Tell everyone the amazing things He does
Ps 96:1-13
My former church recently produced a book of testimonies of God’s grace touching lives. One such describes a young woman at a lonely bus stop in Fiji with a threatening gang of young men approaching. Then a van stops and a man gets out and promises to wait with her until the bus comes, then disappears once she is safely on board. Another is of a nurse in a war-torn area wanting to travel home to her parents only to find the bus station entirely empty of buses and public transport closing down because of the war. Then a last bus comes along and happens to go to her village. Further stories include healing from addiction even before the person knows anything about God, niggling questions about God and false teachings that lead those individuals to His truth, encounters that open the way for knowing the Lord, illness that tests people’s self-reliance and lead them to a closer walk with God. Some are dramatic experiences of God’s rescue, others are quiet, seemingly ordinary incidents, yet they all add up to an extraordinary witness to the Lord’s love, grace and incredible generosity.
Proclaiming daily that He saves
As I read Psalm 96 and the call to proclaim every day the good news that He saves (Ps 96:2), I cannot help but think of these incidents and others like it from my own life. We all have stories to tell if we know the Lord and we need to tell them, so the world around us may hear of God’s wonderful acts (Ps 96:3). The aim is for the Lord to be praised and honoured so that the distinction between idols and the true God may be clear (Ps 96:4-5). Those who do not know God (and sometimes we ourselves) can treat wealth, status, relationships, career and so on as gods, attributing them the ability to save us, give us security, fulfilment or meaning. Yet, when we see the Lord of the Universe arrange our circumstances for our good, we know that all these other things are lifeless and ineffectual by comparison. The reality of God’s strength and love eclipses all other experiences.
The nations to recognise that God reigns
The psalm, however, goes further and addresses the nations directly calling them to recognise God’s glory and strength and come to Him in worship (Ps 96:7-9; presumably as a response to the testimonies of His people in vv.2-3). While the salvation of the nations is only hinted at in the Old Testament, there are some scattered examples of Gentiles coming to the Lord as far back as the exodus. There, Moses recounts God’s dramatic rescue to Jethro, his pagan father-in-law (Exod 18:7-8), who in turn acknowledges God’s greatness above all gods and worships Him (Exod 18:10-12).[1] When we see the Lord intervene in our circumstances, we recognise that He indeed reigns as King and not only does this give us reassurance but it is the good news that the world needs to hear (Ps 96:10).
Judgment as an occasion for joy
Perhaps the most striking aspect of this psalm is creation’s joy over God’s coming judgment (Ps 96:11-13). In our Western context, judgment is seen as an ugly world and one to be avoided at all costs. While it may seem like freedom that we can define right and wrong ourselves, it leads to situations of confusion and chaos where nothing is what it seems to be anymore. Our God-given instinct may tell us that something is wrong, but the world insists that it is now normal, acceptable, even right. Suppressing the truth is hard work and leads to shaky foundations. Thus, God’s coming when He will put things right and judge what is true and what is not, in fairness and in faithfulness, (vv.10, 13) is something to rejoice over. When we submit to the Lord, we no longer need to fear judgment, either, because He has saved us and will not condemn us (Rom 8:1). Our challenge is to live daily with the recognition that God indeed reigns over our world whether we see His intervention or not and to remind ourselves and others daily of His involvement in our lives.
[1] I am grateful to Michael Wilcock for this example. The Message of Psalms 73-150, BST (Nottingham: IVP, 2001), 98.
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