Psalm 96
Worship in the Splendor of Holiness
Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!
Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples!
For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts!
Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; tremble before him, all the earth!
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns! Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.”
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it; let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in his faithfulness.
I did my first Bible study with our worship team yesterday – we did it before they rehearsed for musical worship this coming Sunday.
In opening, I set the expectation that this time that I spend with them is an opportunity to just relinquish everything that bothers them or is otherwise occupying them, just so that when they do rehearse, they re-discover the joy in what they are doing.
On a personal note it has been my observation that they’re doing what they’re doing without enjoying themselves as a team. Oftentimes if one of them is bothered, it leaks out to the rest of the team… and if I found it unpleasant at rehearsal, how much more would the congregation be impacted at the actual praise and worship?
I thank God, because we can never go wrong with the Word; I strongly believe that the Word leads to Life (Christ), just as the Life reveals the Word, even in the smallest aspects of our existence in this reality.
Psalm 96 seemed to be a good place to start. The very first verse seemed to immediately resonate to at least some of the folk. And as the person I assigned to read the entire psalm kept going, it seemed natural for the rest of the team to read along, aloud…
After praying after the reading, however, everyone seemed to fall silent when I asked them, ‘what did you find profound about the Psalm? What verses jumped out to you guys as we read it?’
To sort of kick things off, I shared how, in the latter parts of the Psalm, the Psalmist indicates that not just people, but the heavens, the earth, and the sea join us in praising Him; We recalled Luke 19:40, the events which we now call the Triumphal Entry – In response to the Pharisees who told Jesus to tell the crowd to stop their praises, He said, ‘if these were silent, the very stones would cry out’.
After this someone in the team mustered the courage to speak up, and piggy-backed off of what I had to share, pointing out the mention, not only of the heavens, the earth, and the sea, but also the ‘field’; In his mind the ‘field’ was where we toil to grow crops and gather food, and was representative therefore of our work – that, even in our work is called to praise Him.
Then I pointed out, that the Psalmist didn’t necessarily indicate that all Creation should ‘praise’ Him… but the heavens are to literally ‘be glad’, the earth ‘rejoices’, the sea ‘roars’, and the fields ‘exult’; Meaning, in praise there is gladness, there is rejoicing, there is roaring, and there is exulting! Or, it’s the other way around also for us – for when we are glad, when we rejoice and roar in triumph, when we are in exultation, does it not also come out naturally for us to be praising God through it all?
At around this point, I also shared a story about how my backpack containing my laptop and camera were stolen from me, and how, while the frustration and rage were certainly present, in the background, or in the back of my mind, praise songs were literally being played, and were seemingly helping in calming me down, lest I lose my temper.
When I asked the rest of the team if they experienced anything similar, one lady testified about how, even in the lack of critical finances for her and her family, she was reminded to keep trusting in the Lord. Another man presented another contrast – that is, while the lady was experiencing something of a ‘slow burn’ of a trial, he was being confronted with sudden tests of patience; In his case as a worker in a cafeteria, these trials came in the form of students with ugly behaviors.
We gloried in the Lord, saying how, by the Holy Spirit, we may not necessarily remember full-length songs at our times of testing, but we are certainly reminded of how we can trust God in the long-term, and how He keeps us at peace in the short-term.
This is our God, who causes us to rejoice and praise, and praise and rejoice, no matter what is happening to us. Indeed, He is worthy of all glory, all honor. Praise His name!
There was certainly more to talk about and to reveal here in this wonderful Psalm, but we ran out of time. Before praying for them, I ended with a nice verse that came to mind:
You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble;
you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah
Psalm 32:7
Let us always be thankful to the Lord, who sings for us and to us, even when we have troubles overwhelming us, and even when we are having difficulty to sing.
Thank God for these times of refreshing. Will definitely keep on meeting them.
I hope and pray you have also been blessed, dear reader. Stay strong and vigilant in the Lord, who surrounds us with shouts of deliverance.
Until the next post, may God bless us all. May our weekends continue to be pleasant; Amen, and amen.
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