Sing to the Lord | Psalm 96

The more I studied Psalm 96 for this morning's message, the more I came away with the sense that it is one of the best summaries of the entire collection of the Psalms.

What do I mean by that? If you were to sit down and list the greatest themes that run throughout the Psalms, throughout all 150 songs, you might end up listing the three primary themes that come out of Psalm 96.

And I'm just going to go ahead and show my hand this morning. These are the three great themes of Psalm 96.

Number one, the Lord reigns. That's an amen moment.

Number two, his kingdom extends to the very ends of the earth.

And number three, he has promised to come to earth to judge and redeem his creation.

And once you recognize the importance of those three great themes, you can't help but see them being woven throughout the entire canon of scripture from Genesis to Revelation.

And then if you have ears to hear, if you're really paying attention, you will also recognize a truth that is both mind blowing and life changing.

Are you ready? You as a child of God found in Christ,

you have a role to play in the King sovereign story of creation and redemption.

Every one of you who's found in Christ has a role to play in that epic story.

And it's a story that plays out each and every day here on the earth.

The Lord marked you out. He justifies you in his sight. He adopted you as an heir for a global purpose that extends beyond just you.

It extends beyond this age that is passing away. He has made you and saved you for something very, very big.

Now, I know it always doesn't feel that way. As you go through the daily grind of life, you don't always recognize that.

But that's why we turn to scripture to tell us the truth about God, about ourselves, about our time on earth and about the purposes that God has for us.

And trust me, when you look at scripture, it's a big, big story.

Now you may think, OK, Jeff, but Christ died for me. My sin is washed away.

I'm saved for all eternity. Isn't that enough?

Haven't I reached the pinnacle of my existence if that's true of me?

Well, in a personal sense, yes, that is true because personally there's nothing higher or bigger than that.

But now today I have news for you from Psalm 96. There's actually more to it.

It's not just about you or about me. There's more to it.

God has not revealed his glory, displayed his marvelous works and sent his son to purchase salvation only for us.

He has done these things with a view to every nation in the world, with every people group, every family on the earth.

And so God made you and saved you to worship him and to live for him and then go and proclaim his glory to the very ends of the earth.

That's the big story. That's your part in it.

J. Campbell White, you may not have heard that name. He was a Presbyterian minister and also a missionary in Calcutta in the early 20th century.

And I found this quote. I think it's beautiful. Here's what he says.

Nothing can wholly satisfy the life of Christ within his followers, except the adoption of Christ's purpose toward the world he came to redeem.

Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans.

And those who put everything into Christ's undertaking, get out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.

Now, listen, there are many things in life that are important. Don't get me wrong.

But this one, adopting Christ's purpose towards the world is the largest cause that any of us here today will ever be a part of.

Because its impact echoes throughout eternity.

How's that for a big setup? Grab your Bibles. We're going to Psalm 96.

Got your thinking caps on, as Chris said this morning. Got your thinking caps on this morning because we're going to try to expand your mind.

Psalm 96 is obviously a psalm of praise, but it also belongs to a subgenre of Psalms that are called enthronement Psalms.

And the reason for that is it declares this essential truth that our God reigns as King over all. Right? Good.

Alright, you guys are awake, right? I know the kids are back there, but be awake. They'll keep you awake.

Now, there's a debate about the authorship of this particular psalm, but as you can see there's no superscription at the top, right?

So it doesn't clearly tell us who it is, but it's pretty easy to speculate on who wrote this.

It's either David or Asaph, two men that we've heard of already in this series.

And they are the two obvious candidates because this entire psalm is actually found somewhere else in the Bible. Did you know that?

This entire psalm is found in 1 Chronicles chapter 16.

1 Chronicles 16 · chapter mention

Okay? If you know that chapter, and maybe it rings a bell, that is the chapter where it describes David bringing the Ark of the Covenant up into the city of Jerusalem

with great fanfare, with music and sacrifices and blessings and all kinds of things.

And it says in 1 Chronicles 16, 7, on that day, David decreed that thanks be given to the Lord by Asaph and his relatives.

And then it goes on to record a 28 verse song that includes all of Psalm 96 and also portions of Psalm 105 and 106.

So even without the superscription, it's safe to say that either David wrote this or he handed that task off to Asaph to write this psalm.

And of course, Asaph was the chief musician in his court, so that makes sense. So either way, that's probably the authorship here.

Now what we're going to see as we read through this psalm is a growing crescendo of worship.

Chris talked about it this morning with the kids. Worship.

First, we're going to see God's people singing his praises in local congregations.

Then we're going to see God's people extending that worship and praise all the way to the ends of the earth.

And then third, we'll see the gladness of creation at the promise that soon God himself, catch that now,

God himself will come to earth to judge righteously. So earlier I showed you this slide, right?

The three great themes. What that translates to in alliteration, just to help you, it's much easier, is this.

Three themes that come out of Psalm 96. Worship, witness, and watchfulness.

Our worship, our witness, and our watchfulness. And by the way, I don't always use alliteration.

You know what drives me really crazy? When preachers try to use alliteration and they force the words in there,

they don't really fit, but these really do fit Psalm 96. So easy to remember, right?

And these things flow naturally together. Keep them in mind as we read the psalm. And take note,

let me just say this. There may not be anything in the psalm where you go, oh, that's completely new.

You may say, you know, I've heard all of this before, but what I'm hoping may be new to you,

or at least fresh in your mind, is the intensity of God's call upon your life.

If it's not new data, let the intensity of it strike your heart. So be prepared to be challenged.

Be prepared, maybe even to be slightly rebuked by God's word this morning. Let's read verse one.

Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name.

Proclaim good tidings of his salvation from day to day. Tell of his glory among the nations,

his wonderful deeds 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 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 of, or the glory due, his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts.

Worship the Lord. Now the NAS says worship the Lord in holy attire.

A better translation is worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

Tremble before him, all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Indeed the world is firmly established.

It will not be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity or with fairness.

Verse 11, let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the seas roar and all it contains.

Let the field exult and all that is in it. Then all of the trees of the forest will sing for joy before the Lord.

For he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness and the people in his faithfulness.

Alright, as we've been doing each week with the Psalms, we're going to take a look at the structure.

Again, I don't expect you to be able to read that, but just look at sort of the big words and the numbers in red there to help you here.

It's, the structure of this Psalm is not really easy to recognize at first glance, but if you want to break it down,

if you're one of those people who likes to draw lines, you see I've drawn lines, separation lines at the end of verse three, end of verse six, end of verse nine,

after verse 10, and then all the way to the bottom. Here's what I want you to see right out of the gate.

Notice that verses one through three are addressed to the believer. To believing Israel on that day and to the believers in the church today.

This is what you and I are called to do and see that in that section three times in the first two verses, we're commanded to do what?

To sing. Sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord, sing to the Lord, right?

I mean, the author is not being, not being very subtle, is he? And then you see three verbs that correspond with those three commands to sing.

These are three action words, bless, proclaim and tell. There's all kinds of balance in the structure of this Psalm.

Three sings, three action words that go with that. So we have bless and proclaim in verse two and we have tell in verse three.

So filling that out, it's sing and bless the name of Yahweh, sing and proclaim his salvation, sing and tell of his glory and his marvelous works.

So believer, that's your mandate. That's the command you're given here.

And it's not just for some people in the church. It's not just for the elders, not just for the missionaries.

It's for every believer. This is our mandate, according to Psalm 96.

So then coming back to our outline, we look at verses four through nine and you see I've divided it into two sections.

But from verses four to nine, the audience then are the peoples and the nations of the world.

Verses four through six are the reasons why the world must know the name of Yahweh, why the world must know about his salvation, his glory and his works.

You see the word for there twice in verses four through six. So that's a that's a reason word, a transition word that says here's the reason why.

And the world must know Yahweh. Why? Number one, because great is the Lord and greatly to be praised and feared, it says.

The world must know the Lord, must praise the Lord and must fear the Lord.

Second reason, because all the other so-called gods are just idols.

So world, whatever it is you're worshiping out there, just know it's a fake God and you have to turn away from it.

And number three, in contrast to the fake gods of this world who have no power, understand this.

Yahweh is the one who made all things. Three reasons why the world has to know this.

And then in verses seven through nine, you see the Psalmist places a demand upon the people and a demand upon the nations who don't yet know Yahweh.

He says a scribe or give that simple word ascribe, give, give to the Lord, he says to unbelievers, give to the Lord.

Give him what? Give him the glory. Do his name as creator.

Bring an offering that is acceptable in his sight. Worship and tremble before him.

That's what the Psalmist has to say to the world. Now we have a part in making sure that message gets out to the world, right?

He started with us, but then he turns to the world. Next we see how the Psalmist comes back to believers in verse 10.

This is sometimes known as the second hymn of Psalm 96.

Take this message to the ends of the earth. Tell the world that the Lord reigns, that he is king and he is judge over all the nations, all the families and all the people.

So that's part of our mandate as well. And then finally, verses 11 to 13, you have this amazing future promise, right?

It's a promise that causes all of creation to begin to sing and to rejoice because Yahweh himself will come to earth and make all things right.

Finally. So there's our structure. Now we could probably just pray and go home at this point, right?

Because we've got the basics for it. But before we finish, I want to flesh out some of these truths. And most importantly, I want to talk about, okay, how do we fit into this?

What is our role in this process that's being described by the Psalmist? Well, here's where it starts. Our worship.

It starts with our worship. Our worship is the foundation for our mission.

I want you to think about this for a second. Put yourself in the sandals of the Psalmist and consider this question.

If the main theme of the Psalm that you're writing about is the greatness of God to the ends of the earth, why would you start by commanding local congregations to sing worship and praise?

If you've got this giant vision, we've got to get the message all the way to the ends of the earth.

Why would you start by by demanding that local believers sing and worship? And the answer is so simple.

You and I have no platform to summon the nations of the world to sing if we're not singing.

Let me say that again. We have no credible platform to call the nations to worship if we're not worshiping.

Does that make sense? Friends, how can you call your unsaved neighbor, let alone somebody living on the other side of the earth, to rejoice in God and sing his praises if you are not rejoicing in God?

And if you are not singing his praises? So the platform has to be built before we take the mission to the ends of the earth.

And it starts in local congregations. Now, I realize the analogy I'm about to share is not completely analogous to the church, but I think you'll get the point when I share this.

The best salespeople in the world are the ones who absolutely love the product they're selling.

You may have met people like this in your life. I know I have. I've met some amazing salespeople.

And you can tell right out of the gate, they love the product that they're selling.

They're credible because they know it. They're passionate about it.

They're convinced that your life isn't full without that product and that you absolutely must have it.

And then they go so far as to say, and I personally have the product and use it myself.

That is a salesperson you'll pay attention to.

In a similar way, the most effective witness for Christ and the gospel is a true worshiper.

Somebody who is credible in their knowledge of God.

Somebody who is personally captivated by God's glory and his gift of salvation.

And people can tell. You think you can fool people?

People will see right through you if it's not true of you.

So Psalm 96 begins with this instruction for believers to sing in order to recognize that it's our worship that serves as the platform from which we call others to worship.

And let's be blunt and honest. If our hearts and our lives don't exude passion and joy and worship,

why should lost people pay attention to what we're saying?

Right?

So believer, if you want to join God in his mission to the world, start locally. Sing here among this church body and in your daily life.

Three times you're commanded to do this in Psalm 96. This is not optional. You're commanded to do it.

By the way, we saw this last Sunday in Psalm 95 2. Do you remember?

Sing for joy to the Lord, the psalmist said.

Shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Make a joyful noise to the Lord.

So Psalm 95 and 96 fit together in this idea of worship.

And I'll say it again because I said it last week. If you're not singing your heart out when we gather to praise the Lord here,

then it's time for a heart check.

It's time for a heart check. If Jesus has become your master, if he's the king of your heart,

and if you profess to follow him as a disciple, then why would you hesitate to give him anything but your full throated voice?

In loyalty and adoration, in private settings, you should sing to him.

On Sundays when you gather with your brothers and sisters, you should sing to him.

You should shout joyfully about how he has rescued you, how he has saved you.

Declare his glory to everybody within earshot.

Let everyone around you know of his love and his grace.

And that should be a natural outflow of your heart and your life.

Listen, incremental spiritual growth and maturity will always lead to growth in your passion for worship.

If you're growing in the Lord, in your knowledge of him, it's always going to lead to more passion in your worship.

Growing in your knowledge of God and in your knowledge of self is always going to lead to more singing.

And if you won't sing, or if you'll only give him a half-hearted mumble here and there,

depending on whether you like the song or not, then tell me, what does that say about your spiritual condition?

And if your hesitation is, well, okay, Jeff, I'm more about theological truth than I am about singing.

Please see here in Psalm 96 that the psalmist isn't asking you to give empty-headed praise to God.

He's not calling you to give unthinking praise to God and just feel he's rooting it in theological truth.

He grounds the command to sing in the greatness of God.

And then he gives you a whole list of ways that Yahweh is great.

This is not unthinking praise, because I know we in the conservative church, we have this vision in our head of unthinking praise, right?

Just emotional praise. That is not what the psalmist is talking about.

Look at the list of Yahweh's greatness. Great in salvation, great in his works, great in creation, great in his splendor and majesty,

great in strength and beauty, great in his kingship, great in his justice, great in his righteousness, great in his faithfulness.

Is that enough reasons to sing?

Verse four says he's greatly to be praised by every created thing.

Even the unbeliever is obligated to praise the Lord as creator.

So how much more should we who know God and love God bring him an offering of praise and worship and lift up our voices and our hearts to him?

This is not rocket science. It's a natural outflow of the heart of one who is growing in Christ.

He hasn't asked too much of us.

Think about this. What was required in terms of offerings before God of an Old Testament saint?

Do you know how how laborious it was? Burnt offerings and grain offerings and peace offerings and sin offerings and guilt offerings.

It was a constant process of bringing offerings before the Lord.

But for us, since the time of the cross, all of that is finished.

The work of atonement is finished. And now, friends, because of the great love with which God loved us,

we need only bring him a sacrifice of praise and a sacrifice of thanksgiving and a sacrifice of a life dedicated to honoring him and building his kingdom.

Friends, we have it so good. God hasn't asked too much of us.

So sing to him. Sing to him a new song, it says in verse one. What does that mean?

Does that mean we can't repeat worship songs? Because we do.

What the psalmist is driving at is this. God is always doing new works in the life of his children.

So we should have new songs. He's always at work, right?

Every day we get sort of a fresh awareness of his presence in our lives in all kinds of ways.

Every day we see new ways that he's blessed us. Every day we get a sense.

I don't know about you. Every day I get a sense of how much grace he's lavished upon me.

So why wouldn't we sing new songs?

Here's some advice from Spurgeon, if you don't trust me.

He says, keep up the freshness of your praise. Do not drivel down into dull routine.

We have new mercies to celebrate. Therefore, we must have new songs. Amen.

So back to our three themes. It starts with our worship and then it goes to our witness.

The witness is built on healthy worship.

Let's talk about the scope of Psalm 96.

Every believer in Christ is called in one way or another, and we'll come back to that,

in one way or another to proclaim and spread a passion for God's glory.

How far? How far are we supposed to go with this?

Oh, just new hall. Just new hall, right? That's enough for me. No.

How many times does it say here? To the ends of the earth, to all the nations,

to all the peoples, and even all the families of the earth.

And maybe you hear on that the echo of the promise to Abraham, right?

To bless every family of the earth through God's Messiah.

It's a big vision. And for the Israelites who are very nationalistic

and very narrow in their thinking, imagine how hard this teaching was for them.

Because as they look at this, they go, uh-oh, this includes those dirty Gentiles,

those pagan idolatrous Gentiles. But it makes sense.

The Lord has a claim on all of creation. So, of course, He has a claim

on every people group and every nation and every person.

And we are His ambassadors. We are His hands and feet.

So it's our obligation to do those three things mentioned in verse 2.

To bless, proclaim, and tell. To speak of His kingship and His lordship.

To say among the nations, the Lord reigns.

Now, we have to explain what that means, right? We can't just say that

and just walk away, okay? Now you know.

We've got to be able to explain that. One creator, one king, one savior,

one way, one sacrifice for sin. To be able to walk down that road

and don't stop there, be bold. Call them to bow their knee to the one true king.

Call them to join you in singing praises to the one true God.

Call them to join you in singing. And then we have to say to them,

if you have an allegiance to another so-called God, you've got to confront them

as the psalmist does in verse 5. Say, this thing that you're worshipping is false.

It's fake. Turn from it.

Now, very few people that you're going to meet today are still, you know, praising Baal.

I hear Baal worship is on the decline. Right?

But listen, people everywhere around you do worship idols

that they think will give them some type of reward in the afterlife.

So you've got to confront those things. You've got to be prepared to give an answer.

When they say, well, I'm doing this. Don't I get a reward?

You have to be able to point to scripture and say, no.

People, the perception of their own goodness, they think everyone thinks they're going to heaven

because they think that essentially they're good. Got to confront that.

They're religious rituals. Well, I do a whole bunch of religious things or my spirituality.

I'm super spiritual or the works that they do to feel virtuous.

You know, I go to a homeless shelter once a month and I feed people

where they're concerned about the earth and the climate, right? Or activism on behalf of oppressed people.

There's all these things that people think will save them on the day of judgment. You've got to let them know.

This is part of our mission, that none of that will save you when the Lord returns.

Declare the truth about God's one path to salvation.

You must lay aside those idols and come trembling before Yahweh and his son, Jesus Christ,

who alone offers forgiveness of sin and eternal life.

That's the message. Be bold. Guys, time is short.

Time is short. There's an urgency to sharing the gospel these days. Be bold. Take a stand. Don't back down.

Today is the day of obedience to Christ's mission. Bless, proclaim and tell.

What do we have to lose in this crazy world we live in?

It's time for us to steal our spines and start speaking truth into the marketplace of ideas,

to stand up and no matter who tries to shout you down or cancel you, say,

no, I know the truth and to point people to the one true King. Amen.

Now, the practical question is, well, how do we get involved in this mission? It's so big, right?

It's almost overwhelming. Like, what do I do? You say, OK, Jeff, I see the first step here.

I see that I need to grow in my worship, in my singing, in my praise. I want to increase in that.

But how do I take the next step to witness? How do I do this? Well, it starts.

It starts with acknowledging your responsibility because some folks don't even want to get to that point.

It starts with saying, OK, I get it. I do have a role to play in the gospel getting to the ends of the earth.

Somehow I have a role. It starts there. The Lord made you and saved you for something very big.

But now you need to go out and figure out what is my role in God's grand story?

What is my role? And when you figure it out or if you just want to test some things,

jump in with both feet. Don't hold back and go, I'm not sure this is it. Jump in with both feet.

Trust me, there's many ways to be involved in God's global mission.

Also know that it's going to look different for every single person in this room.

That's the thing. Sometimes we pigeonhole things. We say it's got to be this, this or this.

But it's going to look different for all of us, depending on a variety of factors.

Our passion, our gifting, our resources, our season of life, right?

Biblical wisdom. There's all kinds of factors involved.

But if you need help discovering how to get involved and witness to the ends of the earth,

all you got to do is ask somebody. Did you know we have an entire impact team here at Oak Hill

that lives and breathes this stuff, both local mission and global mission?

We have people in this church who often travel abroad, ask questions,

say, I want to be obedient to Psalm 96 and they'll help you get involved.

And again, let's remember what what J. Campbell White said.

Nothing is going to wholly satisfy you except the adoption of Christ's purpose

toward the world he came to redeem. And it's a benefit to you.

Those who put everything into Christ's undertaking get out of life its sweetest and most priceless rewards.

Amen. So we've looked at worship and witness.

Let's get to watchfulness. What is it we're watching for?

Well, the psalmist describes it in verses 11 to 13.

We are watching for the return of the king. All apologies to the Lord of the Rings.

But I just love that title. I'm sorry. We're watching for the return of the king.

Now, we're told that right now, Yahweh reigns and he does, even though at present,

God permits the nations to rage against his son.

And by the way, we read about that back in Psalm two. Do you remember?

It came with a warning. I'm going to put it on the screen.

Look at Psalm two says, Now, King, show discernment.

Take warning judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling.

Pay homage to the sun that he not become angry and you perish in the way

for his wrath may soon be kindled.

The promise we have is that ultimate justice is coming to a world.

It's coming. But we have a hard time with this, right?

Because we have this narrow vision and we look around today and what do we see?

Nothing but chaos and disorder and injustice.

And it's not just out there. We feel it within too, right?

As we war against the flesh and we so long for that battle to be over and the victory won.

We know that things are not as they should be right now, but yet God reigns.

And I think this is why Psalm 96 is book ended with these two amazing thoughts.

Number one, that we should sing a new song.

And number two, that the Lord is coming to judge the earth because soon the Almighty is going to do a new thing.

He's going to come and judge the entire earth.

And so for all eternity, guess what?

We will have a whole new song to sing about his righteousness, his justice and his fairness.

By the way, as an aside, I want you to think about this.

Look at verse 13. The Lord is coming to judge the earth.

How would an Israelite, an ancient Israelite interpret that?

Wait, Yahweh, who is spirit, is going to come to the earth physically and judge the world.

How would an ancient monotheistic Israelite have understood that?

It's easy for us, right?

Because we're Trinitarians and we live after the cross.

So we know who's coming to judge, right?

It's God the son. We know that.

But what about believers back in the year 1000 BC?

Well, if they knew their Torah, they would know the answer to this question.

All they'd have to do is go back to the book of Genesis as an example.

There's many places. Look at Genesis 18 and 19 and see that God had already done something like this on a very limited scale.

How many of you guys know the story of God's judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah?

The details of it. In Genesis 18, three beings appear to Abraham, right?

And they're called, they're described as having the form of men.

But one of them is repeatedly called the Lord.

He's called Yahweh.

So Yahweh has taken a physical form.

And later in chapter 19, we have this remarkable story of how God judges Sodom and Gomorrah.

Have you ever seen this text, Genesis 19, 23?

It says, then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.

Huh? Yahweh on earth in the form of a man called down fire from Yahweh in the heavenly realms.

And that story and others like it show us this must have been how an ancient Israelite would have understood the fact that Yahweh was coming to earth.

Because he had done it in the past.

Again, this is not hard for us, right?

Because we know there's quite a few instances in the Old Testament where God the Son takes on a temporary physical form, a pre-incarnate form,

sometimes to judge, other times to protect his people.

But let me tell you something, for a non-Trinitarian, this is a really tough passage.

It's a really tough verse.

All right, that's your theological aside for the morning.

If you have questions about that, come and ask.

But the Lord is coming to judge the earth.

That means soon God the Son is going to come a second time, right?

In power and great glory.

And it says in that day in verses 11 and 12, the entire creation.

Remember, what's what's creation going through right now?

Paul says right now creation is groaning under the curse of sin, right?

But in that day, creation, all of nature is going to serve as like the coronation party for the coming king.

It says that creation will rejoice and roar and exult and sing.

Why? Because redemption and restoration is drawing near.

What a day that'll be, right?

The Son will return and make all things right.

There'll be no more abuse of power, no more corruption, no more injustice, no more exploitation.

And hear me out on this.

When we take the message of the gospel to the world, people need to hear that part of it too.

That God will come and fix things.

Sometimes we leave the eschatological part out.

God is going to come and make things all right.

Because if there's one thing that all humanity recognizes in every country and every people groups is that life ain't fair.

And everybody's there's oppression and injustice.

It all stinks, does it not?

Everybody recognizes that.

So we have this message to share.

Our king is a righteous judge.

He will come and make things right.

He will hold all of the wicked people to account.

And he will judge and rule, it says in verse 13, in three specific ways.

With equity, with righteousness, and with faithfulness.

What does equity mean?

It means that God will be utterly fair in his judgments.

Utterly fair.

If people don't receive mercy, they will still get perfect justice.

Did you hear that? That's important.

If they don't get mercy, they will get perfect justice because God judges fairly.

Secondly, righteousness.

Which is, what's the standard for righteousness?

God himself.

So he doesn't judge on a curve.

The standard is absolute.

According to his own righteous nature.

That's why none of us can get there on our own.

Because the standard is perfection.

And then faithfulness, which can also be translated truth.

It means that God isn't like our judges today who are just arbitrary.

Ah, this is what I think.

He judges absolutely truthfully.

Because he knows everything.

This is good news, isn't it?

Well, we've got to be careful when we answer that question.

The return of the king is not good news for people who have not paid homage to the son.

This is part of the mission that we have as well.

This is part of our witness to share this truth.

It's not good news for anybody who has not had their debt for sin washed away.

For them, God's righteous judgment will be a source of great terror.

So as we call the nations and the peoples and the families to worship and to sing to the Lord,

we also have to warn them.

The one true king has a one true path through a one true son.

And there is no other way.

Amen?

Okay, so let's wrap up.

Let's summarize this.

Psalm 96 is not hard to summarize, right?

I'm just going to use the same three things we've talked about.

If Jesus is our Savior and Lord, first of all, we will be a worshiping people.

It will be normal and natural that our voices just break forth in how great our God is.

It should be part of your everyday conversations in the home, in the workplace, with our families, with our kids.

It should just break forth because it's true in your heart.

You're a worshiping person.

Our thoughts should be constantly drawn to how great God is, how amazing His grace is.

Our hearts should constantly bow in reverence to His holiness.

And we should look forward every single Sunday when we have the privilege,

and I say privilege, of joining with others who know Jesus to worship and sing His praises.

Friends, God has given singing to us as one of the most precious

and most powerful expressions of our satisfaction and gladness in Him.

It's a gift to you.

Singing is a gift, and it's the gladness of singing, God-centered worship,

especially in the midst of hardship, in the midst of this fallen world

that makes the gospel shine so brightly and what draws people to the truth of the gospel.

They're either going to see that in your life or not.

That you're a worshiper in spite of trials, in spite of difficulty,

in spite of the fallenness of this world.

Worship just flows out of you, and they'll be drawn to that message.

Singing should be irresistible to anybody who has tasted the forgiveness of God.

Anybody who has been granted the perfect righteousness of Christ,

singing should be absolutely irresistible.

That's number one.

Second, if we profess to know Christ as Savior and Lord, we'll be a witnessing people.

This will flow out of our worshiping hearts.

If you're captivated, if you go on a hike and you're captivated by a beautiful sunset

or the picture of the valley you're over, what do you do?

You snap a picture and you post it, because you want to tell everybody about it.

Because, wow, what a moment.

Well, if you're captivated by the majesty and splendor of Christ, you'll do the same.

You'll have a passion to tell everybody about it.

You'll come out and hear everyday conversations with your neighbors on your block

or in the building you live in.

When you go into the workplace, you'll talk about the things of God.

All the places that you frequent here in Santa Clarita, and yes,

in some form or another that you have to figure out,

it will extend to the ends of the earth, too.

It has to, because it's who you are in Christ.

Sing with all your heart to the Lord, and then be a part of summoning others to join you.

And you have a great message to share.

You have a great message.

Yes, it's true there's a polemic aspect to our message.

Don't get this wrong.

You need to call people to repent.

You need to call them to turn from their false gods.

But you also have this warm-hearted invitation

to literally know and abide with the God of the universe.

And then to tell people that he's full of goodness and fairness and justice

and that the King is going to return someday to make all things right.

That is an amazing message that we've been given as ambassadors.

Don't miss it.

Finally, if we profess to know Christ as Savior and Lord, we'll be a watchful people.

Now listen to me now, not a fearful people, not an anxious people,

not a people obsessed with the future, but a people who are alert and who are watching.

Right? And by the way, excited about his appearing.

All those things should be true of us.

So it seems fitting to end this morning where we started with our call to worship.

Did you hear what Grant read in our call to worship?

He read the entire chapter of Isaiah 12.

The entire chapter, six verses.

But did you hear from the prophet how much it's in line with what the psalmist says in Psalm 96?

Let's just look at it again. There's just a portion of it.

Give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples,

proclaim that his name is exalted.

Sing praises to the Lord for he has done glorious things.

Let this be made known in all the earth.

Shout and sing for joy.

Oh, inhabitant of Zion for great in your midst is the Holy one of Israel.

It's good stuff. Let's bow our heads.

Father, we are grateful to be in your presence this morning, to have the privilege of joining as the body of Christ

with brothers and sisters, to sing your praises, to be with our families this morning,

even as we hear the voices of our children, to praise you for them, to praise you for those little voices,

to praise you for the way that you have blessed our body in so many ways.

God, I pray for myself and for my church family today that we'll be challenged

and maybe even slightly rebuked by this Psalm,

that we would strive, Lord, to please you and honor you and adore you,

that we would be a people who worships well,

a people who witnesses every time you give us an opportunity,

and a people that are watchful. And Lord, if we have fallen short in this, as we all have,

we thank you for your grace that covers us, and we pray, God, that you'd strengthen our hands

and strengthen our voices to grow in these areas, to honor you more

as we seek to know you, as we seek to abide with you.

God, help us to do this together as a church family. Continue to bless Oak Hill,

bless our families, show us, God, what you have for us.

We love you and we praise you, and even now as we sing more songs, God,

help us to obey the command that we have in Psalm 96, to sing, sing, sing.

Thank you, Jesus, for today. We pray in your name. Amen.