Psalm 96:11-13
If you love God, you will want all men to acknowledge Him as God alone, and to serve Him with all their being. You will, as the psalmist did in Psalm 96:11-13, also declare, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof. Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord: for He cometh, for He cometh to judge the earth; He shall judge the world in righteousness, and the people with His truth."
Of course only man can, as the psalmist wrote in verse 9, worship God in the beauty of holiness. Fields and trees, seas, the sun, moon, and stars cannot rejoice. Consider, however, that in the day when Christ returns and brings forth a new creation, those whom God in His righteous judgment in Christ brings into that creation will use all that inanimate and irrational creation in the fear of reverence and awe before God in all His majesty and glory.
Today most men worship a non-existent god and commit sins which that irrational creation cannot commit. But that new creation will not, the psalmist says, be moved, and that means that it will not be misused, or, if you will, be removed from the service of God, as man has done since he fell into sin. All men in that new creation will use it to glorify God.
This will happen through Christ, for only through Him can there be a righteous judgment that brings man into this service and glory. No wonder is it then that the psalmist began this Psalm with these words: "O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord all the earth."
Shall we not then do this with the words of this versification?
Let heaven and earth be glad; waves of the ocean,
Forest and field exaltation express;
For God is coming, the Judge of the nations,
Coming to judge in His righteousness.
We now live in a vale of tears and sorrow. But a day is coming when there shall be an earth with everlasting joy. For all creation shall through sinless men be directed to God and glorify Him.
Read: Isaiah 65
Psalter versification: #259:6
(Words and Music of the Psalter)
Meditations on the Heidelberg Catechism
Song for Meditation: Psalter #131
Why not sing along??
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Through the Bible in One Year
Read today:
Song of Solomon 1 ; Song of Solomon 2 ; Song of Solomon 3 ; Song of Solomon 4:1-16
2 Corinthians 8:16-24
Psalm 50:1-23
Proverbs 22:22-23
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Quote for Reflection:
"… The reason why God deals with such liberality towards us is, that we may be led to celebrate his praise; but at the same time he condemns our inconstancy, which hurries us away to any other object rather than to God." - John Calvin
Additional Info
- Date: 6-September
Heys, John A.
Rev. John A. Heys was born on March 16, 1910 in Grand Rapids, MI. He was ordained and installed into the ministry at Hope, Walker, MI in 1941. He later served at Hull, Iowa beginning in 1955. In 1959 he accepted the call to serve the South Holland, IL Protestant Reformed Church. He received and accepted the call to Holland, Michigan Protestant Reformed Church in 1967. He retired from the active ministry in 1980. He entered into glory on February 16, 1998.