Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

Psalm 96. This is a hymn celebrating how God's kingship over all creation (see note on Psalm 93) means that all kinds of people should love and worship him. The psalm has three sections, each beginning with a command ("sing," 96:1; "ascribe," v. 7; "say," v. 10), and each mentioning the Gentiles ("all the earth," "the nations," and "the peoples" in vv. 1-6; "families of the peoples" and "all the earth" in vv. 7-9; and "the nations," "the peoples," and "the world" in vv. 10-13). God called Israel to be a vehicle of blessing for all mankind, bringing them knowledge of the true God for whom all human beings yearn, and this psalm keeps this mission prominent in the Israelites' view of the world and their role in it. Verses 8-9 even call the Gentiles to join Israel in their worship in God's courts. The psalm looks forward to a time when the Lord will come and judge all peoples with equity, without specifying how this will take place. The term "judge" is probably not limited to sifting between the righteous and the unrighteous; the wider sense of "execute justice, rule justly" fits the context better (cf. Isa. 2:4; 11:3-4). Thus the psalm is more focused on a time in which Gentiles acknowledge the true God, and the benefits that will bring to all the earth, than it is on the final judgment. Christians sing this, knowing that God has ushered in this long-awaited epoch with the resurrection of Jesus (see note on Isa. 11:3-4). This psalm appears in 1 Chron. 16:23-33, indicating that the people sang an adaptation (or perhaps an early edition) of it when David brought the ark to Jerusalem.

96:1-6 Sing to the Lord All the Earth, for He Is Great! The psalm begins by calling the inhabitants of all the earth to sing to the Lord. The activities (sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation; cf. praised and feared) all describe the privilege of Israelite worship in God's sanctuary; here the Gentiles are invited to join in (see also vv. 8-9).