In Psalm 96, verses 2 and 3 instruct us to proclaim God’s salvation day after day. This is the same idea that is encapsulated in the word “evangelism,” which is about proclaiming Good News. The psalmist reminds us that we have Good News story to share, and in verse 3 he describes it as declaring two things: (1) God’s glory among the nations, and (2) His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Notice the perspective again? (We’ve been talking all week about how this psalm gives us perspective, starting here.) The psalmist says Good News proclamation is global. “Among the nations, among all peoples!”
God has a global mindset. We, therefore, follow God’s heart to also have a global mindset. This is why I love that Faith Church has always been globally minded through supporting missionaries and our sister churches. This is why I love that we have people from our own church who are missionaries. This is why I love that we support CV SEEDS by hosting ESL classes here. By helping SEEDS we participate in doing what this psalmist suggests, by sharing the love of God with the nations, with people from all over the globe who now live in our community. On ESL nights, it is like a United Nations in our fellowship hall.
This is also why I am excited that our Outreach and Mission serve teams are pursuing us becoming a Church World Service Welcoming Church. There are refugees from all over the world who had to flee their homes because of ethnic, political and religious persecution. Eventually they find temporary dwelling in a refugee camp, as they work through the super long process of getting their permanent resettlement. Some are being resettled in Lancaster. We declare God’s glory and marvelous deeds by welcoming them, loving them, helping them get acclimated to life in Lancaster. And most of all, learning from them and their perspective.
As we move to verse 4, we learn why we sing and proclaim. Three reasons: (1) For great is the Lord, (2) most worthy of praise, and (3) thus he is to be feared above all gods. This, too, gives us perspective. We can get focused on the difficult situations of our lives. We all have difficulty. Some of us are going through severe difficulty. Some less severe. But we all have broken relationships or health problems or rough jobs.
The psalmist reminds us of the greatness of God. In the middle of our difficulty, let’s turn our attention to who God is, the great God who is worthy to be praised.
The psalmist isn’t saying that life isn’t hard. Instead when we praise God at all times, we shift our heart and mind perspective. In other words, we don’t just pretend all is well and sing lies. When we praise God at all times, we find comfort, strength and perspective in him.
A word about that last phrase, fearing God. That fear is not to be scared of God because he might harm or abuse us. Instead it is to have reverence and respect because of how amazing God is. God is perfect love, and he always responds and relates in love. So no matter what you’re going through, you can know that God loves you. God calls you his child, and he is a good, good father. This fearing him is a reverent, deep reflective awe for his love and power and sacrifice for you.
In the culture of the ancient Jews, there were actually many competing gods. In Psalm 96 verses 5 and 6 the psalmist says those other gods are idols, but the Lord is creator. He has splendor and majesty before him. Strength and glory in his sanctuary. There is no competition between God and other gods.
That fact causes the psalmist to repeat himself again, as we saw in the first two verses of the psalm, in this post. In the next post we’ll talk about the importance of his new repetition.
Photo by Marek Piwnicki on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 