As I read through Psalm 96, my heart was moved by the presence of The LORD. The exuberant rejoicing and identifying the good news of God hung in the air as each verse passed through my lips. The Psalmist knows and loves The LORD.
He cannot invite people, nations, ad creation to identify who God is and respond in praise and worship fast enough. It‘s as if really knowing The LORD must lead to loving him. Then the only sensible response is to worship.
The Psalmist understands God is coming to judge. Maybe he was talking about judging Israel. Maybe he was prophetically speaking to a future world judgement, but nonetheless he identified The LORD as THE JUDGE. This was not threatening to the Psalmist but seemed a safe place to rest for him.
This Psalm communicates The Lord as the ONLY GOD with such excitement. The Psalmist understood The LORD as creator of the heavens, thusly creating the earth and the seas. He understood the people of the earth owed allegiance to The LORD for their very lives.
This Psalm is full of love for the LORD that foments an ease to come before him trusting and knowing he is great and greatly to be praised. The Psalmist Loves God for who he is. His power was indicative of who The LORD is for the Psalmist. The obvious thing by its absence in this praise was not about what God had done for him. His love poured out on The LORD, for who He was, not personal blessings.
We should thank God for his personal blessings; we’d be remiss not to. The Psalmist does that in other Psalms. Have you ever had a time of worship just declaring who God is, his power in general, naming through praise his attributes? Just a time of not me, oh LORD, this is just about you.
I love you, LORD, and I want to bless you for who you are. I want to praise you for being Creator, Sustainer of heaven and Earth. I love you because you are The Only True God and all other gods are idols, useless manmade creations. I love you and praise you along with your creation. I love you, the one who shows grace and mercy and will return to judge the earth. I love you Lord an today my life will reflect that, not because of what you can do but because of who you are. That is enough for me to love you.
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