O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth . Psalm 96 A supreme existence and a supreme service Homilist. I. A SUPREME EXISTENCE. 1. Great in His nature — in power, intellect, heart. 2. Great in His work. "Made the heavens." 3. Great in His character. 4. Great in His government. II. A SUPREME SERVICE. 1. Joyous. 2. Fresh. "A new song." The song of yesterday will not do for to-day, for there are fresh motives, fresh mercies, fresh needs. 3. Constant. Worship as an occasional service is worthless, it is only worship as it becomes an all-pervading spirit, a permeating, dominating inspiration. "From day to day." 4. Universal. "All the earth." "Ye kindreds of the people." This service is confined to no tribe or class of men, all sustain the same relation to the Supreme Existence, and out of the same relationship the same common obligations spring. 5. Practical. (1) Acknowledgment of God's claims. (2) Proclamation of God's glory to the world. ( Homilist. ) The new song and the old story There are mighty passions of the human soul which seek vent, and can get no relief until they find it in expression. Grief, acute, but silent, has often destroyed the mind, because it has not been able to weep itself away in tears. The glow of passion, fond of enterprise and full of enthusiasm, has often seemed to rend the very fabric of manhood when unable either to attain its end or to utter its strong desires. So it is in true religion. It not only lays hold upon our intellectual nature with appeals to our judgment and our understanding, but at the same time it engages our affections, brings our passions into play, and fires them with a holy zeal, producing a mighty furore; so that when this spell is on a man, and the Spirit of God thoroughly possesses him, he must express his vehement emotions. Our purpose is to suggest two modes of expressing your consecration to God and your devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. These two methods are to sing about and to talk about the good things the Lord has done for you, and the great things He has made known to you. Let song take the lead — "O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Sing unto the Lord, bless His name." Then let discourse engage you; be it in public sermons or in private conversations — "Show forth His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the heathen, His wonders among all people." We begin with the voice of melody. All ye that love the Lord, give vent to your heart's emotion by song, and take care that it be sung to the Lord alone. As ye stand up to sing, there should be a fixed intent of the soul, a positive volition of the mind, an absolute determination of the heart, that all the flame which kindles in thy breast, and all the melody that breaks from thy tongue, and all the sacred swell of grateful song shall be unto the Lord, and unto the Lord alone. And if you would sing unto the Lord, let me recommend you to flavour your mouth with the Gospel doctrines which savour most of grace unmerited and free. Praise the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, who provides for us, educates us, instructs us, leads and guides us, and will bring us by and by to the many mansions in His own house. Sing ye also unto the Son. Adore the Lamb slain. Kneel at the Cross foot, and praise each wound, and magnify the immortal who became mortal for our sakes. And, then, sing ye to the Holy Spirit. Oh, how our hearts are bound reverently to worship the Divine Indweller who, according to His abundant mercy, hath made our bodies to be His temples wherein He deigns to dwell. "Sing unto the Lord a new song." Let the freshness of your joy and the fulness of your thanks be perennial as the days of heaven. This song, according to our text, is designed to be universal. "Sing unto the Lord, all the earth." Let sires and sons mingle in its strains. There is not one of us but has cause for song, and certainly not one saint but ought especially to praise Him. In three ways, methinks, it becomes us to sing God's praises. We ought to sing with the voice. Angel harp and human voice! If the angel harp be more skilful, surely the human voice is more grateful. We are like a bird that has only one wing. There is much prayer, but there is little praise. "Sing unto the Lord." To sing with the heart is the very essence of song. Though the tongue may not be able to express the language of the soul, the heart is glad. Oh, to have a cheerful spirit — not the levity of the thoughtless, nor the gaiety of the foolish, nor even the mirth of the healthy — there is a cheerful spirit which is the gift of grace, that can and does rejoice evermore. Then when troubles come we bear them cheerfully; let fortune smile, we receive it with equanimity; or let losses befall us, we endure them with resignation, being willing, so long as God is glorified, to accept anything at His hands. These are the people to recommend Christianity. Their cheerful conversation attracts others to Christ. In the second place, then, let me stir you up to such daily conversation and such habitual discourse as shall be fitted to spread the Gospel which you love. Our text admonishes you to "show forth His salvation." You believe in the salvation of God — a salvation of grace from first to last. You have seen it; you have received it; you have experienced it. Well, now, show it forth. "Declare His glory among the heathen." Show them the justice of the great substitution, and the mercy of it. Show them the wisdom which devised the plan whereby, without a violation of the law, God could yet pardon rebellious sinners. Impress upon those that you talk with that the Gospel you have to tell them of is no commonplace system of expediency, but really it is a glorious revelation of divinity. A third expression is used here. "Declare His wonders among all people." Our Gospel is a Gospel of wonders. It deals with wonderful sin in a wonderful way. It presents to us a wonderful Saviour, and tells us of His wonderful complex person. It points us to His wonderful atonement, and it takes the blackest sinner and makes him wonderfully clean. The wonders of grace far exceed the wonders of nature; there are no miracles so matchless in wonder as the miracles of grace in the heart of man. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised. Psalm 96:4 God's praise Robert Tuck, B.A. The greatness or majesty of God is the prominent thing dwelt on in this psalm; but it may be dealt with in a larger and more comprehensive way. I. THE DUTY OF PRAISE. The psalmist calls upon us to sing. It honours God not only that we should speak to others about Him, and preach to others His truth, but that we should sing His praise, finding thus expression for our joyous and loving thoughts of Him who is worthy to receive glory and honour for ever and ever. Impress that joining in the songs and praises of the great congregation is still our way of honouring God. "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth Him." II. WHERE SHOULD WE PRAISE? (ver. 6). "In His sanctuary." The place of worship, the consecrated place, rich with the associations of years of worship. Show how strongly urged is the duty of joining in public services; and how important the duty of forming, in this respect, good early habits. III. WHAT SHOULD WE PRAISE? We may praise God for what He has done; in creation, providence, and grace; and for what He has done directly for us. The psalmist rises to a nobler height, and sets us the example of praising God for what He is, for the greatness, and majesty, and strength, and honour that belong to Him. IV. BEFORE WHOM SHOULD WE PRAISE.? Before those who do not know God, or who sadly neglect Him. Our praise is to be a witness to them; an example for them; and a persuasion of them. Our acts of worship and our godly habits are to say to them, "Come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker." V. WHO SHOULD JOIN US IN PRAISE? Note the poetic sentiment of vers.11-13; all nature joins man in praise. But man should be the leader of the choir. ( Robert Tuck, B.A. ) Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary. Psalm 96:6 Strength and beauty J. Waddell, B.A. Christianity alone has combined the two ideals of the world. Strength and beauty are diverse, but not contradictory. Yet we seldom find them united in the national ideals of ancient or modern times. "Thy sons, O Zion!" cried one of the Hebrew prophets, "against thy sons, O Greece" — the nation which stood for moral strength inexorably opposed to the nation whose ruling passion was beauty. To the Hebrew beauty was a secondary and an inconsiderable ideal compared with the strength of moral restraint and attainment. Strength was for men, and beauty perhaps was good enough for women. But the point of our text is that it combines strength and beauty into one harmony of character, which both men and women should seek to acquire. "Not like to like, but like in difference — Yet in the long years liker must they grow; The man be more of woman, she of man; He gain in sweetness and in moral height, Nor lose the wrestling thews that throw the world; The mental breadth, nor fail in childward care, Nor lose the childlike in the larger mind."Aaron's rod was the symbol of authority, the strength of the High Priest's office, but Aaron's rod it was that budded, and there you have the beauty. Our text, then, points out that there is no character complete which does not possess both strength and beauty. But, more than that, it shows that true strength and beauty are found only in God's sanctuary — that is, in genuine relationship with God. A very little thought will suffice to satisfy us how closely this corresponds with the facts. For if there is anything which our experience makes clear, it is this: that sin's tendency is to weaken, to soften the moral fibre of our natures, and to throw us open to the germs of all spiritual diseases. You all know how sins of sensuality bring their terrible revenge upon the body, and how nature exacts the uttermost farthing. In precisely similar fashion the soul is weakened by the transgression of the laws of moral and spiritual health. To commit any sin is to make oneself less able to resist it in the future. One falsehood leads almost necessarily to more. Where is the boasted strength and liberty of the sinner? Liberty to destroy oneself? Strength enough to take away by an act of moral suicide one's spiritual life? Yes, but no strength to live purely and nobly, no power to aspire, no courage to battle with the incursions of evil; is it not a mockery to say that there is strength in the pursuit of sin? Strength is in God's sanctuary, for He alone enables men to trample under foot the weakening influences of sin through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. What, then, are the nature and value of that strength which is to be found in Christ? What end does it serve and to what attainment does it lead? For one thing, it enables a man to cleave fast to the highest that he knows though all the world deride. No one can doubt how tremendous is the pressure of public opinion in these days, and how strong (one might almost say obstinate) a man must be who is to set himself to resist it. We talk of the pressure of the atmosphere upon the human body, and no doubt it is vast; buy we do not feel it because our frame has been made equal to the strain. For our moral frame, however, we must win the protecting armour of God's grace, and until we are safely clad in it, the pressure is grievous to be borne. In every line of life there are practices which have grown common and are sanctioned by custom, yet your conscience tells you they are wrong. "I do not think," said President Garfield, "what others may think or say concerning me, but there is one man's opinion concerning me which I very much value, that is the opinion of James Garfield; others I need not think about. I can get away from them, but I have to be with him all the time... It makes a great difference whether he thinks well of me or not." These are noble words, and they show us the sort of strength we need — strength to be faithful to what we know as the best and highest that a man can set up within his soul. From that tribunal we may not escape judgment, and if we are acquitted there our hearts are at peace. The same thing is true of all manner of temptation. We do not escape the snares of the tempter by running away. To these we must offer a constant and pitiless antagonism. There is an old tower on the Continent where in one of the dungeons the walls have graven upon them again and again the word "Resist." It is said a Protestant woman was kept in those dark recesses for forty years, and all the time she spent in graving with a piece of iron for all who might come after her that solemn and courageous word. Oh! we need it graven upon our hearts. Strength is in God's sanctuary — strength for bestowal — and you may have it if you will reach forth your hand. It is useless to say, "Be strong," but it is wisdom to say, "Be strong in the Lord." And then we should seek strength for the sake of others, so as to impart to them help and encouragement. "Briefly," says Ruskin, "the constant duty of every man to his fellows is to ascertain his own powers and special gifts, and to strengthen them for the help of others." Our moral strength also is not for ourselves alone. It is intended that by example of words and deeds, by patient endurance and active courage, we should inspire our fellows and make them also strong. The greater your spiritual strength in face of temptation, the braver your courage against all foes of the soul, the more you will help your fellow men to subdue their enemies and to go on from strength to strength. But a character which has strength alone without beauty lacks the perfect round of the Christian ideal. If we would see an instance of such defective character, let us think of the Puritans, who three centuries ago in England stood for righteousness and integrity and the fear of God. But there was little in their lives which could be termed the "beauty of holiness." They were upright and they were true; but they had trained themselves to a stern, hard, rugged strength, without polish, without beauty, and without the adornment (though doubtless not without the reality) of love. We see in them the need of those softer and more attractive virtues which fill in the stature of the perfect man. Not only strength, but beauty, is to be found in God's sanctuary. Nor can true beauty be won save in Him. Just as sin is weakness, so sin is ugliness. It does not always seem so. The siren voices are sweet and their song is fairest music. The form of sin is often beautiful to the eye, and men long to embrace it. But when the sinner clutches it, the lovely form changes to a hideous skeleton that grins and chatters in his face. As George Eliot says of one among her gallery of human characters: "He had no idea of a moral repulsion, and could not have believed, if he had been told it, that there may be a resentment and disgust which will gradually make beauty more detestable than ugliness, through exasperation at that outward virtue in which hateful things can flaunt themselves or find a supercilious advantage." Yes, brethren, beauty in its essence is the form of the true and the good, and there is no beauty without goodness. It is a false antagonism to say that one seeks the beautiful rather than the good. There is nothing really beautiful except what is good. "The true beautiful," says a modern prophet, "differs from the false as heaven does from Vauxhall." Let us, then, get rid of the notion that beauty is not to be sought. Every fresh soul that enters the world instinctively claims a share of the light and joy which this world's beauty brings; and God forbid that Christians should shut the door upon the beautiful. "The instinct," says some one, with truth, "even in its lowest forms, is divine. It is the commentary on the text that man shall not live by bread alone." And so far is Christianity from excluding the beautiful from its scheme that it actually recommends the softer and more attractive virtues as no other religion has done. The highest type of Christian character is the most truly beautiful this world has seen. We cannot hear of self-renunciation, or forgiveness, or kindness, or gracious love without exclaiming, How beautiful! And these are the graces which Christ bestows. Strength and beauty, then, make up the perfect character. But where do we find them perfectly combined? Nowhere, save in Jesus Christ. In what wonderful harmony they are blended there! How constantly in His life do we see strength and beauty, in perfect balance and poise, shining forth from His acts and words! In the garden of agony, faced by cruel and murderous men, He stands erect, calmly repeating to His enemies, "I have told you that I am He" — there is strength; but mark the tender beauty of what follows: "If ye seek Me, let these go their way" — solicitude for His faint-hearted followers mingling with His fortitude. As one has truly said: "The eyes that wept beside the grave of Lazarus were eyes that were like a flame of fire." And so Christian character holds the field, combining the two necessary elements of strength and beauty. That is why Christ appeals to men as well as women. And that is why we cannot but deplore the folly which keeps so many men aloof from active profession of the faith of Christ, because, forsooth, they count it an unmanly thing. Oh! brethren, there is strength as well as beauty in the service of Christ, and nowhere else can you find strength worthy of the name. There is beauty as well as strength, and nowhere else can you find beauty that will last and increase as the years go by. Strength and beauty are in God's sanctuary; and the sanctuary is the holy place — the place where God and man come nigh, where God's cleansing and strengthening flow down to men, and where man's service is rendered up to God. ( J. Waddell, B.A. ) The sacred union of strength and beauty U. R. Thomas. I. TRUE OF NATURE AS A TEMPLE. In nature as a whole, — as one vast cathedral, — and in different scenes, it is as so many aisles and courts and chapels, in it there is strength and beauty. For example, in the forest there is the strength of the gnarled tree, with sinewy and majestic trunk, and the beauty of exquisite foliage and delicate moss and wild flower. II. TRUE OF THE HEBREW SANCTUARIES. In the tabernacle were stout poles and coverings of skin for strength, and finely spun, delicately woven embroidery for beauty. In the temple, what massive and majestic stone for strength! what gleaming of precious and wondrous tapestry for beauty! There were in those sacred structures not only richest harmonies for the ear, but beauties for the eye as well, that so all nature should be toned and tuned to good impressions. III. TRUE OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. There may well be Puritan earnestness of spirit, distinctiveness of doctrine, directness of rebuke, fixedness of faith, and at the same time aesthetic refinement of demeanour and tone and thought. Does not " worship in the beauty of holiness " involve obedience to the precept, "Let all things be done decently and in order"? IV. TRUE OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER. That is the most perfect sphere of Divine worship; for to Christly men it is infallibly said, "Ye are the temple of the Holy Ghost." There must be in such character "virtue," the strength of manliness. By which is surely meant honesty, truth, courage, fidelity. But what does St. Peter teach us is to be added to virtue? Clearly, all moral beauty. Our character is to be a sanctuary with solid foundations, but adorned with finely wrought gold; our work is to be a war, but with chivalry. ( U. R. Thomas. ) Strength and beauty H. T. Miller. Strength and beauty are not always found in company, either in the works of God or of man. The lily is beautiful, but a child's foot may crush it; the gale is mighty, but it is the opposite of loveliness. In the works of man beauty is often allied to the fragile, and strength to the coarse and ungainly. But in the sanctuary of God they meet in undivided perfection. I. THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF ATTRACTION. Here is found an attraction mightier than the magnet: it is not a law which acts upon matter, but a life which acts upon mind; a life which enlightens our darkness, quickens the conscience, sways the will, gives hope to the heart, bounding pleasure to the affections. II. THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF AN UNFLINCHING PURPOSE — to reign, to save, to judge (vers. 2, 10). This golden chain has never been broken, never been damaged, never been seen, by the enemy. "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him," etc . III. THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF A PERFECT ORGANIZATION. It does not grow old; it is a stranger to decay; there is no friction, no loss of power. It is sublimely perfect, and immortal as the years of the Most High. IV. THE STRENGTH AND BEAUTY OF IMPARTED CHARACTER. The true worshipper comes not only to admire, but to imbibe, be assimilated to the Father; justification is imputed, sanctification is imparted; under the robe of righteousness there must be the holy body, and beneath the manners and bearing of the outward man there must be enshrined, enthroned, the Lord and Saviour of the soul ( Psalm 100:4 ). ( H. T. Miller. ) Strength and beauty A. L. Simpson, D.D. Had the psalmist set himself to give an "inventory," if I may so say, of the things to he found in God's sanctuary, he would have involved himself in the construction of a very long catalogue. Had he attempted even a somewhat general description, it would have been much the same. For moral impression he does better than either. He passes his eye quickly but reverently round the whole, and feeling that amid all the multiplicity of objects there were two qualities or elements always to be found, sometimes apart, though never far apart, and generally passing into each other and blending together, he seizes upon these as in reality constituting all that was there, and, consequently, all of good that could be anywhere, and thus, with that graphic brevity which is to be found only in Scripture, gives us the whole nature and meaning of religion at a stroke — "Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." The union of strength and beauty in nature is obvious. Some things, indeed, are distinctively strong, and some are distinctively beautiful, but the strongest things are not without beauty, and the most beautiful things are not without strength. Thus "order" is the all-pervading principle of nature, and as implying security against confusion, collision, and all such things as might lead to these, manifests itself as the very strength of the universe — the invisible cord on which God hangs His material creation. But out of this order comes all the beauty of adaptation, mutual dependence, mutual helpfulness, the succession of seasons — weaving a many-coloured robe for the year — and that felt though hidden harmony which led heathen philosophers to speak of the music of the spheres. So is it also in the sanctuary of home. God "setteth us in families," and in these He has a sanctuary, which is as plainly as any other inscribed with the characteristics of strength and beauty. There is the strong arm to work and the loving heart to feel. But the sanctuary here referred to is different from that of nature and of home. It is God's sanctuary proper — in its first sense, the scene of His worship, of which He has said, "I will place salvation in Zion for Israel My glory" — Zion, so strong that it cannot be moved — the "mountain of the Lord's house"; and yet Zion, so fair that out of it, as "the perfection of beauty," God hath shined. In the further sense, all that belongs to God's redemption-work is included in it. Take the character and teaching of Him who is its "Author and Finisher," Jesus, the Son of God, on whom the execution of the work was laid, and who gave Himself for us that He might redeem us from all iniquity. In Him was the strength of holiness, as a necessity; for He was God, "the brightness of the Father's glory, and the express image of His person." But He was God in human nature and in human relations, and this brought Him within the sphere of human observation, and made His life on the earth the visible image of man in his ideal perfection. The trying and every-varying circumstances in which He was placed served to bring out the strength and beauty alike which were enshrined in this "sanctuary" of God; for the strength of His purity never passed into hardness, and the beauty of His compassion never sank into weakness. He was both a merciful and a faithful High Priest. This example His people must follow. The spirit of Christ must be their spirit too. The strength of holiness must be conspicuous in them; the strength of obedience even unto death; the strength of a firm and resolute will in the direction of all that is true and just. But this must not be without beauty in their case, any more than it was in His: the beauty of tenderness mingling with their fidelity; the beauty of meekness, gentleness, pity, — knowing, like Him, to have compassion on the ignorant and them that are out of the way. And so also with the services of the sanctuary. In these there must be first, and mainly, the strength of truth, in the reading of the Scriptures and the preaching of the pure and simple Gospel of grace and love. Without this, services are a delusion, "clouds without water, carried about of winds, trees whose fruit withereth." And yet they are not to consist entirely in the enunciation of doctrine, but must rise out of that into the beauty of emotional feeling, and find expression in the broken accents of prayer and the uplifted melody of psalms and hymns and songs of praise. In conclusion: this brief sentence might be expanded indefinitely. It passes round and appropriates all that belongs to a religious character and life, and it holds in it many words of counsel and caution. It forbids us to be harsh for the sake of faithfulness, or to be weakly compliant for the sake of tenderness. It takes the two staves of the prophet — Beauty and Bands — and binds them together in the laws and principles of God's house and service, and in the whole character and life of His people, even as they are bound together in the nature of God Himself, and were so wondrously exemplified at every step by Him who achieved our redemption in all the strength of His immaculate holiness, and in all the beauty of His immeasurable love. ( A. L. Simpson, D.D. ) Strength and beauty W. Cameron, D.D. It is a common observation that the finest and most impressive effects are often produced by the combination of things that are unlike each other. The painter recognizes this principle when he brings his darkest shadows to heighten the effect of his clearest lights, or contrasts the peaceful life of some humble cottage home with the stately magnificence of the stern mountains that surround it. The architect appeals to the same principle when he crowns his columns with beautiful capitals, and relieves the massive masonry of his walls with delicate tracery and forms of sculptured beauty. In such cases two ideas entirely different from each other are brought together. The massive wall and the marble column suggest the thought of strength; while the delicate carvings and the sculptured friezes appeal to the sense of beauty. The thought which lies deep in the artist's mind, and to which he strives to give expression in his work, is that there is a natural alliance between strength and beauty. We see illustrations of this truth in — I. THE WORKS OF GOD. All the strong things in nature are beautiful: all the beautiful things are exhibitions of strength. The dewdrop that glitters on the rose-leaf — we all know the perfection of its beauty; but how little do we understand the mystery of the strength by which that beauty is secured! That little drop of water is composed of elements which are held together by electric forces sufficient to form a flash of lightning that would rend the rocks of the mountain or blast the stoutest oak of the forest. All that mighty thunder of power lies sleeping in the crystal sphere of a tiny dewdrop. Each day is enlarging the sphere of our knowledge of the natural world; and every fresh discovery brings a new gleam of light to kindle up afresh the brilliancy of the illuminated scroll, "Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary." II. THE REVEALED CHARACTER OF GOD. Strength and beauty are before Him — the strength of an infinite majesty, the thunder of an almighty power, the calm serenity of an eternal righteousness. And these, when seen alone, apart from those other attributes of His nature which are their gracious complement, can bring no peace to the troubled conscience or rest to wearied hearts. They can bring us trembling and awe-stricken into that majestic presence; but they know not the secret of transforming the shrinking terror of the criminal and the slave into the holy reverence and the joyous freedom of the son. Strength and beauty — the beauty of tenderness, the graciousness of Divine condescension, the winning aspects of a love that "beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things, hopeth all things." III. THE PERSON OF CHRIST. IV. THE VARIOUS REVELATIONS OF DIVINE TRUTH TO THE WORLD, AND THE ORDER OF THEIR SUCCESSION. The law precedes the Gospel: and law is to the Gospel as strength to beauty. We speak and think of the severe aspects of the law, its "shalt" and "shalt not," its stern repressions and its calm, passionate sentences. But it had its softer side, its gracious and tender aspects for those who had the heart and the eye to see them. To men like David it was given to rejoice in the thought that the law has its seat in the bosom of the God of Love. The Ritual of Judaism had deeper meanings for the spiritual worshipper, and its law brought him to Christ. The man who had the clearest vision of the strength and majesty of the law was the man who rejoiced most deeply in the everlasting mercy of the Lord. The law had its prefigurement of the Gospel, just as the Gospel had its undying reminiscence of the law. V. HUMAN CHARACTER. There is danger in opposite directions. Some Christians are content with the strength, and care little for the beauty, of the Christian life. They are stern in their adhesion to principle, careless of the lesser charities of life, apt to be harsh in their condemnation of error and sin. Every one knows their worth, believes in their honesty, would trust implicitly to their integrity. But they do not win love by their gracious bearing, their kind words, their charitable construction of men and things. They have the strength, but they lack something of the beauty of the Christian character. Others are in danger from the opposite tendency. They would sacrifice something of the severity of perfect uprightness to the graces of life. They must have peace at any price. It is the emotional side of religion that has the chief attraction for them. They are in love with the beauty of religion, but they are not good specimens of its strength and steadfastness. The text has a message for each. Strength and beauty. This is the ideal of a complete Christian character. The one is the framework, the other is the covering, of the man of full spiritual stature. In matters of principle, in the sphere of actions that touch the conscience, remember the call for strength. "Be strong in the Lord." But remember the other element, and cultivate the spirit and the practice of "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." Give wide interpretation to the prayer of the psalmist," Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us." ( W. Cameron, D.D. ) Strength and beauty C. S. Horne, M.A. A subject of never-waning interest to the student of comparative religions is she influence upon the character of a nation in its conception of God. It is sometimes asserted, in somewhat too sweeping a fashion, that a people will be as is its idea of God. In qualification of that proposition it has to be said that not all people hold themselves pledged to the imitation of God. Many, indeed, would argue that such a thought is little short of presumptuous folly. Moreover, even when the imitation of God is regarded as man's chief and proper endeavour, the fact remains that a nation's character is determined not by certain merely traditional and abstract ideas of Deity, but by the quality of its faith in the reality of God. With these qualificatio

Benson Commentary Psalm 96:1 O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. Psalm 96:1-3 . O sing unto the Lord a new song — Upon this new and great occasion, not the removal of the ark, wherein there was nothing new but an inconsiderable circumstance of place, but the coming of the Messiah, the confirming of the new covenant by his blood, and the calling of the Gentiles; bless and praise the name of the Lord, by singing a new, that is, an excellent song, the product of new affections, clothed with new expressions. Show forth his salvation from day to day — That great work of the redemption and salvation of the world by the Messiah. Declare his glory among the heathen — You who shall be appointed his messengers to the Gentile nations, and all you who shall be called out of those nations to the knowledge of God and of Christ, publish this glorious and wonderful work to all the heathen among whom you live, or to whom you may come. Psalm 96:2 Sing unto the LORD, bless his name; shew forth his salvation from day to day. Psalm 96:3 Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people. Psalm 96:4 For the LORD is great, and greatly to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods. Psalm 96:4-6 . For the Lord — Hebrew, Jehovah, is great — Infinite in his nature and attributes; and greatly to be praised — All our most exalted praises fall infinitely short of his greatness. He is to be feared above all gods — The gods of the heathen, as the next words expound it. For all the gods of the nations are idols — Or, nothing, as they are called 1 Corinthians 8:4 ; 1 Corinthians 10:19 ; and, as ?????? , elilim, here rendered idols, signifies; or, vain things, as others translate the word. The sense is, Though they have usurped the name and place of the Divine Majesty, yet they have nothing of his nature or power in them. Honour and majesty are before him — That is, in his presence, like beams shot from his face, who is the Sun of righteousness. There is an inconceivable glory and majesty in his countenance, and in the place of his presence. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary — Or, in his holy place; that is, where he records his name, and vouchsafes his presence, there are the manifestations of his power and grace, or goodness, and of all his perfections. Psalm 96:5 For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens. Psalm 96:6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Psalm 96:7 Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength. Psalm 96:7-9 . Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people — O ye people, from whatsoever family ye come, or, O ye nations of the world, Give unto the Lord glory and strength — Ascribe to Jehovah that incomparable majesty, and supreme dominion and authority, which you have been wont to give to your imaginary gods. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name — Renouncing all your idols, acknowledge Jehovah alone to be the omnipotent king of all the world, and do him honour suitable to the excellence of his majesty. Bring an offering, and come into his courts — The courts of his house. Bring him an oblation, in token of your subjection to him; and humbly worship him in his temple. He speaks of the worship of the New Testament under the expressions of the Jewish worship, as the prophets elsewhere do: see Malachi 1:11 . O worship the Lord — O come and cast yourselves down before the Lord, in the beauty of holiness — In his sanctuary, where he hath fixed his glorious residence among us; or, rather, being clothed with all those holy ornaments, those gifts and graces, which are necessary and required in God’s worship. Fear before him, all the earth — Let all the people approach his presence with a holy fear and sacred reverence, standing in awe of, and dreading to offend, their sovereign Lord and King. Psalm 96:8 Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts. Psalm 96:9 O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth. Psalm 96:10 Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously. Psalm 96:10 . Say among the heathen — You converted Gentiles, declare to those who yet remain in the darkness of heathenism; that the Lord reigneth — That God hath now fixed his throne, and set up his kingdom in the world. The world also shall be established, &c. — And, as that kingdom shall never be destroyed, but shall stand for ever, Daniel 2:44 , so the nations of the world shall, by the means of it, enjoy an established and lasting peace: see Psalm 72:3 ; Psalm 72:7 ; Isaiah 9:6-7 ; Isaiah 66:12 ; Zechariah 9:10 . He shall judge the people righteously — He shall not abuse his almighty power and established dominion to the oppression of his people, as other princes frequently do, but shall govern them by the rules of justice and equity, which is the only foundation of a true and solid peace: see Isaiah 32:17 . Psalm 96:11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Psalm 96:11-12 . Let the heavens rejoice, &c. — These verses are a poetical description of the great causes of joy which this kingdom of Christ would bring to the world. The heavens, and earth, and sea, and trees, and fields, are here put together according to the Scripture style, to denote the whole world, which is here represented as being in a state of the greatest felicity, and as testifying its joy and thankfulness in the most lively and striking manner possible. “Transported,” says Dr. Horne, “with a view of these grand events, and beholding in spirit the advent of King Messiah, the psalmist exults in most jubilant and triumphant strains, calling the whole creation to break forth into joy, and to celebrate the glories of redemption. The heavens, with the innumerable orbs fixed in them, which, while they roll and shine, declare the glory of beatified saints; the earth, which, made fertile by celestial influences, showeth the work of grace on the hearts of men here below; the field which, crowned with a produce of a hundred- fold, displays an emblem of the fruit yielded by the seed of the Word in the church; the trees of the wood, lofty, verdant, and diffusive, apt representatives of holy persons, those trees of righteousness, the planting of Jehovah, Isaiah 61:3 , whose examples are eminent, fair, and extensive; all these are, by the prophet, excited to join in a chorus of thanksgiving to the Maker and Redeemer of the world.” Psalm 96:12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice Psalm 96:13 Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth. Psalm 96:13 . Before the Lord — At the presence and approach of their Lord and Maker. For he cometh to judge the earth — To take to himself that power and authority which belong to him, and to set up his throne and dominion above all the nations of the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness — He shall reform the earth, and govern mankind by righteous and merciful laws; and the people with his truth — Or, in his faithfulness; that is, so as he has promised to do. He will certainly and abundantly fulfil all his promises made to his people, and faithfully keep his word with all those that observe his commandments. “The coming of Christ,” says the last-mentioned author, “is two-fold; first, he came to sanctify the creature, and he will come again to glorify it. Either of his kingdoms, that of grace or that of glory, may be signified by his judging the world in righteousness and truth. If creation be represented as rejoicing at the establishment of the former, how much greater will be the joy at the approach of the latter, seeing that notwithstanding Christ be long since come in the flesh, though he be ascended into heaven, and have sent the Spirit from thence, yet the whole creation, as the apostle speaks, Romans 8:22 , groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, expecting to be delivered from the bondage of corruption, &c., yea, we ourselves also, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of the body; when, at the renovation of all things, man, new made, shall return to the days of his youth, to begin an immortal spring, and be for ever young.” Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 96:1 O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth. Psalm 96:1-13 THE praise of Jehovah as King has, in the preceding psalms, chiefly celebrated His reign over Israel. But this grand coronation anthem takes a wider sweep, and hymns that kingdom as extending to all nations, and as reaching beyond men, for the joy and blessing of a renovated earth. It fails into four strophes, of which the first three contain three verses each, while the last extends to four. These strophes are like concentric circles, drawn round that eternal throne. The first summons Israel to its high vocation of Jehovah’s evangelist, the herald who proclaims the enthronement of the King. The second sets Him above all the "Nothings" which usurp the name of gods, and thus prepares the way for His sole monarchy. The third summons outlying nations to bring their homage, and flings open the Temple gates to all men, inviting them to put on priestly robes, and do priestly acts there. The fourth calls on Nature in its heights and depths, heaven and earth, sea, plain, and forest, to add their acclaim to the shouts which hall the establishment of Jehovah’s visible dominion. The song is to be new, because a new manifestation of Jehovah’s Kinghood has wakened once more the long-silent harps, which had been hung on the willows of Babylon. The psalm is probably a lyric echo of the Restoration, in which the prophet singer sees the beginning of Jehovah’s world wide display of His dominion. He knew not how many weary years were to pass in a weary and God-defying world, before his raptures became facts. But though His vision tarries, His song is no over-heated imagining, which has been chilled down for succeeding generations into a baseless hope. The perspective of the world’s chronology hid from him the deep valley between His standpoint and the fulfilment of his glowing words. Mankind still marches burdened, down among the mists, but it marches towards the sunlit heights. The call to sing a new song is quoted from Isaiah 42:10 .The word in Psalm 96:2 b rendered "publish glad tidings" is also a favourite word with Isaiah II. ( Isaiah 40:9 , Isaiah 52:7 , etc.). Psalm 96:3 a closely resembles Isaiah 66:19 . The second strophe is full of allusions to earlier psalms and prophets. The new manifestation of Jehovah’s power has vindicated His supremacy above the vanities which the peoples call gods, and has thereby given new force to old triumphant words which magnified His exalted name. Long ago a psalmist had sung, after a signal defeat of assailants of Jerusalem, that God was "great and greatly to be praised," { Psalm 48:1 } and this psalmist makes the old words new. "Dread" reminds us of Psalm 47:2 . The contemptuous name of the nation’s gods as "Nothings" is frequent in Isaiah. The heavens, which roof over all the earth, declare to every land Jehovah’s creative power, and His supremacy above all gods. But the singer’s eye pierces their abysses, and sees some gleams of that higher sanctuary of which they are but the floor. There stand Honour and Majesty, Strength and Beauty. The psalmist does not speak of "attributes." His vivid imagination conceives of these as servants, attending on Jehovah’s royal state. Whatsoever things are lovely, and whatsoever are august, are at home in that sanctuary. Strength and beauty are often separated in a disordered world, and each is maimed thereby, but, in their perfection, they are indissolubly blended. Men call many things strong and fair which have no affinity with holiness; but the archetypes of both excellences are in the Holy Place, and any strength which has not its roots there is weakness, and any beauty which is not a reflection from "the beauty of the Lord our God" is but a mask concealing ugliness. The third strophe builds on this supremacy of Jehovah, whose dwelling place is the seat of all things worthy to be admired, the summons to all nations to render praise to Him. It is mainly a variation of Psalm 29:1-2 , where the summons is addressed to angels. Here "the families of the peoples" are called on to ascribe to Jehovah "glory and strength," or "the glory of His name," ( i.e. of His character as revealed). The call presupposes a new manifestation of His Kingship as conspicuous and earth shaking as the thunderstorm of the original psalm. As in it the "sons of God" were called to worship in priestly garb, so here still more emphatically, Gentile nations are invited to assume the priestly office, to "take an offering and come into His courts." The issue of Jehovah’s manifestation of kingly sway will be that Israel’s prerogative of priestly access to Him will be extended to all men, and that the lowly worship of earth will have characteristics which assimilate it to that of the elder brethren who ever stand before Him, and also characteristics which distinguish it from that, and are necessary while the worshippers are housed in flesh. Material offerings and places consecrated to worship belong to earth. The "sons of God" above have them not, for they need them not. The last strophe has four verses, instead of the normal three. The psalmist’s chief purpose in it is to extend his summons for praise to the whole creation; but he cannot refrain from once more ringing out the glad tidings for which praise is to be rendered. He falls back in Psalm 96:10 on Psalm 93:1 and Psalm 9:8 . In his quotation from the former psalm, he brings more closely together the thoughts of Jehovah’s reign and the fixity of the world, whether that is taken with a material reference, or as predicting the calm perpetuity of the moral order established by His merciful rule and equitable judgment. The thought that inanimate nature will share in the joy of renovated humanity inspires many glowing prophetic utterances, eminently those of Isaiah-as e.g., Isaiah 35:1-10 . The converse thought, that it shared in the consequences of man’s sin, is deeply stamped on the Genesis narrative. The same note is struck with unhesitating force in Romans 8:1-39 , and elsewhere in the New Testament. A poet invests Nature with the hues of his own emotions, but this summons of the psalmist is more than poetry. How the transformation is to be effected is not revealed, but the consuming fires will refine, and at last man will have a dwelling place where environment will correspond to character, where the external will image the inward state, where a new form of the material will be the perpetual ally of the spiritual, and perfected manhood will walk in a "new heaven and new earth, where dwelleth righteousness." In the last verse of the psalm, the singer appears to extend his prophetic gaze from the immediate redeeming act by which Jehovah assumes royal majesty, to a still future "coming," in which He will judge the earth. "The accession is a single act; the judging is a continual process. Note that ‘judging’ has no terrible sound to a Hebrew" (Cheyne, in loc. ). Psalm 96:13 c is again a verbatim quotation from Psalm 9:8 . The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.