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[0:00] Heavenly Father, we have gathered this evening in the middle of the week to seek your face, to come before the cross of Christ, to receive anew your grace, so that we might come to you boldly in prayer, and seek your power for our life and for our church.

[0:30] So, won't you lead us and meet with us this evening? Speak to us from Psalm 96. As we go through that, Lord, instill in a deep passion for your glory, to spread your glory among all the nations, because you are due, your name is due, the glory that all the world can bring.

[0:54] So, please, instill a deep passion for that. And stir in us for new songs of worship to you as we go through Psalm 96 together.

[1:07] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We're in Psalm 96, 13 verses. And I will read it out loud first, and then we can go through it briefly.

[1:29] 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.

[1:40] Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised.

[1:51] He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before Him.

[2:04] Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.

[2:15] Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth.

[2:29] 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.

[2:42] Let the sea roar, and all that fills it. Let the field exalt, 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.

[2:56] He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness. Psalm 96, really the whole thing is kind of an extended call to worship, calling us to worship Him, and really calling the whole earth to worship Him.

[3:11] It just summons the whole earth to worship God, who is our Creator King. And it's divided into three subsections. Verses 1 to 6 really is, the whole thing is about how the whole earth should worship Him.

[3:23] But verses 1 to 6 in particular is directly toward God's people. So it's the worship of God's people. Verses 7 to 10 is the worship of all peoples. And then verses 11 to 13 is the worship of creation.

[3:36] And in each section, after calling people, these different particular groups of people to worship God, will give a reason why they should worship God. We're in Psalm 96 together.

[3:50] And verse 1 kind of captures the main exhortation of the psalm. It says, O sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.

[4:02] The command to sing a new song doesn't mean, as you probably know, that God doesn't want us to sing the same praise song we've sung before. That you have to compose a new song every time you come to worship Him.

[4:16] If that's the case, we'd be in trouble for our Sunday services. Rather, I think it's calling for a fresh worship that springs from a live, present experience of God's grace.

[4:29] As opposed to stagnant worship that's kind of a rote regurgitation of a no longer experience reality.

[4:40] Something that you no longer feel, no longer know, you no longer experience, but just thinking about it. A dead worship. He's calling for new song, a live thing that comes from our hearts.

[4:51] Something we experience in the present. And so that's, Jesus asked, is your relationship to God, is your relationship to God such that it inspires new songs?

[5:06] Does your relationship with God inspire new prayers? Right? New worship. Because a Christian should be a fountain of new songs that will never dry up because our inspiration, our source, is an eternal God who is infinitely full of grace toward us.

[5:28] And so the whole earth should sing to God, but verses two to six focus first on God's people. Verse two says, Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day.

[5:39] So the commands to sing, to bless, are directed to those who have experienced God's salvation. So it's directed to God's people here. And we should sing every day from day to day. And God's people who are singing to him and praising him aren't supposed to keep this to themselves.

[5:55] It says in verse three, Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. So God's people are to spread the worship of God among all the peoples. And the reason for that is given in verses four to six.

[6:07] 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.

[6:18] His splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are hidden in his sanctuary. So in the Old Testament, no one but God is described as great in an absolute sense.

[6:30] So like for example, Moses is described as great, but it's qualified. It's great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh's servants, in the sight of the people, Exodus 11.3.

[6:42] Or Mordecai is described as great, but he says he's great among the Jews, and popular with the multitude of his brothers. But only God in the Old Testament is described as great, period.

[6:54] He is great. So it's almost like an attribute of God. So he says, and because God is great, he says, for great is the Lord, and he is greatly to be praised. And not only that God is to be feared above all gods, for, the reasons given here, all the gods of the people are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

[7:13] So the word gods and the word worthless are like kind of, their workplace, they look and sound very similar in Hebrew. So if we were to try to capture it in English, it would say something like this, for all the supreme beings of earth, of all the supreme beings of the peoples are supremely worthless.

[7:30] So it's kind of a play, kind of intentional dig at those idols. All those gods, so-called gods, are worthless. But in contrast, but the Lord made the heavens. The Lord God whom Israel worships, whom we worship, is a God who made the heavens.

[7:46] So splendor and majesty are before him. So splendor and majesty representing kingship and royalty. And because he is king, as befits a king, strength and beauty characterize his sanctuary, the place of his dwelling.

[8:00] There are a lot of pretenders in this world, right? There are a lot of people who claim to rule and people who seek to exercise power over us. There are so-called gods and so-called, I mean, people aspiring to be God.

[8:16] Yet, there is only one God in the world. And that is our God, the Lord who made the heavens. And so splendor and majesty, right, we belong to him. So that's the worship of God's people.

[8:27] And then in verses 7 to 10, the psalmist turns his attention to the families of all peoples. So now, the very ones who worship these worthless idols are being called to worship the true God in verses 7 to 10.

[8:38] So he says to them, 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.

[8:49] Bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, The Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established.

[9:01] It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. So they should, these families of all peoples, should worship God. Ascribe glory and strength to him.

[9:12] And because glory is due his name, right, we ascribe, you know, praises or certain attributes to certain people.

[9:22] And to God, we should ascribe glory and strength because he deserves it. Because he is glorious. It's due to his name. So that's why it's wrong to ascribe glory to idols. But to God, it rightly belongs to him because it's due to his name.

[9:36] That's his name characterizes his person. It symbolizes, it represents his person. And verse 8 extends this invitation to these peoples to bring an offering and come into his courts.

[9:48] Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. So this invitation to Gentiles to come into the temple courts for worship and sacrifice, it's really looking forward to a time of universal worship.

[10:01] When not just Jews, but all peoples from all over the world will come to worship God. And so they are, and these people too are commanded not to keep this to themselves, but to share it.

[10:14] So in verse 10, it says, say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. So these Gentiles who are coming to worship God and know God are also to spread the fame of God among themselves, among other fellow nations.

[10:31] And because, and the reason is this, the Lord reigns. He is the king. He reigns. whatever you can think of when you hear the phrase movers and shakers of this world, right?

[10:44] We think of some people as movers and shakers of this world. It doesn't matter how powerful they are. It doesn't matter where they are. It doesn't matter how turbulent our world and our history, our present moment seem. He's the king and under his eternal rule, the world is established.

[10:59] It shall never be moved. His reign is not threatened by anything that goes on below. happens here in our world. So he is a righteous king who will judge all peoples with equity and for that reason all the peoples of earth, all the families of earth should worship him.

[11:14] So that's the worship of all peoples. And then finally is the worship of creation in verses 11 to 13. When God's equitable rule spreads over the whole earth, all creation will be glad and rejoice.

[11:27] That's what verses 11 to 13 are about. So it says, 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.

[11:40] Then shall all the trees of the forest sink for joy before the Lord. And this is the reason for their gladness, verse 13. For he comes. For he comes to judge the earth.

[11:52] He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. I guess we think of judgment as mostly negative terms nowadays, right?

[12:07] And I guess that shows the kind of world we live in and the kind of people we are, right? Because judgment rightly administered is supposed to be something that brings joy and gladness, right? It's supposed to bring peace.

[12:20] And so many people in the world and so often even we, right, as Christians resist God's rule and we presume to think that we know better and that if we had our own way that things would get better and we seek to rule our own lives, right?

[12:38] But what these few verses are teaching us is that the true gladness and true joy are found not in our own rule but in our submission to God's rule.

[12:51] When he is ruling, he brings true justice. He brings true righteous judgment because it is God who judges the world in righteousness and the people is in his faithfulness. No one in the world, including ourselves, is capable of ruling more graciously and judging more righteously and fairly than our God.

[13:09] So it's when we are submitted, most submitted to him as our creator king that we are most free. It's when we are most humble before him that's when we are most happy. And if we really believe this truth then our lives would be full of contentment and thanksgiving because we would be submitted to him and humbly given to him no matter what situation we're in instead of grumbling and complaining, seeking to rule our own lives and wanting to live the way we want.

[13:36] So Psalm 96 as a whole looks forward to a time when all the peoples and all creation will submit to God's gracious reign and worship. and this plan really comes to fulfillment and begins to be fulfilled in the life, death, the resurrection and ascension and reign of Jesus.

[13:59] Ephesians 2, 12-13 tell us that Gentiles like most of us were once alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the world.

[14:13] But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So, if we're not ethnically Jewish, then we were all once people who were far off, cut off.

[14:29] We were among the peoples of earth, the families of earth who were worshipping those worthless idols. But because Jesus died on the cross, he fulfilled the requirements of the law for us and satisfied God's wrath and in doing so, he made a way for sinners from all nations to be reconciled to God.

[14:46] And that's why in Revelation 5, 9, at the end of all things, the consummation of all things, it says of Jesus, 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.

[15:07] that's the cosmic end of all things when people from every tribe and nation will be worshipping God as this Psalm 96 is picturing. And Jesus is the new focal point of that worship.

[15:20] This Psalm was quoted when David brought the Ark of God into Jerusalem for worship in 1 Chronicles 16. And now, so this Psalm, Jesus now, he's at the new temple and new Jerusalem is the focal point of this worship.

[15:35] And so we're supposed to direct all the peoples to him. So our commission as believers is, as you guys know, Matthew 28, 19, to go and make disciples of all the nations because God is the God over all.

[15:48] We are supposed to make disciples of all nations. All peoples of the world are to worship God because God's king not over our nation alone, over Israel alone, but over all the nations and all peoples of earth.

[16:01] And so last question that I want to end the Psalm with is, do the priorities of your life reflect this Christian purpose of wanting to see all nations come to worship God?

[16:15] Does the way you spend your money reflect that Christian purpose? Does the way you spend your time, the way you spend your vacation, the way you live your life reflect that purpose of wanting to see all nations come to worship God?

[16:34]  and I want to pray tonight in my prayers that we would be a church that's consumed by that desire to see God's glory.