God of the Nations

Overview

Psalm 96 is an astonishingly happy psalm. It depicts joy and rejoicing for the whole human race, and not just for everyone, but for everything—even the trees, the fields, the mountains, the earth, and the seas are filled with joy and rejoicing.

But this isn’t the world the way we know it—where there are hurricanes, natural disasters, diseases, and death. So how do we get from where we are to there? Is this nothing but an inaccessible, crazy idea, or is it possible to get to a world like this?

In order to find the answer to that question, we need to look at the psalm itself, which is a series of invitations. Let’s look at the call 1) to see, 2) to sing, and 3) to rejoice in judgment.