20230403
bowing gods
Psalm 97:6-7 (JDV)
Psalm 97:6 The sky proclaims his righteousness; all the peoples see his fame.
Psalm 97:7 All who serve carved images, those who brag about idols, will be put to shame. All gods must bow to him.
bowing gods
The gods of the nations will all bow to the creator, whose presence melts mountains. All those who put their trust in these false gods will be put to shame. Rejection of the God of the Bible will have its price.
20230402
melting mountains
Psalm 97:1-5 (JDV)
Psalm 97:1 Yahveh reigns! Let the land rejoice; let the many coasts and islands be glad.
Psalm 97:2 Clouds and total darkness surround him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Psalm 97:3 Fire walks before him and burns up his foes on every side.
Psalm 97:4 His lightning lights up the world; the land sees and trembles.
Psalm 97:5 The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahveh – at the presence of the Lord of the whole land.
melting mountains
Seif and Blank write of this passage: “Describing the invisible, within the parameters of a covenant that prohibits the making of images for Deity, is a challenge. The poet begins with “clouds and darkness” (2)— recalling the scene when God descended onto Mount Sinai. He adds fire — like the fire that never consumed; the bush, yet does burn up “His adversaries on every side” (3). Then “lightning lights up the world” (4)— a stunning display of His sudden splendor! This display calls for a response of awe, as “mountains melt” (5) as His presence approaches.
LORD, may we respond to your presence with humility and reverence, like the mountains.
Seif, Jeffrey L., Blank, Glenn, and Paul Wilbur. TLV Psalms with Commentary: Hope and Healing in the Hebrew Scriptures. S.l.: Destiny Image Messianic, 2013.
20230401
bring it on
Psalm 96:11-13 (JDV)
Psalm 96:11 Let the sky be glad and the land rejoice; let the sea and all that fills it resound.
Psalm 96:12 Let the fields and everything in them celebrate. Then all the trees of the forest will shout for joy
Psalm 96:13 before Yahveh, for he is coming – for he is coming to judge the land. He will judge the world with righteousness and the people with his reliability.
bring it on
The created universe has every right to rejoice at the coming of Yahveh to the world. Sin has marred not only human souls but every aspect of the planet they touch. When our Lord comes to make everything new, it will be a renewal of the universe we reside in and will be just as welcomed by the land and trees and sky and sea creatures as it is by human beings.
All creation waits for renewal. They are shouting “bring it on!”
20230331
among the nations
Psalm 96:10 (JDV)
Psalm 96:10 Say among the nations: “Yahveh reigns. The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken. He judges the peoples fairly.”
among the nations
The message of the gospel needs to go out to all the nations because everyone who has ever lived is accountable to God.
20230330
from singing to bringing
Psalm 96:7-9 (JDV)
Psalm 96:7 Ascribe to Yahveh, you families of the peoples, ascribe to Yahveh fame and strength.
Psalm 96:8 Ascribe to Yahveh the fame of his name; bring an offering and enter his courts.
Psalm 96:9 Worship Yahveh in the splendor of his holiness; let the whole land tremble before him.
from singing to bringing
In this psalm, we are first instructed to sing praise to God, then we are told to bring an offering to him. This is how it should be. We give becase we appreciate who God is. Our offerings are part of our worship. He is worthy of our singing. He is also worthy of our gifts.
Thank you, LORD, for giving us different opportunities to express our gratitude.
20230329
sing to the sky maker
Psalm 96:1-6 (JDV)
Psalm 96:1 Sing a new song to Yahveh; let the whole land sing to Yahveh.
Psalm 96:2 Sing to Yahveh, bless his name; proclaim his deliverance from day to day.
Psalm 96:3 Declare his fame among the nations, his wonderful things among all peoples.
Psalm 96:4 Yes, Yahveh is great and is highly praised; he is feared above all gods.
Psalm 96:5 Yes, all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahveh made the sky.
Psalm 96:6 Splendor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
sing to the sky maker
As I write this, I am looking out over a huge corn field, covered with a beautiful blue sky. At night, the sunsets turn the sky bright orange and pink, and gray. It is a spectacular show every night, free of charge.
We take the sky for granted because it is. It is a sign from God granted to us so that we will always have reason to sing. Why waste our time on the gods of the peoples? They are just empty idols. Yahveh made the sky. Yahveh brought us deliverance through the Son, Jesus. So while we are singing, we should think up new ways to proclaim that deliverance from day to day.
Thank you, sky maker.
20230328
testing or resting
Psalm 95:6-11 (JDV)
Psalm 95:6 Come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before Yahveh our Maker.
Psalm 95:7 Yes, he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, the sheep under his hand. Today, if you hear his voice:
Psalm 95:8 Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on that day at Massah in the open country,
Psalm 95:9 where your ancestors tested me; they tried me, though they had seen what I did.
Psalm 95:10 Yes, forty years I was disgusted with that generation; I said, “They are a people whose hearts go astray; they do not know my roads.”
Psalm 95:11 So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest.”
testing or resting
By hardening their hearts against his, and refusing to learn his roads, the people of Israel lost out on God’s promised rest. An entire generation struggled and died in the wilderness, testing God.
You and I have the same choice. We can continue testing God, and never see the fulfillment of his promises. Or, we can choose to obey him, and he can take us where we need to go in this life.
There are all kinds of alternate choices, but none of them clearly reflect God’s will. We can (for example) pretend that the struggles we face today are some kind of purgatorial work. We could pride ourselves on how hard our road is. Wrong choice.
As long as we set ourselves against God’s word and stubbornly seek our own path, we will stay on the wrong road. We have to surrender to his will — bowing down to him. That is true repentance. Only true repentance leads to God’s rest.
20230327
a mingled din of praise
Psalm 95:1-5 (JDV)
Psalm 95:1 Let us walk, let us shout joyfully to Yahveh, shout triumphantly to the rock of our salvation!
Psalm 95:2 Let us enter his presence with thanksgiving; let us shout triumphantly to him in song.
Psalm 95:3 Yes, Yahveh is a great God, a great King above all gods.
Psalm 95:4 The depths of the land are in his hand, and the mountain peaks are his.
Psalm 95:5 The sea is his; he made it. His hands formed the dry land.
a mingled din of praise
Horsley says that the Hebrew verb here rendered “shout joyfully” in verse 1 “signifies to make a loud sound of any sort, either with the voice or with instruments. In the Psalms, it generally refers to the mingled din of voices and various instruments, in the Temple service” (236).
Our voices are not enough. Music is not enough. We should praise our glorious God with a mingled din of praise!
Horsley, Samuel. The Book of Psalms; Translated from the Hebrew: with Notes, Explanatory and Critical. By Samuel Horsley, LL. D. 1815.
20230326
going to silence
Psalm 94:16-23 (JDV)
Psalm 94:16 Who will stand up for me against the wicked? Who will take a stand for me against troublemakers?
Psalm 94:17 If Yahveh had not been my helper, my throat would soon settle down in the silence of death.
Psalm 94:18 If I say, “My foot is slipping,” your covenant faithfulness will support me, Yahveh.
Psalm 94:19 When I am filled with troubling thoughts, your comfort brings my throat joy.
Psalm 94:20 Can a corrupt throne be your partner, a throne that makes evil prescriptions?
Psalm 94:21 They band together against the throat of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.
Psalm 94:22 But Yahveh is my refuge; my God is the rock of my protection.
Psalm 94:23 He will pay them back for their trouble and silence them for their evil. Yahveh our God will destroy them.
going to silence
Lazarus went to that silence that our psalmist had almost visited. Unless our Lord returns before our death, we will go there too. We need not fear that land of silence, because it will not be our Lord’s last word for us. We will be raised from the dead when he returns. He will keep his promise. He will wake us from the silent sleep of death.
For more on the unconscious intermediate state, see:
20230325
returning to justice
Psalm 94:12-15 (JDV)
Psalm 94:12 Fortunate is anyone you discipline and teach from your law, Yah.
Psalm 94:13 to give him relief from troubled times until a hole is dug for the wicked.
Psalm 94:14 Yahveh will not leave his people or abandon his hereditary possession,
Psalm 94:15 for the administration of justice will again be righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it.
returning to justice
While the troubled times exist, the law is there to give us assurance of ultimate relief when justice will “return to its accustomed channels” (Alexander, 400).
When we face trouble, we can hold on to God’s word and know that he will prevail over all evil.
Alexander, Joseph A. The Psalms: Translated and Explained. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan Publishing House, 1864.
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