Psalm 96:1-3 Complete Jewish Bible
96 Sing to Adonai a new song!
Sing to Adonai, all the earth!
2 Sing to Adonai, bless his name!
Proclaim his victory day after day!
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his wonders among all peoples!
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Sing to Give, Not Get, Praise
God made us to sing songs. I used to sing into my toothbrush, holding it up like a microphone while imagining myself belting out Little Orphan Annie’s songs with all the vibrato of a Broadway star.
Whether you ever dreamed of signing a recording contract or you’re the sort that hums softly under your breath, your vocal cords were designed to make a joyful noise (music). But left to ourselves we often sing in order to be praised.
Psalm 96 urges us to use our voices not in order to earn praise, but to give it.
Three times David tells us to “sing to the Lord.”
This repetition should automatically signal, “Pay attention!”
God created your vocal cords not for your praise but to give praise to Him.
Not Just Any Song
What is this new song we’re to sing?
That number 1 on the latest top 40 on the Hit Parade?
Your favorite classic traditional old hymn from your church’s hymnal?
No No No — a thousand times No!
The newness springs from its daily-ness.
Just as Jesus taught us to pray every day for the bread of life to eat, fruit of the vine to drink, forgiveness for sin, rescue from evil, the psalmist shows us how to respond to God’s answers to our prayers: with all new songs sung every day.
In our consumer culture, we tend to think new means different, changed, or better than the old version.
But in Psalm 96, new means unending and undiminished.
Irish biblical scholar the late Alec Motyer (1924 – 2016) says the new songs commanded here correspond to the new mercies celebrated in
Lamentations 3:22-23. “Just as [God’s] ‘compassion’ is ‘new every morning’ so is [our] responsive song” (Psalms by the Day, 72).
16 He has broken my teeth with gravel
and pressed me down into ashes.
17 I have been so deprived of peace,
I have so forgotten what happiness is,
18 that I think, “My strength is gone,
and so is my hope in Adonai.”
19 Remember my utter misery,
the wormwood and the gall.
20 They are always on my mind;
this is why I am so depressed.
21 But in my mind I keep returning to something,
something that gives me hope —
22 that the grace of Adonai is not exhausted,
that his compassion has not ended.
23 [On the contrary,] they are new every morning!
How great your faithfulness!
24 “Adonai is all I have,” I say;
“therefore I will put my hope in him.
25 Adonai is good to those waiting for him,
to those who are seeking him out.
26 It is good to wait patiently
for the saving help of Adonai.
We sing from day to day because God’s salvation is at work in us day to day.
The timeless hymn Amazing Grace captures the meaning of new with the line,
“When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun / We’ve no less days to sing His praise than when we’ve first begun.”
Command and Invitation
The song’s newness also stems from who it is doing the singing. “All the earth” is both a command and invitation cloaked here in mystery, but revealed fully at the cross.
As Paul says in Ephesians 3:6,
“This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Every person in every people group in all the earth is commanded to give God the praise that is His due.
But they are also invited to join in the chorus of joyful worship and noisy praise as they bless His name in response to His grace.
This is not unfeeling obligation, but wide-eyed wonder and heartfelt response to God’s overwhelming goodness!
Scripture reveals that what God commands, He will accomplish.
In Revelation 5, the Apostle John gives us a vision of heaven where the four living creatures and the 24 elders lie prostrate before the Lamb in worship.
Verse 9 tells us they, too, are singing a new song, saying,
Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth (v. 9-10).
This song is full of past tense verbs: of actions accomplished, of vast peoples ransomed, of a kingdom and priests prepared to reign.
What was commanded in Psalm 96—a global response of praise for a great and costly salvation—Jesus has accomplished.
He alone is worthy to open the scroll because He was slain on the cross.
By His atoning blood He ransomed a people from all the peoples for God.
Jesus our Savior is worthy of worship today, tomorrow, and every day for all of eternity.
Our exuberant praises should never cease, our songs never come to an end, they are to be new every morning from today, and forever.
For Reflection
- These verses contain five sets of instructions repeated in sets of three. In addition to “sing, sing, sing…to the Lord, to the Lord, to the Lord,” what else does the passage require of God’s people?
- What songs do you sing when you’re in the car, in the shower, in the mood to sing? How might you grow your daily musical response to God’s mercy and grace?
- Start now. Sing a song of praise to God wherever you are.
In the name of God, the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit …
Praying …
Psalm 98 Complete Jewish Bible
98 (0) A psalm:
(1) Sing a new song to Adonai,
because he has done wonders.
His right hand, his holy arm
have won him victory.
2 Adonai has made known his victory;
revealed his vindication in full view of the nations,
3 remembered his grace and faithfulness
to the house of Isra’el.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the victory of our God.
4 Shout for joy to Adonai, all the earth!
Break forth, sing for joy, sing praises!
5 Sing praises to Adonai with the lyre,
with the lyre and melodious music!
6 With trumpets and the sound of the shofar,
shout for joy before the king, Adonai!
7 Let the sea roar, and everything in it;
the world, and those living in it.
8 Let the floods clap their hands;
let the mountains sing together for joy
9 before Adonai, for he has come to judge the earth;
he will judge the world rightly and the peoples fairly.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 