his goodness is his glory … He is great in his
sovereignty over all that pretend to be deities; none dare vie with him: He is
to be feared above all gods —all princes, who were the nations.
Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
Deut. 10:12
“And now, Israel, what does the
Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His
ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with
all your soul,
13
and to keep the commandments of the
Lord and His statutes which I command you today for your good?
Think of who we consider great in American
society? Are they made into idols. Are Music stars, sports stars, some
politicians, some preachers and those who do good things for society idolized?
Do we use the word “great” too flippantly? Of course we should do whatever we
do striving for excellence but who gets the glory for the good things we do?
We need to be careful not to take compliments
too personally, all glory goes to God who enabled us to do whatever was worthy
of the compliment.
Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
But the Lord made the heavens.
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https://www.heartlight.org/gallery/5018.html
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The Lord made the heavens
and all their hosts; they are the work of his fingers (Ps. 8:3 )… The gods of
the nations were…the creatures of men’s fancies; but our God is the Creator of
the sun, moon, and stars, those lights of heaven,. He is great in the
manifestation of his glory… among his angels in heaven and his saints on earth
My wife read a fascinating book called “The
Improbable Planet.” by High Ross. With deep scientific analysis, his conclusion
is that all of the universe was created and set in motion in such a way as to
make life possible on this Earth. Any anomalies to the way God created it and
Earth could not sustain life. Just think of it, all of creation exists because
God spoke it into existence with such perfection because He loves us and wants
a loving relationship with mankind.
4 What
is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?
Splendor and majesty are before him, in his immediate presence
above, where the angels cover their faces, as unable to bear the dazzling
luster of his glory. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary, both that above
and this below. In God there is everything that is awful and yet everything
that is amiable. If we attend Him in His sanctuary, we shall behold His beauty,
for God is love, and experience His strength, for He is our rock. Let us
therefore go forth in His strength, enamored with His beauty.
Webster
defines majesty as sovereign power, authority, or dignity. It’s great for us to be servants of “GOOD
KING JESUS.” And to honor Him as our Lord. King David must have had an
experiential understanding of the 2nd part of this verse when he
also wrote,
Psalm
27:4 One thing I have desired of the
Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days
of my life, To behold the beauty of the Lord, And to inquire in His temple.
Psalm
96:7 Give to the Lord, O families of the nations,
give to the Lord the honor and strength that He should have.
8 Give to the Lord the honor of His name. Bring
a gift and come into His holy place.
9 Worship the Lord in holy clothing. May all
the earth shake in fear before Him.
The Hebrew word for give is also translated ascribe
which isn’t a word we use every day. Webster defines it as to refer to a supposed cause, source, or
author : to say or think that (something) is caused by, comes from, or
is associated with a particular person or thing. The instructions in these verses are pretty
specific. Simply stated, we are all to recognize that all glory and strength
comes from God. The response to that recognition is to come to into the courts
of the King with an offering and with worship. He cloths us in His Holiness,
remember the gold plaque on the Priests turban that said Holiness to the Lord.
Matthew
28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Philippians
2:11 And that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
The message we are entrusted to share with all
the earth is so simple even a young child can grasp it and respond. Yet it’s so
profound that it goes over the heads of even very brilliant adults. People need
to understand that whether they accept the truth or not, the Lord is God, He is
the absolute ruler of the universe, and that His judgment will reflect the
loving heart of Jesus who came to seek and to save the lost. This truth is
established as unchangeable as that we are on this planet, that what goes up
will come down. Even the folks up there in the ISS are under the sovereignty of
God. Because we believe in Jesus we have a firm anchor for our lives, we should
realize this be stable, unshakeable, standing in faith through all
circumstances. Now that’s a freedom to shout about. Matthew Henry put it this
way,
The natural world shall be established. The standing of the world,
and its stability, are owing to the mediation of Christ. Sin had given it a
shock, and still threatens it; but Christ, as Redeemer, upholds all things, and
preserves the course of nature… Let them be told that Christ’s government will
be incontestably just and righteous: He shall judge the people righteously,
judge the world with righteousness, and with his truth,
The pictures below are all that needs to be
said about verses 11 & 12
Psalm 96:13
before the Lord. For He is coming, for He is coming to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness, And the peoples with His truth.
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That he shall rule in the hearts and consciences of men by the
commanding power of truth and the Spirit of righteousness and sanctification.
When Pilate asked our Savior, Art thou a king? he answered, ‘For this cause
came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth’ (Jn. 18:37 );
for he rules by truth, commands men’s wills by informing their judgments
aright. Let them be told that his coming draws nigh, that this King, this
Judge, stands before the door; for HE comes, for HE comes.
The lyrics of this old song sum it all up, The Lord Reigns by Lindell Cooly .
Listen to it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?reload=9&v=H9PdovuZURg
The Lord reigns, The Lord reigns, The Lord
reigns
Let the earth rejoice, Let the earth rejoice, Let
the earth rejoice
Let the people be glad, That our God reigns
A fire goes before Him, And burns up all His
enemies
The hills melt like wax, At the presence of
the Lord, At the presence of the Lord
The heavens declare His righteousness
The people see His glory,
For You O Lord are exalted Over all the earth,
Over all the earth
Our God reigns, Our God reigns
© 1980
Scripture In Song
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