The Missionary Psalm: 3 of 4

Ascribe to the LORD, you families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name; bring an offering and enter His courts. Worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.-Psalm 96:7-9

Psalm 96:7-9 is a section of pure worship. Every family on the face of the Earth is commanded to ascribe worship to the Lord. We are to worship the Lord because of the glory of His name, His strength, and because of the splendor of His holiness.

We are to worship the Lord because of the glory of His name. God’s glory is how He puts His holiness on display for people to apprehend. The Bible tells us that the Heavens declare the glory of God. We observe God’s glory everyday in creation, in other words, everyday God is shouting at us from creation. He shouts at us through dazzling sun-sets and spectacular sun-rises. He shouts at us through the changing of the leaves in the fall. He shouts at us through the dazzling brightness of a fresh morning snow. He shouts at us through the budding of new life in the springtime and He shouts at us through the waves crashing against the shoreline in the summer. In the midst of every season He is shouting; I AM GLORIOUS! Worship me because of the glory of my name.

We are to worship the Lord because of His strength. God’s strength is seen in hundreds of different ways. One way God’s strength is seen in the Old Testament is through Israel’s conquest of other nations. In the OT when Israel would conquer a nation; it would be because Israel’s God was seen as superior to the god’s of the other nations. An example of this is found in the plagues which God brought upon the people of Egypt. Each of the ten plagues are an attack against an Egyptian god, and each plague showcases God’s strength. God affirms His strength over Egypt in Exodus 9:15, “By now I could have stretched out My hand and struck you and your people with a plague, and you would have been obliterated from the earth.” God is stronger than the gods of the people; therefore, we should worship the Lord.

We are to worship the Lord because of the splendor of His holiness. God’s holiness refers to His separateness. If God were to reveal Himself, we would be on our face before Him trying to dig ourselves into the ground in order to avoid His holiness. No-one on their own can stand before a holy God and live. God’s holiness would consume us! God’s holiness not only refers to His separateness but also to His perfection. God is perfect. God cannot make a mistake, He doesn’t change His mind, can’t catch Him off guard, and He never sleeps. The prophet Isaiah tells us, “Yahweh is the everlasting God, the Creator of the whole earth. He never grows faint or weary; there is no limit to His understanding.” We are to worship the Lord because of the splendor of His holiness.

In conclusion, verses 7-9 are a command for all the families of the Earth to worship God. Unfortunately, millions upon millions upon millions of individuals do not worship the God who made them, therefore, we have an obligation to go and through God’s power and by His grace create worshipers of God from all the families of the Earth.