Today's Quick Word
Today’s Quick Word
Psalm 96:10-13 Say among the nations, “The LORDreigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the […]
Psalm 96:10-13 Say among the nations, “The LORDreigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; they will sing before the LORD , for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.
This psalm was written for God’s people to sing with enthusiasm and conviction to encourage one another in their spiritual pilgrimage – and thankfully many modern hymn writers have set it to music to help US do just that!
But it also contains a COMMAND for us to obey! We are to ‘say AMONG the NATIONS’ that ‘the LORDreigns’. There are many active forces at work in our society today to discourage, and even prohibit, us from obeying this command. Nevertheless, the psalm tells us that such opposition makes it even more imperative that we DON’T remain silent! The LORD , the God of Creation, is the rightful JUDGE of HIS world, and we can be thankful that he will judge ALL the peoples of the world with EQUITY, and in RIGHTEOUSNESS and TRUTH. The Apostle Paul reminds us, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature -have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20).
Paul may have had the message of Psalm 96 in mind when he wrote this. The more we humans get excited about the absolute WONDER of NATURE (the things that clearly point us to the wonderful CREATOR of them, and leave us WITHOUT EXCUSE), while at the same time IGNORING the gracious and powerful hand of God behind them, the more we condemn ourselves before our righteous, truthful/faithful JUDGE!
With this in mind, let us join with NATURE – the earth, the fields, the sea, and all the trees of the forest – and be LOUD and OUTSPOKEN in joyful praise of OUR GOD AMONG THE NATIONS! The LORD REIGNS … and will one day JUDGE!
