Bible Talks - Family Church (9:45am)
Sing unto the Lord a new song
Sunday, 04 February 2007
Psalm 96 ESV or NIV
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King David was one of the great Old Testament heroes of the nation
of Israel. His story is told in the historical books 1 Samuel starting at Ch 16 through 2 Samuel to 1 Kings chapter 3. There is also theological reflection on his life offered in 1 Chronicles from Ch 10 onwards. As you study the life of David you find him a bit of a mixed character. David loved the Lord his God, there is no doubt of that but there were times where his love was pushed aside by his zeal.
One set of incidents that demonstrate this is David’s attempts to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem.
When David first became King of the southern tribes of Israel, he established his throne in Bethel. Later he was finally crowned as king of all Israel and in a brilliant stroke, captured Jerusalem, which had remained a Canaanite or Jebusite stronghold and never belonged to any of the tribes, and established it as his capital city. It’s a bit like Canberra being capital of Australia and not belonging to any of the states.
Having established the throne in Jerusalem David decided to bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. The Ark of the Covenant was the ornately decorated box or chest that contained the tablets of stone with the 10 commandments on them and some other artifacts dating from the Exodus out of Egypt. Please do not take your understanding of the ark and its importance from the way it is depicted in the Indiana Jones movie “Raiders Of The Lost Ark” The ark was the symbol of God's presence with his people and had been kept at Kiriath-Jearim ever since the Philistines had returned it after capturing it when Eli’s sons had tried to use it as a magic talisman in a battle.
David’s first attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem ended in disaster. Uzza, one of the attendants was killed when he stumbled and accidently touched the ark and David was forced to leave the ark where it was for some time.
For his second attempt to bring the Ark to Jerusalem David first consulted the Lord and arranged for the Ark to be brought following all the elaborate ceremonies given by God to Moses. A new tent or tabanacle was prepared at Jerusalem to house the Ark and the priests and levites all cleansed themselves by following the proper rituals and making the appropriate sacrifices. The ark was accompanied by musicians playing all sorts of instruments, choirs singing psalms and people, including king David, rejoicing and dancing. This time the Ark successfully reached Jerusalem and was installed in the tabernacle prepared for it.
In 1 Chronicles 16 you can read the song of praise, written by King David and sung by the Tabernacle Choir led by Asaph the chief choir master when the Ark was brought into the tabernacle. Verses 23 to 33 of that song also ended up in the Bible as Psalm 96.
It’s the familiar Psalm that we sing from time to time:
Sing unto the Lord a new song
Sing unto the Lord all the earth
Sing to the Lord, bless His name
Tell of his salvation day by day
Psalm 96, in its stand-alone form, is a great missionary hymn and one commentator was amazed that the Jews could read or sing this Psalm and still maintain their exclusiveness when so obviously the Psalm is expressing God’s salvation to the whole earth, all the nations. This psalm reminds us that God always had designs of love for all the families of the earth and never inted that his grace, expressed in his covenant with Israel, should relate only to the direct physical descendants of Abraham.
As I looked at this Psalm I saw it as having three major themes which can be summed up in the first words of verses 1, 7 and 10 in our NIV translation.
1. SING
Sing to the LORD a new song
We are called to sing out about the glory of God our King
There is nothing listless or introverted about the way we are called to praise our God. The whole earth is to join in and it will be a new song. We met the idea of the new song when we looked at Revelation last year. In Chapter 5 the twenty four elders, representing the 12 tribes of Israel and the 12 apostles, and thus the whole of God's people, Old Testament and New Testament combined, all falling down before the Lamb of God, casting their crowns at his feet and singing a “new song”
It’s not just a newly composed piece of music, which this Psalm was when it was sung as the Ark was placed in the Tabernacle, but a response to God's mercies that are “new every morning”. New joys are filling the hearts of men and women, new life is proclaimed through faith.
Sing to the LORD, all the earth.
God made the earth and everything in it and his plan of salvation was for the benefit of all the earth. The earth itself and all its inhabitants.
Sing to the LORD, praise his name;
God’s name refers to his character, his reputation, his fame and we are to praise it, talk it up, publicly declare it, brag about it, boast of it. In the hymn “When I survey” we sing:
Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the cross of Christ my God
We are to boast not about ourselves but about our God. And what do we boast about our God. The psalm says God’s glory, his greatness, his worth, All other gods are but idols, man made objects of stone and metal and wood, or constructs purely of the human mind, but our God made the heavens.
2. ASCRIBE
In the next section we are told to ascribe to the Lord, glory and strength, the glory due to his name. That is to say we are to recognize, his glory and his power and to worship him. The word worship itself means to acknowledge the worth of something. We do this in our lives lived for him, in our giving of our gifts to him in grateful thanks.
We are to worship the Lord in the spleandor of his holiness. Nothing second rate. Nothing slovernly. Give only your best not the left overs. Worship must be heatfelt and real, reverent, respectful, sincere, ernest, pure in heart.
Tremble before him all the earth
The proper response in the presence of God is awe and trembling. The prophet Isaiah when he had the vision of God in all his glory as described in Isaiah 6 called out, “Woe is me. I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips.” It’s like when you were a kid and the message came over the PA “Philip Bassett report immediately to the headmaster’s office.” So you approach the office in fear and trembling wondering which of your recent crimes the head has found out about. The glory, the majesty, the holiness of God contrast so greatly with our sordid, tawdry lives that our only response in his presence is fear and trembling. Unless. Unless that is we have that boldness that comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.
Another hymn “And can it be”
No condemnation now I dread;
Jesus, and all in Him, is mine!
Alive in Him, my living Head,
And clothed in righteousness divine.
Bold I approach the eternal throne
And claim the crown
Through Christ my own!
3. SAY
Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” We are to proclaim the gospel in all the world. To declare that God is the true ruler. That he is the judge of all mankind. God himself, in the person of his Son, Jesus, has assumed the throne. When he comes to rule the earth he will do it with righteousness and truth.
When David penned this Psalm he was the king of Israel, the ruler on earth of God's people but he was conscious of the fact that God himself was their true ruler. With all the best will in the world he was sinful and fallible, as an individual and as a ruler. But God, the righteopus true ruler and judge is coming. His rule will so far surpass any earthly rule that the heavens, the seas, the cultivated fields, the wild forests, everything will sing in joy before the Lord.
As Christians, when we meet together we sing. Because our song is a “new song” of joy and hope and praise to our great and glorious God who has chosen us and blessed us in Christ Jesus.
So Let’s sing now!
