Psalm 96:1-13

“Prayer of Worship for the God of All Nations”

Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens. Splendour and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the LORD in the splendour of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity." Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness. Psalms 96:1-13 A few years ago the government of Puerto Rico passed a number of laws which greatly affected a quite a few churches in their country. The focus of the statutes which were adopted had to do with public noise levels. Due to the severe restrictions of loud sounds in public, many churches were forced to advise their members to restrain themselves from singing and praying too loud. Sound systems and amplifiers were required to be turned down. Instruments - guitars and organs - were muted. The supreme court of Puerto Rico ruled that churches were not allowed to produce noise that in any way might annoy or inconveniences neighbours. The dispute originated over worship services from both a Pentecostal church and a Catholic church, as people in both neighbourhoods complained that the noise levels of their worship services were disturbing their Sunday morning sleep. In some ways it seems the worship services can also disturb the Sunday morning sleep of those in the church building. Worship in the church can often also be a battle ground – not only about volume of sound and noise levels, but also the battle regarding certain music styles or specific musical instruments or the length of the service or traditions or customs and Bible translations. Sadly none of these issues has anything to do with worship because these issues are about us. Worship is not about us; worship is about God. Worship is our response to who God is, in view of who we are. Because of who God is, He becomes all things in true worship. He is the creator, the source, the “Alpha and Omega” of all things. Because of who we are – in being created by the Creator – we worship before the throne of the Creator Himself, who is not only the Creator of life but also the Creator of all things that were, are, and ever will be. As we view God and then ourselves, we also see how deeply His image in us has been horribly corrupted by sin. Eternally lost but for the love our Creator has for us – mercy, forgiveness, redemption, love, grace, and the salvation of new life become ours through Jesus Christ. And we are totally undeserving and absolutely worthy of this gift. God’s election stuns us; His choosing shocks our hearts - we worship that which we do not understand nor comprehend, but we know it is true. Worship is our response to who God is, in view of who we are. We worship because we know without God, we would become dust again. With Him, we share in the gift of eternal life; without Him we would be eternally lost. As we consider what could be, to what is - we confess and repent. As we contemplate how immense God is to how minute we are - we are overwhelmed and cry out in painful discovery. At that moment we share in the words of Isaiah: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" (Isaiah 6:5) and we hear the words of Peter when recognized Jesus was God Himself: “. . . he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, „Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!‟" (Luke 5:8). 1

Worship is our response to who God is, in view of who we are. In viewing who we are and who God truly is, we then realize our position, our need - our utter, desperate dependence upon Him. With our faces in the dust we then hear a voice calling us - and in humble surrender we look up and see a broken Jesus on a bloody cross. He cries out: “It is finished” (John 19:30) and as the last breath of life leaves his body, he breathes into our souls the first breath of eternal life. And as his new life begins within us - our hearts open and soften; our souls are stirred and filled; our spirits rise up and touch His Spirit - and we worship. Its then we begin to fulfill the true created purpose of our lives, as we give Him glory in being our greatest treasure, our deepest satisfaction, our most supreme joy in all of life. Worship is our response to who God is, in view of who we are. When we finally grasp a vision of the depth of our weakness before the greatness of God; our depravity becomes lost in His majestic presence. The flame of this truth ignites our spirit to passionately worship before His throne of power and grace with tears, praise, songs, shouts, cries, bowed heads, raised hands, and obedient lives. Contrary to popular opinion, God does not call us or command us to worship. Worship is what we are made of, it is what we were made to do. Our call to worship comes from deep inside of us; we are driven to worship by our very being. In Isaiah 43:7 God said: “Everyone who is called by my name . . . whom I formed and made . . . I created for my glory.” We were created for worship, so that God would be glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. Our greatest struggle with worship is that we most often find our greatest satisfaction in someone or something other than God which then glorifies someone or something other than God. But that is not what we were created to do. We were created by God for God to glorify God. Worship is our response to who God is, in view of who we are. We see this in our psalm for today in view of the psalms we have previously looked at, which clearly revealed our desperate need for God. In Psalm 16 we read of King David’s prayer of joy for the protection of God; in Psalm 25 we saw his prayer of confidence for the guidance of God; and in Psalm 34 we looked at David’s prayer of gratitude for the rescue of God. And now in view of our desperate need for God, and of God’s loving, merciful, gracious response to our desperate need as expressed by King David – Psalm 96 is a joyful response of worship glorifying God for who He is. While this psalm was not written by King David, it was based upon David’s worship of God found in 1 Chronicles 16, when the Ark of the Covenant was finally returned to its proper place in Jerusalem, the city of God. The context into which Psalm 96 was written was during the time when those who were captured and taken into exile, were returning back to Jerusalem and worshipping the sovereign God who had rescued them and brought them back home. The significance and implication of this Psalm for us is that through the cross of Jesus Christ God has rescued us from the captivity of our sin and the exile of eternal punishment; this psalm is our call to worship the sovereign One who not only created us but who also has saved us so that we might come back home and live with Him forever. We worship today because this psalm is really a grand missionary hymn. The words of this psalm were written to remind the nation of Israel that the blessings of God were never intended just for them. This psalm reminds us that because we were created to glorify God, our existence has a much greater purpose than just living for ourselves. Because we were created in the image of a God who sovereingly rules over all the nations, we were made by God for a global purposes This psalm is a prayer of worship for the God of all nations, a hymn celebrating how God’s reign over all creation means that all kinds of people should love and worship him. The psalm is broken into three sections, each beginning with a call to worship - and each section calls us to share our faith in God with all those in the world who do not know God: 1) “Sing . . . all the earth . . . the nations . . . the peoples” (verses 1-6); 2) “Ascribe . . . families of the peoples . . . all the earth” (verses 7–9); and 3) “Say . . . the nations . . . the peoples . . . the world” (verses 10–13). These three sections tell us how we can follow God’s call and share our faith in Jesus Christ with all the nations of the world by worshipping God. 2

I. Exalt His Name. In the first six verses of Psalm 96 we read that we share our faith in Jesus Christ when we worship God by declaring the glory of God‟s name. The first call we see here is that we are to exalt God’s name: “Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name.” We read here three times that we are to “sing to the LORD.” Remember that when word or a phrase in the Bible is repeated three times is an imperative God uses to get our attention or to proclaim the glory of who He is - like “Holy, Holy, Holy” in Isaiah 6:3. This is God calling us to recognize and proclaim the glory of who He is in the Trinity. Singing out to our triune God started way back at the time of creation; we see God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit all at work in the first three chapters of Genesis. In speaking of the creation to Job, God spoke of "when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (Job 38:7). We are called to sing a “new song” to the Lord. These words speak of something that is brand new or something that is “delightful and precious.” When something is new it is fresh. If all we sang is “Jesus Love Me” every week, chances are we would not be growing deeper in our walk with the Lord. We all love singing songs we already know, but we also must learn new ones so we gain new insights into the depths of God’s attributes and experience greater widths of His character. A “new song” is a phrase in the psalms that speaks of fresh outbursts of rejoicing and reverence for God. Imagine if we sang the same songs every week; imagine if I preached the same sermon every week; imagine if the newspaper you received every day had the same news and the conversations you have with your spouse or children or friends were the same conversations you have every day. There are Christians who are living out their faith that way; they are still reading and speaking and living the same spiritual life every day of their lives – living on the fumes on what was, rather than on what could be; bored with worship, bored with faith, bored with salvation, bored with Jesus. Martin Luther once said: “Christ is now as fresh unto me as if He had shed His blood but this very hour.” Brothers and sisters, you and I were made to “sing to the LORD!” We who claim Jesus as our Lord and Saviour were created to be so deeply satisfied in God that we would joyfully declare the glory of God’s name in everything we do; 1 Corinthians 10:31 says: "Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God." We have been created by God and rescued by God; we have a new song to sing! The new song we are to sing is the glory of a gracious, sovereign God who is with us and who lives in us. Zephaniah 3:17 tells us: "The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing." Psalm 96 tells us this should cause us to sing a “new song” that would “declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!” For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.” Our God truly worthy of worship! He is “to be feared above all gods” because he “made the heavens” – all other “gods” are nothing more than “worthless idols.” God is glorious in His “splendour and majesty.” Because we are His people, God’s “strength and beauty” are present with us when we are gathered together “in his sanctuary.” We were made to sing of His glory! II. Extend His Kingdom. In verses 7-9 we then read that we share our faith in Jesus Christ when we worship God by declaring the glory of God’s name to the nations: “Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth! (Psalm 96:7-9). We are to extend God’s kingdom by calling the nations to join us in song. Again, as in the first section, we read of a three-fold call of God; this time we read we are to “ascribe to the LORD.” The word “ascribe” means to “give what is due.” If we truly recognize God’s glory and greatness and splendour and majesty and beauty and strength - we will then honour Him and give God what is due and “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name.” It is significant that “families of the peoples” (nations) are also called to join God’s in ascribing glory to God and sing praise to Him. 3

This is a fulfillment of the call of God for Israel through Abraham, who is considered to be the father of the Jews. In Genesis 12:2-3 God told Abraham: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” The Old Testament promise of God for the nation of Israel was that He would bless them so they would be a blessing to all nations. That came to fruition when Jesus was born into the world through the line of Abraham. The Old Testament texts that summon the nations to praise God for his mercy were foreshadowing for the work of Christ on the cross in dying for sinners, so that Gentile sinners like us would be saved. Psalm 96 implies that we are to share Jesus Christ with every nation, every people group, every family, every person in the world; all sinners, everyone, must turn to the true and living God and abandon all their other gods. Every person from every people group is called to repent and ascribe all glory to the one and only true, living God. Our part in this is not just share the facts and the information about the glory and greatness and splendour and majesty and beauty and strength of God; we are also to invite every nation, every people group, every family, every person in the world to join us in praising God! We are to invite and call and woo and challenge and persuade and declare the glory of God to each and every person we meet in life. All the nations must bow before the one true God of Israel, the one true God of the Gentiles, whom we know now as our Lord Jesus Christ. J. Campbell White, the first secretary of the Layman’s Missionary Movement in the early 1900’s said: “Most men are not satisfied with the permanent output of their lives. Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers except the adoption of Christ’s purpose toward the world he came to redeem. Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans. The men who are putting everything into Christ’s undertaking are getting out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.” To give yourself to the living of your life to extend the kingdom of God for the cause of Jesus Christ is the greatest, most significant cause that you and I could ever live for. Remember we learned in Ephesians that one day God will fill the universe with the glory of Jesus showing all creation his body, the church - how he chose us, how he predestined us, how he came for us and taught us and suffered for us and died for us and rose for us and reigns with us, how he called us and justified us and cleansed us and keeps us and will raise us and glorify us and satisfy us forever with Himself. On that day, those who gave their lives to extending His kingdom will see the work of their lives fulfilled. If you have surrendered your heart and life to Jesus Christ, the Lord has put a “new song” in your heart. It’s an old song, almost 2,000 years old now - but it is also a song that is new every morning. It’s a song we read of in Revelation 5:9-10: "And they sang a new song, saying, „Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.‟” The song we sing is the song of the great victory God has won in Jesus Christ over sin and death that sets us free and calls us back home to God. It’s a song of the glory of the Lord, which we have come to know in the person of Jesus Christ. It’s a song we are to invite all every nation, every people group, every family, every person in the world to join with us in singing – for its God’s desire to create one family out of all the families of the earth. And it’s a song we are not just sing, but also to live out in everything we think, say and do. And yes, it is an old song - but it’s a song that never gets old. Singing about Jesus is a “new song” every moment of every day.

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I heard an old, old story, how the Saviour came from glory, How He gave His life at Calvary, to save a wretch like me, I heard about His groaning, of His precious blood's atoning, Then I repented of my sins and won the victory. Oh victory in Jesus, my Saviour forever! He sought me and bought me with His redeeming blood. He loved me ere I knew Him and all my love is due Him, He plunged me to victory, beneath the cleansing flood. III. Expect His Return. In the last three verses we read that we share our faith in Jesus Christ when we worship God by declaring the glory of God’s name to the nations that Jesus Christ has come and He will return. Verses 11-13 tell us we are to expect Jesus’ return and warn of his coming judgment. The opening call we hear in this section is: “Say among the nations, „The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity." We are to declare the reign of the Lord and His coming judgment. While there is no three-fold call of God in this section as there was in the first two sections – the word “judge” is repeated three times in these four verses. C.S. Lewis wrote that this psalm is structured so as to see divine judgment as an occasion for rejoicing. The word “judge” in verse 10 speaks of God sovereignly ruling over all the nations, judging everyone with fairness and equity. In verses 11-12 we read of the whole creation, pondering in wonder over the reign of God and then breaking out into joyful praise. The heavens will be glad, the earth will rejoice, the sea will roar, the fields - weeds and all - will exult, and all the trees of the forest will sing for joy. In Romans 8:2021 we read that "The creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God." When Jesus returns - all creation will rejoice with us. „Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.” When Jesus returns, he will judge the world according to the standard of His righteousness and all the people according to His faithfulness. The only hope we have when Jesus returns is the righteousness that we have been given in Christ, and the faithfulness of God in being faithful to who He is. When Jesus returns he will dispense justice, vindicate believers, and will establish truth forever. His kingdom will have no end. In the mean time, as we wait for Jesus’ return, we are called to worship: “Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth! Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples! For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised!” It is more than significant that this psalm, a prayer of declaring the glory of God’s name to the nations, begins with a call, a command, to “sing TO the LORD a new song.” You see, we can’t declare to the nations the glory of God’s name so they might “sing to the LORD a new song” - if we do not “sing to the LORD a new song.” You see, the problem with many songs and sermons and teaching material in use today is that they are about the Lord, but not to the Lord. We are to “sing TO the LORD a new song” not “sing ABOUT the LORD a new song.” The word “about” infers knowledge and assumes distance, while “to” infers relationship and assumes intimacy. When I talk about Nancy she need not be in my presence; when I talk to Nancy she is the joy in my presence.

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When we “sing TO the LORD” we are joyfully singing in the glorious presence of the holy One who lovingly created us and who sovereignly has rescued us from sin and death so that we might live with Him forever. When we “sing ABOUT the LORD” we affirm truths about who God is and truths about what God has done – but we can sing those truths without any of those truths having any affect on our lives. You can “sing ABOUT the LORD” without knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. Spirituality is in style today; there are a lot of non-Christians singing songs about Jesus and about God. Anyone can “sing ABOUT the LORD.” But those who “sing TO the LORD” possess an unusual passion about Jesus and about life; they are not pretenders or just living off the spiritual capital of previous generations. Those who “sing TO the LORD” are vibrantly living their lives with God and their songs are being sung TO Him. Their worship, their lives are more intense a6nd more personal and more engaging because - He is real, He is personal, He is known, He is precious, He is present. John Piper has said that he believes God’s people are called to the mission of sharing Jesus Christ with the world because the worship of God through Jesus Christ does not exist. Dr. Piper writes: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. Missions is a temporary necessity - but worship abides forever. Worship, therefore, is the fuel and goal of missions.” Worship is our response to who God is, in view of who we are. It starts with a dark season of facing the barrenness of one’s soul, quickens into a longing and yearning to taste of the goodness of God – which is then satisfied with a deep illing of the great and manifest wonder and hope and joy of knowing Jesus. Sparked by the painful acknowledgement of our sin, and deep need, driven by the desire for cleansing and purity, granted by the power of the risen Christ that lives within – we then worship! The context of our text this morning was during the time when those who were captured and taken into exile were returning back to Jerusalem and worshipping the sovereign God who had rescued them and brought them back home. We live in day and in a place and in a world where most around us are exiled from God. It’s hard to truly discern how many Christians are in the world today. Some sources seem to say there are about 2 billion Christians in the world. But that’s using the term “Christian” in the broadest sense – which would then include groups like the Catholic Church (over 1 billion) Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses. A better measure for us would be to look at how many evangelical (born again) Christians there in the world today – which most sources estimate to be at about 200 to 250 million. And so what that means is that since the population of the world is now close to 7 billion – evangelical (born again) Christians make up about 3% of the world’s population. One thing we know for sure is that Christianity, even in its broadest sense, is in a steep decline in western countries such as ours. While churches in some Asian and Africa countries are growing at astronomical rates, the opposite is true in European countries and North America. A recent report stated that simply studying the numbers of those attending churches - organized religion will all but vanish eventually from nine Western-style democracies. While Christianity and religion won't die out completely, they will be driven toward extinction in Austria, the Czech Republic, Finland, Switzerland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and - Canada. Statistics tells us that a majority of those in Port Alberni claim no alignment with any type of religious tradition or belief. And there are few evangelical churches in town. What that means is that most of our friends and our neighbours will be eternally lost when Jesus returns. We must “sing to the LORD a new song!” We “sing to the LORD a new song” with the Fasts today who have been singing the song of Jesus to the people in Asia for sometime. Mike and Eva, we join with you in the prayer of worship for the God of all nations; may we proclaim together “The Lord reigns!” so that God would be glorified in the days ahead as many in South East Asia and Western Canada join us in singing “to the LORD a new song! 2011-04-10

Dr. Leland Botzet

Arrowsmith Baptist Church 6