Now let's turn in our Bibles to back to Psalm 96. This time we're going to give full attention to the content of this particular psalm. And hear the word of the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless His name. tell of his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him, O the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. that the heavens be glad, that the earth rejoice, that the sea roar in all that fills it, that the field exult in everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. This is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, we thank you again for the reading and hearing of your word for the second time today, this passage. Holy Spirit, as our minds are opened up to understand it through the exposition, we pray that you would give us ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts to believe, whatever your word reveals. Lord, grant to your servant again strength in this particular hour, which may be difficult for us, and the preaching of your word, but also let that extend it to the ears of those here gathered to eagerly listen as the word is expounded. Lord, grant strength in the preaching of the gospel, we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning my burden was to demonstrate where this psalm is and why it is where it is, the Psalter. We saw that it is the pinnacle psalm of a nine-psalm poetic pyramid. All these psalms are devoted to the theme, Yahweh reigns. You'll remember it's in the book four which corresponds with the Babylonian captivity. This is a message that those in the time of the captivity needed to remember that Yahweh reigns even if David's throne at that time was in the dust. Yahweh's throne is not in the dust. It's exalted in the highest heavens, in the invisible heavens. And he sits enthroned. And that's the message of these nine Psalms. What I want to do now is to look at the content of this particular Psalm, remembering that it's lifted from that Psalm in 1 Chronicles chapter 16, the occasion for that Psalm, but also the occasion for where we find it here. And the first thing I want you to note in the first strophe of this psalm is the universal character of it. The universal character of it. Listen. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. You hear that universal call? Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. You hear the universal call to worship, but also we see in here the call to Israel to be a missionary. And this is something oftentimes we forget. In the old covenant, Israel certainly forgot this. When God entered into covenant with Israel as his people at Sinai, he didn't choose Israel because she was the greatest of nations. She was not. Nor for that matter, for the personal piety of the members of that nation. He chose Israel. sovereignly and freely to be his people. But he called them, when he entered into covenant with them, and that covenant was given to them at Mount Sinai, for how they were to live as lights among nations and among a world that's in darkness. Sometimes we don't see the missionary call that was placed upon Israel. And yet what did Israel do? Israel hid her blessings, hoarded them to herself and hid them under a bushel. It's one of the things that we see paralleled in scripture from the old covenant into the new covenant. The first Adam failed when he broke covenant with God. The second and last Adam did not fail and kept covenant with God. Israel, God's Son failed in her mission to the world. The true Israel, the Lord Jesus Christ, does not fail. He is the light to the world. And Israel forgot that calling. She was to live as a holy people, to be a light set on a hill in order to dispel darkness. But she did not fulfill that calling as she ought. But David understood that was the calling. And we have it right here in the text when we read it. Sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations. You see the missionary impulse there, to declare his glory among the nations. His marvelous works among all the peoples. Because it was always God's intent to win the world, not just Israel, but the world. And that includes us. I'm looking out among you. I don't know that I see many who are descendants of Abraham according to the flesh. Most of you actually look like you're from Japheth, not even Shem. That's what you look like to me. You're here bowing the knee to King Jesus and worshiping Yahweh. We see the Lord Jesus in the success of his ministry as a light, and now the church in going forth as that light. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. And why is that? For all the gods of the people are worthless idols. They shouldn't be feared at all. They're made of wood and stone. They're dead. They're not living. Only the one true God is living, and He is the one that we must fear. For all the gods of the people are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. There's the difference. The gods of the peoples are dead idols. They make nothing. God himself created the heavens. Splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Why would you want to worship any other god? when you behold the one true God who is the creator who has revealed himself to us. The universal character of the call to worship and the mission that was given to Israel and now given to the church to preach the gospel to all nations. And we see all nations coming to him through the preaching of the gospel. I want to focus some attention on this second strophe. Because if you're familiar with the Psalms, you'll remember having heard these words, or most of these words, somewhere else in the Psalter. Let me read them and see if they come to mind. I'll tell you. But see if they come to mind to you. Where have I heard this particular call to worship before? And we're going to compare and contrast these two places. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the people. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth. Do those words sound familiar other than in this psalm? But let me give you some hints. Think book one. Let me give you another hint. Think Book 1, think of, and maybe you don't know of other poetic pyramids or chiastic structures, but there's a second chiastic structure of the Psalter. The first is 20 to 24. There's a second one in the Pentacle Psalm there is Psalm 29, also written by David. Let's turn to Psalm 29 and listen to how Psalm 29 begins. Remember, David wrote both of these psalms. He wrote Psalm 29. It says the Psalm of David. That's in the title. We know that David wrote it. How do we know that he wrote Psalm 96? Because it's taken from 1 Chronicles 16. We're told in 1 Chronicles 16 that David wrote it, gave it to the musicians, and told Asaph, you play the cymbals when the Ark of the Covenant is brought into the temple, into the tent that he pitched for it. But listen to how Psalm 29 begins. Ascribe to the Lord. Sound familiar? Ascribe to the Lord. Now, listen to see if you hear any differences. There's one significant change. There's also two additions in Psalm 96 to what we read here. But listen. Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Okay, keep those words in your ears. Let's turn back to Psalm 96. Ascribe to the Lord. Sound familiar? Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Ascribe to the Lord, wait, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering, come into His courts, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness, tremble before Him all the earth. You hear the familiarity in the two calls to worship, but there's one distinct difference between Psalm 29 and Psalm 96. And that is, to whom is David calling to worship? In Psalm 29, ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Now that's actually a difficult expression in the Hebrew to translate. But I'm convinced that this is a good rendering of what David has in mind here. In Psalm 29, David is calling to worship the angels in heaven. But listen to Psalm 96. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples. You hear the difference? In Psalm 96, he's calling to worship that creature made in the image of God. He's calling upon human beings. He's calling upon men and women. He's calling upon the people of the nation. He's calling upon people here upon the earth to worship God. In 29, he's calling upon the angels in heaven to worship God. Now, this isn't the only psalm where we see that kind of dynamic. In Psalm 148, you see what the psalmist calling upon the inhabitants of heaven to worship God. And then in the second strophe, he's calling upon the inhabitants upon the earth to worship God. But let's look at the differences that we find here, or the additions. In Psalm 96, he is calling upon the families of the peoples to worship God, to ascribe the Lord glory and strength, the same thing he says to the angels in 29. To ascribe to the Lord the glory, do his name, the same thing he says to the angels in Psalm 29. He's saying to men here upon the earth. But then he says, bring an offering and come into his courts. And that's not in Psalm 29. Any ideas as to why? Now see, some are shaking their head. They've already got it figured out. And some are saying, why don't you tell me? Kind of looks on faces. Angels don't need to bring offerings and come to the courts of the Lord. We do. We do. When we think of the theology of angels, we realize that God created the angels I happen to believe on day one, I think in Genesis 1 we read, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, that what's first in view is what Paul would later call the invisible creation, which is the heavens, the invisible heavens, where God set his thrones and where he dwells, that he populated with angels in an instant like that. And then the earth is focusing upon the visible creation that Paul talks about when he compares in contrast that all things are created through Christ or by Christ, both things visible and invisible. I want you to think about that when God created the heavens. We're not told as much about angels as we would like to know, but we're told some things about angels in the Bible. Angels actually do exist. And David is calling upon the angels to do what they do by nature. What was it like when God created the invisible heavens, when he set his throne, when he created in particular the four living creatures that surround the throne? We read about in Isaiah and we read about in the book of the Revelation to John, you know, those glorious visions where we catch a glimpse of the invisible heavens through the visible eyes of John. What are the four living creatures singing? Remember? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. And as you read that, you realize this is incessant. This is their incessant song before the throne of God from the moment of the creation, even to this moment right now. If you had ears to hear, you could hear it. Why don't we listen? See if you can hear them. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come. The whole earth is full. I've wondered when thinking about this is when God created them like that, the four living creatures, I wonder if they were mid-sentence. I wonder if they were on the second or the third holy. As soon as they were existing, it was coming out of their mouths to declare this attribute of God that he is holy, holy, holy before his throne. David is calling upon the elect angels to do what they have done by nature from the moment of the creation until now and for the rest of eternity. And he doesn't mind telling them to do what they were created to do. Now we also know from the scriptures that there are angels that fail. Now, it's hard to know in terms of the days of creation, you know, exactly when the fall of Lucifer and the angels took place. We just know it did in the invisible heavens. And those angels, in theology we call them reprobate angels. There's no need for them to bring a sacrifice because there's no gospel for them. There's no hope. There's no redeemer for reprobate angels. They're destined for the lake of fire that God has created for them and will be their final destination for all of eternity along with the wicked men and women who'll be thrown and cast into that lake of fire. There's no hope of redemption for the fallen angels. None. And those that are not fallen have no need to make an offering or a sacrifice to the Lord because they're righteous. But there's hope for you. There's hope for men and women created in the image of God. The second person of the Godhead took to himself a human nature. He did not come as an angel. He came into this world incarnate as a man. in order to redeem mankind. But we are all fallen in Adam. We are not righteous, we are unrighteous. So the only way we can approach a holy God is through the mediation of blood. And anyone who takes blood out of their gospel preaching is preaching a different gospel. Of course, that's what liberalism does. It's not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Anyone who takes penal substitution out of their understanding of what the gospel is, is preaching another gospel. You can only approach a righteous God as a sinner through the mediation of blood, and that is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so here the call is in Psalm 96, to the families of the earth, come with an offering, come into the courts of God. Now we may ask the question, and I think it's a legitimate question to ask, How is the substitution of the blood of bulls and goats and lambs a fitting substitute for a man that's made in the image of God? That's why they had to do them over and over and over again. Have you ever thought about the theology of the Old Testament sacrificial system? Another thing that I've learned in pinpointed fashion from Dr. Morales There's a theology to those sacrifices. Sometimes it all becomes blurred to us. Why? Because we're too far removed. They're fulfilled in Christ and abrogated. We don't offer sin offerings or whole burnt offerings or peace offerings any longer. That belonged to the old. And it did. But there's a theology to them. They began with a trespass offering or a sin offering. Why? Because the sinner is coming before God. There must be the substitution in blood for his sins to be covered or expiated or propitiated. There must be the substitution of blood. And so the trespass offering is made. But then there's the whole burnt offering. In the trespass offering, some of that offering is consumed on the altar before God. Some of that offering is given to the priest. This is where they get their daily food. But in the whole burnt offering, the whole of the animal is consumed upon the altar. It's transported, it's changed from the animal itself to smoke into a fragrance that goes up into the nostrils of God. It represents the entire consecration of the sacrifice and of the worshiper to God. Once your sins are addressed in sin offering, then whole burnt offering is offered in order to demonstrate our utter consecration to the God who's forgiven our sins, and then the peace offerings are made, and often included with that are grain offerings, and these are shared with the priests and shared with the worshipers. And so what happens at the end? There's a feast. There's a feast before Yahweh. So your sins are covered in the sin offering. Total consecration of the one whose sins are covered in the whole burn offering. Now it's time to feast in fellowship with our God because of the restoring of that relationship, the reconciliation that takes place in the theology of the Old Testament sacrifices. But this is a fact. The blood of a bull or a goat is never sufficient. It's never sufficient for a man or woman made in the image of God. Where does it get its efficacy? Where does it get its power? It's because there are types and shadows that are looking forward to, as John said, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, when he pointed to Jesus. They get their power and their efficacy from the blood of Jesus Christ shed, even though they made their offerings long before the incarnation. The efficacy, the power of those offerings of the old covenant are the blood of Jesus Christ that they are looking forward to. And now that Christ has come, we see it in full. And it would be blasphemous for us to make a trespass offering or a sin offering or a whole burnt offering or a peace offering to God. To go back to types and shadows when the substance of those types and shadows has come in Christ and His sacrifice, the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. And so our fellowship meal is a simple meal where we remember what Christ did for us on the cross. And the living Christ is still with us as we eat and drink in faith, as we did this morning. We need the mediation of blood. And the only blood that will suffice is that of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's all we need. And we have that redemption, and we have reconciliation, and we're restored in the presence of God. And we come together in His worship, and we come together, we get on our knees before Him in our prayers, and He says, come boldly to the throne of grace. Isn't it a marvelous gospel? The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, whether you preach it out of the Old Covenant or the New, isn't it a marvelous gospel? There's no hope for angels. There is for us. There's provision for us. And that provision is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ who was shed on our behalf as we see here. Angels, elect angels, don't need to make sacrifices. It wouldn't do any good for fallen angels to try to do so. There's no redemption for them. But we come. through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ and through his blood on our behalf. And then with Psalm 29, David says, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. But there's another addition. Tremble before him all the earth. It's not in Psalm 29. When you contemplate the power of this gospel, it should make your knees give way in trembling, in not a fear of dread, but a fear of wonder and awe that this righteous, holy, majestic God would love you as much as he's loved you and his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice on your behalf. It shouldn't make you tremble. I will never give up the reverence of worship as we worship in Reformed churches. So much of our brothers and sisters in evangelical churches do not understand the call to tremble. And in their own minds are so familiar with Christ. One of the illustrations that comes to my mind is of Moses before the burning bush. God said, take your sandals off your feet on holy ground. In many evangelical churches today, and I'm saying this as one who loves my evangelical brothers and sisters, that sometimes just wants to shake them and say, wake up! God did not say, kick off your shoes, let's chill for a while before the burning bush, to Moses. That's people's demeanor if they go into the worship of God in so many churches today. I think Moses didn't know whether to look up, look down, look forward. What do I do? As he's unloosing his sandals to take them off of his feet, as he trembles before the presence of the Almighty. And we do that every Lord's Day, twice. Yes, there's the time to celebrate and to rejoice. And yes, even as we saw this morning, when David danced before the Ark of the Covenant, But it was his humility before God, his absolute recognition that God is the one that he fears he serves, and he is but a servant. That's where the joy was born. It's out of reverence that the joy is born. And I loved it when we sang Psalm 98a, with exuberance before the Lord. Our worship must be marked by reference, but also by joy. And woe to us if it's ever just going through the formality. There's purpose behind our forms and our liturgies to aid us as we come into the presence of a holy God. Tremble before Him. all the earth. He is a God to be feared. And then verse 10, which is the central verse here. Say among the nations, this is what Israel was called to do that she did not do faithfully. Yahweh. You mean, even when we're in exile, Yahweh reigns? Yes. Could you imagine a Jew, before their Babylonian captors, they're there. You know, they ask of them to sing the songs of Zion for us. They said, how can we sing the songs of Zion in a foreign land? If I forget Jerusalem, let my right hand its cunning loose. That's the literal translation. May I forget my ability to be able to play my heart. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth. May I never sing another note again if I forget Jerusalem. What if any of them were bold enough to say, you don't know yet, but Yahweh reigns. Yahweh reigns. They may mock and laugh. No, our God's defeated. Your God? You're the ones that are in captivity. No, that was due to our sin. Our God will restore us because Yahweh reigns. And maybe even as we read in Psalm 2, you better kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled. People should come into our worship services to visit, especially unbelievers, and marvel at the reference, the trembling before the presence of our God. Say, what is going on here? Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. It's God who is the judge, Yahweh who is the judge. And then he calls upon not just people, but everything to praise the Lord. Look at what he says. Let the heavens be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar. And all that is in it, that is the sea creatures. Psalm 148 speaks of those sea creatures in the depths of the sea that no man has ever seen. And yet they do worship God, how? By being what God ordained them to be. I said before, I think Leviathan is one of those deep sea creatures that no man's ever seen. If you go deep sea fishing, you don't want to hook Leviathan. But according to Job, Leviathan's God's pet. The sea roar and all that fills, let the field exult. How can grass exult? By being what God created it to be. And everything in it, that is the beast of the field as well. both domesticated and non-domesticated. Some of our brothers have enjoyed pursuing the non-domesticated beast of the field. You can also read in Psalm 29, it's like a tornado that's coming off of, or a hurricane that's coming off of the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and it throws Sirion, or Mount Hermon, into the sea, and it makes this devastating path all the way through the Holy Land, all the way down to Kadesh. There's one little line there, if it's translated properly, and there's the deer giving birth in the midst of the storm. Everything else is destruction. But there's this deer that's giving birth completely safe with trees falling down all around. All of what we see, even under the curse, cannot blot out the finger of God in his general revelation. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy, but being what they were created to be, Before the Lord, for he comes. He comes to judge the earth. This is thinking towards consummation. On that day, there will be no haughty man. I may be haughty for a moment, but when Christ returns in the book of Revelation, we see they're running into caves and crying out to the rocks, hide us from the coming wrath It will be a sobering, terrifying experience for the unbelievers when he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness. You hear these words of judgment and it sounds ominous and indeed it is because of the sin of Adam and of our sin. But then you see the bright light of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and your sins are removed from you as far as the east is from the west. He died in your place. His blood has washed away your sins. His righteousness is imputed to you. And when he comes on that final day, if he were to come this afternoon, there's plenty of clouds for him to ride on, at least here. And whether He comes 10,000 years from now, which isn't that long, what's 10,000 years the way God counts it? Five days, I think. Two days, however that is. By math, this time I can't work math this time of day. We will be caught up and we'll meet Him as He descends in the clouds of glory. No, not a secret rapture. Rolling out the red carpet for the coming of the King and consolation. With utter joy. Because we're addressing Christ's righteousness. Because he bore our sin in our place. That's the gospel. Again, what's the application? Tremble. That's what the text says. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for this glorious psalm. Father, we thank you for your Son, for your purpose and plan in salvation, for the incarnation, for his death on our behalf. for His righteousness is imputed to us. We don't deserve any of this. It's all Your mercy. Yet You're merciful to us. Lord, sanctify us that we would walk in obedience to be a light set on the hill in a dark place. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let's turn to 96B. 96B. Stand together to sing.