Psalm Chapter 96

Psalm 96: The New Song All Creation Learns

"O sing unto the Lord a new song" — but why new? The old songs were magnificent. The Psalter is already full of them. What could possibly require a fresh composition? The answer, it seems, is that God's glory is too large for the existing repertoire. "Declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people." This is not a private hymn for the initiated; it is a song meant for export, for the nations, for every kindred of every people. And then the psalm does something extraordinary: it conscripts the whole of creation into the choir. The heavens rejoice, the earth is glad, the sea roars, the field is joyful, and the trees of the wood — the trees! — rejoice before the Lord. One imagines Lewis smiling at this, for he knew that the medieval picture of a singing cosmos was not mere poetry but the truest description of how things actually are. And what is the occasion for all this cosmic jubilation? "For he cometh to judge the earth." We hear "judgment" and flinch. The trees hear it and clap their hands. Perhaps they know something we have forgotten — that the coming of a righteous Judge is not a threat but the best news creation has ever received.

00:00 Sing unto the Lord a New Song
01:00 The Trees of the Wood Rejoice