Selected Psalms

The Coming of the Righteous King!

“Worship Him and witness of Him as we wait for Him...” - Psalm 96

Introductory Thoughts:

·        I want to invite you this evening to open your Bibles with me to Psalm 96...

·        Telephone sales people... I wonder how many of them are buying what they are selling...?

·        The best salesmen are always those who love their product...

·        When it comes then to Christianity and our impact on this world, there is a correlation of sorts that we can make with this salesman reality namely:

“The most effective witnesses for Christ are those who are obviously captivated by the His greatness and His salvation.”

·        A worshipping people are the best witnesses of Christ...!

·        John Piper: “Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man.” Then he adds “The goal of missions is the gladness of the peoples in the greatness of God.”

·        The ultimate aim and thrust of missions is that God should be the name on every tongue... God should be worshipped by all peoples...!

·        And so worship is the goal of missions but what we must also understand is that worship is also the fuel for missions...!

·        Psalm 96 is then again all about worship... it describes a growing crescendo of worship. First, God’s people are called to sing His praises, not just among themselves, but also to tell of His glory among the nations (v3). Then the nations are called on to ascribe to the Lord the glory of His name (v7-8). Finally (v11-12), the inanimate creation is brought into the swelling chorus. The reason for the praise of all creation is the prophecy that the Lord is coming to judge the world in righteousness (v13). So there are the three themes: worship, witness, and waiting expectantly for the day when the Lord comes to right all wrongs.

·        And so, our theme for this Psalm will then be:

The Coming of the Righteous King!

·        We will see that we are called and commanded to “worship Him and witness of Him as we wait for Him...”

·        Lets then read Psalm 96...

Teaching Points:

·        We will then make three observations regarding The Coming of the Righteous King:

1. The Call to Worship! (v1-2, 7-8, 11-12) (the righteous King that is coming...)

·        We find the repetition of the words “sing”, “ascribe” and “let” echo the calls of worship that goes out to God’s people, all peoples and all creation to worship Him...

1.1. He is Worthy to be Worshipped by His people... (v1-2)

·        God’s people is to “Sing to the Lord a new song”: God loves to receive the rejoicing and praise of His people expressed in song, especially the new song.

·        A new song can come from old saints as they gain fresh awareness of God’s love and grace.

·        Charles Spurgeon: “A new song, always new; 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.”

1.2. He is Worthy to be Worshipped by all peoples... (v7-8)

·        “Ascribe” - The threefold “ascribe” parallels the threefold “sing” that opened the psalm.

·        Ascribe is literally give - they are to give to God in contrast that the world always only wants to get from God... Worship in its essence is where we come to give onto God namely to give our time, our attention, our worship, our surrender, our service, our resources, and ultimately ourselves...! (cf. Rom 12:1)

·        It does not imply that we can give God something that He is lacking. Rather, the idea is that the peoples are to offer God worship that is due to His Name.

·        All of the people owe their existence to God - the beginning and sustaining of it... it is by His strength that they are upheld, and it is for His glory!

·        This is then the call to acknowledge that fact and then give unto God the thanks and praise and worship that He deserves... that is due to His Name...!

·        The reality is that the world has not paid its dues and are therefore indebted before God... they owe Him a great amount of debt and He is coming to settle the accounts...!

1.3. He is Worthy to be Worshipped by all creation... (v11-12)

·        All creation is called to join in the worship of God, and the more so as we see the end drawing closer...

·        Note the progression in the “loudness” of their worship as creation itself is contemplating the drawing near of the coming of the righteous King.

·        Creation is longing to be freed from the curse as we see in Rom 8:19-22...

·        It will do us well that everything that exists ultimately exists by His will and for His glory...! (cf. Rev 4:11; Rom 11:36)

2. The Command to Witness! (v2-6, 9-10) (about the coming of the righteous King...)

·        Our worshipping is then actually more than just singing; it is to be proclaiming as well.

·        As we are worshipping, we are to witness to all the peoples about the reality of who Jesus is an that He is coming again...!

2.1. He must be declared as the Glorious, Living Saviour... (v2-6)

·        Saviour:

·        “Bless His Name” – Speak well of Him...

·        “Tell of His salvation and His marvellous works” – saving Israel from Egypt... saving us from our sin and hell...!

·        Living:

·        He is the living God who made the heavens in contrast to all the lifeless and dead idols that have been made by mere humans...

·        We are to witness unto the people that are in false religions so as to free them from their worthless worship...!

·        Glorious:

·        Looking at what He has made reveals that He is glorious – that splendour and majesty are before Him, again in contrast to the dead and lifeless idols that are fading and bleak when compared to God and His creation.

2.2. He must be declared as the Holy and Righteous Lord... (v9-10)

·        Lord:

·        The nations must be told that God is sovereign... that he is the One in control and that He is reigning, whether they want to submit to Him or not does not change the fact that He is the Lord...!

·        We are to declare that to them so that by His grace they can willingly now bow to Him as opposed to be forced to bow down before Him one day... Phil 2:9-11 is clear!

·        Holy:

·        The world needs to understand that God is holy – that He is perfect and that he has no part or understanding of sin... that He is other than us and that he is not our “buddy” ...

·        We should be helping the world to understand that they should fear God... that they should tremble before Him...!

·        Righteous:

·        He will come to judge this world...

·        “Jesus came the first time as the humble Saviour, to die for our sins. But He will come again to rule and judge.”

·        Heb 9:27; 2 Cor 5:10; Rom 2:6

·        We are to be a worshipping people who witnesssing to the peoples concerning the greatness of our God - His salvation and His and His holiness and righteousness...!

3. The Confirmation to Wait! (v10, 13) (for the coming of the righteous King...)

·        Note the repetition to emphasis the reality and certainty of the fact that, He is coming...!

·        He is coming and when He comes, He will come to rule and to judge... He will come to right every wrong...!

3.1. He will come to Judge the world with... equity...

·        Equity means that God’s judgment will be fair.

·        No one will be judged unfairly.

·        Everyone who does not receive mercy will receive perfect justice.

·        Either Christ have died for their sins and they themselves will pay for their sins... His judgement will be fair...!

3.2. He will come to Judge the world with... righteousness...

·        Righteousness refers to God’s perfect standard, which is Himself.

·        He has revealed His righteousness in His Word.

·        He will not judge on the curve of human goodness, but according to the absolute standards of His own righteous nature.

3.3. He will come to Judge the world with... faithfulness...

·        Faithfulness can also be translated as truth.

·        It means that He will not be arbitrary or whimsical in His judgment.

·        He will judge each person faithfully and truthfully... based on the facts and reality that He has complete knowledge of...

·        There will be no bargaining and bribing when He comes to judge...!

·        No one will get bail or get off the hook...!

·        God’s righteous judgment will either be a source of great terror or great joy.

·        For those who have not received salvation and forgiveness through the Saviour whom God has sent, it will be a day of great terror and fear – Rev 6:15-17

·        But for those who by faith in the shed blood of that Lamb have been clothed with His righteousness, the day of judgment will be a time of great joy! – Rev 18:20

·        Rom 12:19 will be fulfilled the day when He comes...!

Closing Thoughts:

·        To then apply Psalm 96 to us, three things should be true of us as His people:

·        If the glorious God is our Saviour, we will be a worshiping people. Our voices will often break forth in singing His praises. Our thoughts will often be on how great and mighty God is. Our hearts will often bow in reverence before His holiness. We will look forward with delight to each Lord’s Day when we can join with the saints in singing His praises. To give God the glory of His name you must be growing through His Word to know how great He really is.

·        If the glorious God is our Saviour, we will be a witnessing people, both here and abroad. Witness is the overflow of worship. If you are captivated by a beautiful mountain scene, you can’t help but tell others about it. If you are captivated by the majesty and splendour of the glorious God, you’ll want to tell others about Him. And, as long as there are peoples around the world with no witness of the Saviour, you will want to give generously to support missionaries to go and tell them. You may even sense the Lord calling you to go.

·        If the glorious God is our Saviour, we will be a watchful people as we wait for Christ’s coming to judge the world in righteousness. Jesus warned us of the danger of getting distracted with all of the activities and cares of this world and forgetting that He is coming.

While there are many details of Bible prophecy that are difficult to understand, you can’t miss the Lord’s bottom line in Mark 13:35-37...

·        The Righteous King is coming...!

·        We should be worshipping Him and witnessing of Him as we are waiting for Him...!