Psalm 96 ~ Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it

Psalm 96

Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!
2 Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

4 For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols,
but the Lord made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before him;
strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

7 Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples,
ascribe to the Lord glory and strength!
8 Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
bring an offering, and come into his courts!
9 Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; ^{[holy attire]}
tremble before him, all the earth!

10 Say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!
Yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved;
he will judge the peoples with equity.”

11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.

This week we decided was a good time to start working on the tree.  After kids start growing up, they are not as in love with the idea of a Christmas tree. Matter of fact to bring up the Christmas Tree starts everyone, except me, groaning about the tree. And after a couple of years of trying to build the thing with the numbers falling off of the branches, I make sure we take a shot at dividing up the tree decorating. We start with the bargaining of boxes and then get to the nitty gritty. My husband does a good job with the lights, but that usually involves buying more lights and some loud discussion. Loud Discussion.

So that brought down my oldest son. Who observed the loud discussion with some humor. As he wiped that off his face, he said, "Dad, I can solve this for you.  And you will never have to do this again."  My husband paused, this sounded good. "You only have to do one thing." What ~ we wondered as we turned to look at Cal. "You just have to embrace Judaism."  My husband was not amused. But Cal and I laughed harder and harder.

And actually this is a pretty good analogy for Psalm 96.

Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness; ^{[holy attire]}

We treat the Lord pretty casually these days. We arrive with our kids in wrinkled clothes. We might not arrive on time. We might have fast food on the way home. I actually know a pretty good joke. (This woman has an electric, of course, window in her car go out. And she checks on the price $350 for a .50c plastic part. So she decides not to. And then the next window goes out and the next. So she has a car with three windows that aren't working. And finally her driver's window won't go down. And she says to the mechanic can you fix this window. He says, "Lady, what about the other three windows?" She replies, "Don't You Understand!?" "What?"The Mechanic asks.  She replies, "I Feed My Family From That Window!!.")

Worship is Worship. Render to God the things that are God's. Acknowledge His Holiness and stand in awe. Let Wonder be inspiring. 


Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness,
and the peoples in his faithfulness.





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