1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise his name;
proclaim his salvation day after day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is the Lord and most worthy of praise;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and glory are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the Lord, all you families of nations,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering and come into his courts.
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness;
tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns.”
The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;
let the sea resound, and all that is in it.
12 Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them;
let all the trees of the forest sing for joy.
13 Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, for he comes,
he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
and the peoples in his faithfulness.
My thoughts -
I wish I knew more. I wish I knew when each of these Psalms was written, by whom, and for what purpose. I wish I had access to the author and could pick his brain about what motivated him to write what he did and how (and possibly if) they were used in worship. Sure, I need to study and learn more but there's only so much you can know about something written about 3000 years ago.
What jumps out at me in this, other than just the repetition of the command (if it's not meant as a command it sure feels like it is) to sing. As someone who sings every day and with great enthusiasm if not ability I like it when scripture tells me to sing. I'm a big fan of that. I was doing it, anyway. But what really captures my attention is the declaration in verse 5:
For all the gods of the nations are idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
Sure, in ancient times the idols were actual idols, crafted with human hands and declared to have divine powers. We don't run into a lot of that in our culture, but we do have gods of our nation, don't we? We do have our own idols, don't we? We have our idols of wealth, of prosperity, of the American Dream, of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps and making a better life. We have our suburbs and our malls and our insulated lives where we create distractions for ourselves to avoid entering into the suffering of others. Heck, one of the most popular shows for several years running is even called American Idol. I'm not saying there's anything uniquely troubling about that show but it fairly accurately represents this American Dream and our obsession with riches, fame, and celebrity.
What does the second part of verse 5 say? "But the Lord made the heavens." All of the idols we have built for ourselves are nothing in comparison. All that we have will fade away long before the heavens and our idols, even at their brightest, pale in comparison to the dimmest star.
As we worship this morning let us reflect on the awesomeness that is our God, who made the heavens and everything in and under them. Let us reflect on our God's holiness; on our God's righteousness; on our God's justice; on our God's mercy; on our God's splendor, majesty, strength, and glory.
We have created distractions for ourselves that draw attention away from our worship of God. God has been since before time and will be long after the last second of time ends. All of the gods of our nation, of all nations, are idols. Nothing can hold a candle to our God.
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