Learn how & why you can worship God at all times.
Psalm 96
1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
13 Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
Canons of Dordt
Point 1 - God's Unconditional Election
Articles 1-11
Article 13 & 14 - The Fruit of Our Assurance
In their awareness and assurance of this election,
God’s children daily find greater cause to humble themselves before God,
to adore the fathomless depth of God’s mercies,
to cleanse themselves,
and to give fervent love in return to the One who first so greatly loved them.
This is far from saying that this teaching concerning election, and reflection upon it,
make God’s children lax in observing his commandments or carnally self-assured.
By God’s just judgment this does usually happen to those who casually take for granted the grace of election or engage in idle and brazen talk about it but are unwilling to walk in the ways of the chosen.
By God’s wise plan,
this teaching concerning divine election was proclaimed through the prophets, Christ himself, and the apostles, in Old and New Testament times.
It was subsequently committed to writing in the Holy Scriptures.
So also today in God’s church,
for which it was specifically intended,
this teaching must be set forth with a spirit of discretion, in a godly and holy manner, at the appropriate time and place, without inquisitive searching into the ways of the Most High.
This must be done for the glory of God’s most holy name, and for the lively comfort of God’s people.
Summary
You might be surprised to find out that Psalm 96 isn't just the 96th Psalm. It's also found in 1 Chronicles 16 as the pattern for praise that King David gave to his newly appointed national choir director, Asaph, on the day that the Ark of the Covenant was returned to Jerusalem from the Philistines. In many ways, Psalm 96 is the 'job description' for all those who praise the Lord!
Hopefully the upbeat nature of today's Psalm was obvious to you, but given its importance as the manner in which to give praise to the LORD (1 Chr. 16:7), it serves as a perfect guide for you to enact the imperatives given to you in this week's articles from the Canons of Dordt. As one who's been unconditionally elected by God, you must give fervent love to the One who first so greatly loved you.
Here's how you do that:
NOISILY & EXPRESSIVELY, YET REVERENTLY:
Loving and praising God is far from an exclusively somber and quiet endeavor. Psalm 96 commands you to sing to the LORD, praise His name, proclaim His salvation, and declare His glory and marvelous deeds among all people. You must confidently say among the nations that the LORD reigns! Yet there certainly are times where silent reverence is the appropriate form of praise: all the earth must tremble before the splendor of His holiness.
THEOLOGICALLY:
In order to properly praise the LORD, you must know who He is and why He deserves such praise: The LORD made the heavens, and strength and glory are His. We're commanded to ascribe to the LORD (2x) - this means that we're to give God the credit for that which He's done, and not attempt to scientifically or logically explain away the glory due His name.
COMPREHENSIVELY:
It's so easy to limit the concept of worship to music, as if our weekly worship both begins and ends with the songs that we sing in church (or as is often sadly the case, the songs that are sung to us by professional praise bands). But Psalm 96 shows how all of creation is involved in God's worship: the heavens must rejoice, the earth be glad, the sea resound, the fields be jubilant, the trees must sing... in fact, all creation must rejoice! This means that the aspects of God's creation that are under your control must be stewarded by you in such a way that they praise God (notice the commands given to nature are in passive terms - it's up to you to take action to make it happen).
Dig Deeper
For some reason, Reformed theology often gets explained in sets of five points. We're spending this year coming to understand the five doctrines of grace (Total depravity, Unconditional election, Limited atonement, Irresistible grace, and Perseverance of the saints). But it can also be described in what have come to be known as the five solas of the Reformation:
1) Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
2) Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
3) Solus Christus (Christ Alone)
4) Sola Scriptura (Scripture Alone)
We don't have time to unpack all that the first four mean today, but if you want to get a good understanding of the fifth one, Soli Deo Gloria - Glory to God Alone - Psalm 96 is an excellent definition!
ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father: great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will sing, proclaim, declare, ascribe, worship, and say the LORD's sovereign glory in your activities today;
ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:
Read the New Testament in a year! Today: Galatians 6
