Psalm 96 Part One: God among the Scare Crows

Sorry, no recording is available.

Thanks to Tim Stanton for preaching this morning; he was back home during his Christmas break from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, where he is currently earning a Master of Divinity.

Outline

• A New Song
• A Universal Choir
• Appropriate Praise
• Conclusion: The Psalm Fulfilled in the Work of Christ

Introduction

Our psalmist’s theme is fitting praise for Yahweh in light of His glory in salvation and judgement. I was helped immensely in understanding this theme by a book called “God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgement” by Jim Hamilton even though he completely skips this psalm in his book.
In that book Jim Hamilton argues that the one unifying and central theme of the bible is God’s glory seen in saving His people through judgement. So as judgement falls on Christ, we are saved and God is glorified in the display of His grace against the backdrop of His justice. At this point I think that Jim Hamilton is right and that bibles great overarching meta-narrative is salvation through judgement. But regardless of whether that holds up as a watertight theme for all of scripture it is undoubtedly the theme of this psalm. We see his glory in salvation from verses 1-9. And his glory in judgement from verses 10-13. So God’s glory in salvation form verse 1-9 is this week’s evening message and next week we will see God’s glory in judgement in the last third of this psalm.

For our purposes, I would like us to use this as demonstration for how we can better understand portions of the Old Testament by thinking of the psalms main points. Thinking about fitting praise for Yahweh’s saving work the psalmist outlines that God’s glory requires a new song, a universal choir, and appropriate praise. God’s glory requires a new song, a universal choir, and appropriate praise.