Psalm – Psalm 96-98

In yesterday’s Bible Blog posting by belovedofthelord, he reminded us that sacred music is an integral part of our worship and Christian life and that we should not be stingy with our praises to God.

The Psalmist is certainly not holding back his praises of God in today’s reading of the Psalms.  So get your Bibles and hymn books out!  Find a place and set a time today and just praise the Lord!

Bible Passage:  Psalm 96-98

Can you feel the excitement of the Psalmist?  Are your lips quivering in anticipation of your offering of praise?  Do you want to jump up now and start shouting your praises about your God to everyone around you?

Yes? Wonderful!

No? Hmmm… why not?

Why We Praise God?

Let’s see why the Psalmist was so excited today.  And at the same time… let’s reflect and see if these same things gives you cause for SINGING to the Lord.

“… Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day” (Psalm 96:2)

Salvation!  What a great gift! – Freely given to the undeserving me.  Once we had nothing to do with God and heaven.  But because of His death on the cross for me… we have everything to do with Jesus and the heavenly home He has prepared for us.

How can we fail to proclaim this good news of His salvation from day to day… and to everyone that we know?

“Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.” (Psalm 96:3)

God’s glory!  Is there anything more glorious than our God?  Perhaps we may have difficulty in imagining, understanding or appreciating God’s glory.  But surely we have no difficulty in knowing His wonders in our life?

Just stop for a moment now and count your many blessings that you have received from the Lord.

Wow!  Amazing isn’t it?  I can’t believe I have not told you what God did for me just today… sorry but that will be for another day but you can see now why the Psalmist could not stop telling people about the wonders of God to others.

“… the LORD made the heavens” (Psalm 96:5)

We always tell people that God made the heavens and earth and that He is the Lord of all creation.  But as we say these words, how strongly do you believe in them?  Or do you take creation for granted and no longer marvel at what the Lord has made?

Everytime when I watch Discovery Channel when there is some nature or life sciences programs, I cannot but marvel and praise God for His wonderful, creative works.  But as I seldom watch TV, these occassions are far and few.  Maybe its time I watch more TV

But I think you get the idea.  As you read through the Psalms today… highlight or jot the reasons why you must praise God.  Better still, come up with your own reasons why you want to praise God… and see how much you can actually come up with.

One of my favourite hymns is Hymn 332 Love of God – especially verse 3.  Although this hymn talks about the love of God… it is the composer’s response to it that makes it so wonderful.  And this can be easily translated to also mean our praises to God…

Could we with ink the ocean fill,
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill,
And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above,
Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
Though stretched from sky to sky.

Truly… if we make an effort, there is no end to our praises of God.

Worship… A Family Affair?

Every 3rd Sabbath of the month during the 2nd session of the Sabbath afternoon service, it is our Family Hymn Fellowship.  However, there are times where I feel that while we may call it by this name, there is hardly any familiness – cause hardly any whole families get together and sing praises to God together.

This is sad because singing praises to God should include the whole family.

Just see what Psalm 96:7-9 (emphasis mine) says…

Give to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
Give to the LORD glory and strength.
Give to the LORD the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come into His courts.
Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness!
Tremble before Him, all the earth.

It is a wonderful thing to be able to praise God together as a family.  For the Jews, this is a way of life as they would often gather together to read the scriptures, tell the stories of God’s wonders and grace, and sing praises.

We are one big family in the Lord and it will be nice to sing and praise God together.

I am reminded of this song called “Welcome to the Family” and found a very nice version sang by kids and I hope you enjoy it as well…

Sing To The Lord A New Song

It is hard to escape the call to “sing to the Lord a new song”, especially when we see this call in Psalm 96:1 and 98:1.

We are certainly doing our best to learn new songs from our hymn book for hymns above 310 over the last number of years during our Tue hymn and prayer services and other hymn fellowships.

However, for many of us, we still love the old hymns and do not take to hear the newer hymns.  And it is alright because the above 2 verses of Psalm does not mean that old favourites should be discarded and replaced with more modern hymns with unfamiliar tunes.

But just as God’s mercies are new every morning (Lam 3:23), so our singing of well known words needs to have a freshness about it.  Each time when we sing to the Lord, it should be done with the expectation of coming to church in anticipation of meeting God and praise Him with our lips.

With our different and new experiences of God each day in our lives, it will not be difficult for us to sing each hymn with a new feeling and appreciation of God so much so that it feels like we are singing a new song to the Lord!

Think about it as I share with you another hymn also called the “Love of God”.  In this case, it is a new hymn with new words… but it is such a wonderful hymn that you cannot help but want to sing along!