An overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson of Psalm 96:1-13, for Sunday, June 22, 2025, with the title ‘God’s Reign.” A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

??? What’s your favorite worship song/hymn???

(There are so many fantastic worship songs, it’s hard to say I have one. One of my favorite new songs is “All My Hope Is In Jesus,” by the Gettys; one of my favorite hymns is “O Worship the King, all glorious above …”.

You/your group can share your, and then transition to today’s lesson by saying something like: our Psalm for today opens with a 3-fold command to “Sing … sing … sing” to the Lord!

ALTERNATE INTRODUCTION:
After Constantine had made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 300s A.D., he died, and his nephew Julian became emperor — but Julian “reversed course” and tried to re-establish paganism. “The church historians of that period tell us that the psalm commonly sung by Christians during the reign of Julian was the 96th.” I think we will see today why they might have chosen Psalm 96 during this time, as it points to how God is the King and Judge of the whole earth! 

CONTEXT:

We continue our study in Psalms this quarter by looking at Psalm 96 this Sunday. Psalm 96 does not tell us its author, or give us an occasion for its writing, like some of the Psalms do, but interestingly, Psalm 96 is quoted in I Chronicles 16:23-33, when David bring the Ark of the Covenant back from Kiriath-Jearim, after it had been sent back by the Philistines. If you remember, Yahweh made it clear in that episode that He was not only the God of Israel, but that the Philistines and their gods were subject to Him as well (as the Philistine gods fell before the Ark with their hands cut off! I Samuel 5). The rule of YHWH over ALL the earth, as its Creator and Judge, and the duty of ALL to praise Him, is the theme of Psalm 96.

OUTLINE:

I. The COMMAND to Praise the LORD (:1-3)

II. REASONS to Praise the LORD: (:4-6)

III. WHO is to Praise the LORD (:7-10)

IV. The JUDGMENT that Praises the LORD (:11-13)

TEXT:  Psalm 96:1-13

I. The COMMAND To Praise the LORD:

:1 “Sing to the LORD a new song;
    Sing to the LORD, all the earth.

2 Sing to the LORD, bless His name;
Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

3 Tell of His glory among the nations,
His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.

As we mentioned in the introduction, Psalm 96 begins with a very prominent, 3-FOLD COMMAND to SING! Notice several things about this, right out of the text:

— Singing is a COMMAND! All three of these are imperative verbs, so we are repeatedly commanded: SING! 

— Second, we are sing “TO THE LORD” — this is important. Joseph Ellis in his book American Sphinx, says that Thomas Jefferson was known for always singing to himself. Many people do that. But that is NOT what this command is about. We aren’t just to “sing to ourselves,” or “sing to the air,” or even sing “to one another.” We are to sing TO THE LORD”! 

(NOTICE: that “LORD” here is in all caps, in the Old Testament that means that in the Hebrew text this is not “Adonai” or “Lord,” but “YWHW,” or “Yahweh,” the personal name of God. It is not just “any” god we are to sing to, but THIS God; YAHWEH God, the God of Moses and Israel; the God of the Bible; the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to sing to THIS God!)

We need to make sure that what we are doing is singing TO THE LORD, especially in our church worship times. Don’t just sing to the music leader, or the person in front of you; sing to GOD! And in our own personal worship times too, make sure you are singing to HIM. Singing is one of the primary ways we are to worship God — but it is only worship if we are purposefully singing “to the LORD,” like this scripture indicates. God loves to hear us sing. He is our great “audience of one.” Sing to Him! 

— “a new song” Some of us may not like this, but God commands us to sing a NEW song to YHWH! Why might this be? Songs represent things that we learn, appreciate, and experience about God. This is why many of us have an attachment to an old song: it represents to us a time and an experience that we had with God. And that is GOOD, make no mistake about it! Keep singing those. BUT we also need to understand that if we are walking with God, we will continue to have new experiences with Him, which will be reflected in new songs. If all we sing are old songs, we may not be as current in our walk with God as we should be. We should also be constantly adding new ones, as we learn more about Him with whom there is always something new to learn, and have new experiences with Him who never grows old and stale. So keep growing in Him, and sing new songs that reflect that. 

— “ALL THE EARTH” is to sing (we’ll see more of this later; YHWH is God of the whole earth …

— “bless His name” — again, you aren’t singing just to make yourself feel good; you are singing for the purpose of “blessing the name of YHWH,” to lift Him up. It’s not about us; it’s about Him! 

Then after this 3-fold command to sing, we find that we are commanded to TELL others about Him:

— “Proclaim good tidings of His salvation”

— “Tell of His glory among the nations; His wondrous deeds among the peoples” (There’s that Hebrew synonymous parallelism again: saying the same thing in a slightly different way, which is their poetry)

Notice a couple of things about this:

— Telling others about God is way of praising Him. And indeed an important way. When you are really impressed with someone or something, you tell others about them. That sharing is high praise. Are we praising God that way, by telling others about Him?

— And then :2b says we are to proclaim about His salvation “from day to day.” Every day we are to be talking about Him; not just “once in a blue moon.”

??? A good evaluation question here might be:  When is the last time I have spoken to anyone about the Lord and what He has done???

— Then it also says we are to tell of His glory “among the nations/the peoples.” This sharing about God isn’t just for Israel; this is for all the world to hear (as we will see very clearly in Point III).  

II. REASONS To Praise the LORD (:4-6)

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 idols,
But the LORD made the heavens.

6 Splendor and majesty are before Him,
Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

The word “FOR” that opens this section in :4 indicates that what follows it, gives us 3-4 REASONS WHY we should praise God like we saw in :1-3: 

— FOR: “great is YHWH and greatly to be praised.” We should praise YHWH greatly, because He IS great. The Hebrew word here for “greatly,” means “much-ly, with abundance, with force.” The word is even translated “violently” in some places. It means we are to praise God fervently, because He really is such a great God! 

This is a challenge to many of us: are we really praising God as fervently as we should? Are we excited to worship Him? Do we sing out with all our heart? If we don’t, it shows we probably don’t really “get” how great our God really is!

ILLUSTRATION:

Many of you know my wife Cheryl had a debilitating stroke last August, and lost the use of most of her left side. Many of you have been praying for her — and please keep those up; God is working. I posted on Facebook last week a video of Cheryl at rehab, doing “curls” with her left arm, like you’d do with weights. It was amazing, and such a big step forward that she could do that with her left, affected arm! I gushed all about it, took a video of it, and posted it, and so on. But later Cheryl said, I told you the week before that I was doing that, but you didn’t get all excited about it. I said, That must have been one of those “husband moments,” because I definitely did not really “get” that; I got excited when I really saw and understood just how great a step forward that was!

(You are free to share my story if you’d like, or maybe you can share one from your own experience, about a time someone was not as excited as they should be about something, because they just didn’t “get it”!)

The point is, that is how many of us often are with the Lord, too. We aren’t very excited about worship — and what that shows, is that we probably aren’t really “getting” just Who He is, and what all He has done for us. Psalm 96 says that when we really understand how great He is, then we will “greatly, much-ly, with abundance — even with force! — praise Him!

Like Psalm 150: says, “Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness.” Praise Him for WHAT He’s done; and praise Him for WHO He is. We see some more of these reasons to praise Him in the next verses:

—:4b-5 says: “He is to be feared above all gods. (:5) For all the gods of the peoples are idols. But the LORD made the heavens.”

The Bible says here that another reason YHWH is to be praised, is because He is different that all the other gods. They are just “idols” (the Hebrew word is “al-il-im;” it comes from the word “al,” which just means “NOT.” From the word “not” this expression “al-il” came, which means “worthless, good for nothing.” And it specifically came to refer to idols! They are “good for nothing”!
+x Isaiah 44:19, “No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, “I have burned half of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!”

That is what idols are: they are “a block of wood,” or metal, or ceramic, or whatever. They can’t do anything for you! 

But contrast that with YHWH, Psalm 96 says. “But YHWH made the heavens”! HUGE difference! Those idols can do nothing. God made the heavens and the earth, as Genesis 1 tells us. He merely said “let there be light,” and there was light.

God asked Job in Job 38:4 & 7, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth … (:7) when the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God shouted for joy?”

When the angels saw what God did, when “all the lights came on” in the universe, they all “shouted for joy”! THAT is why God is to be praised! He made the heavens! 

It’s like the great song says: 

“O Lord my God, when I in awesome wonder, consider all the worlds Thy hands have made. I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder; Thy pow’r throughout the universe displayed — then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great Thou art”!  

We praise YHWH, the One True God, because He’s not just an idol; He actually made the heavens and the earth, and His glory is displayed there, as we saw last time in Psalm 19. 

— And don’t miss the reasons found in :6! “Splendor and majesty are before Him, Strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.”

May God help us to even begin to try convey the meaning of this! God is to be praised, because He is so glorious! 

— “Splendor” in Hebrew means an imposing form or appearance, like a king has. It is used of the dazzling glory of God in Psalm 104:1 and others.

— “Majesty” means “magnificence, honor, splendor, majesty”

— “Strength” Hebrew “oz” (long o) is “might, power.”

— “Beauty” Hebrew “tipharah” means “beauty or glory.” 

I think it is very instructive to us that the combination of “strength” and “beauty” is found here. “Oz” is short word, powerful, reminds me of an “ox.” (Interestingly; it is a “masculine” noun.) So God is strong; He is all-powerful, omnipotent. But some things that are strong, are brutal, ugly. Not so with God; He is all-powerful — but He is also glorious and beautiful! 

On the other hand, the Hebrew word “tipharah” just sounds beautiful, doesn’t it? (Might be a good name for a girl — and it is, by the way, a “feminine noun”!)  But isn’t it fascinating that Psalm 96 tells us that God has both “oz” and “tipharah” before Him; both strength, and beauty?! 

Think of it in this way: Genesis 1 says that God created us, male and female, in His image. Men are strong; women are beautiful. Women are attracted to the strength of men; and men to the beauty of women. But Psalm 96 says God has both strength and beauty in His sanctuary: in other words, HE is the ultimate attraction! Whatever you are looking for, is to be found and satisfied in Him. It’s just like Psalm 16:11 says: “In Your presence is fullness of joy; in Your right hand there are pleasures forever.” God is to be praised, because He is splendid and majestic, powerful and beautiful. Everything we want or need, is found in Him, and we will be satisfied forever in His presence. THAT, Psalm 96:4-6 says, is WHY we are to praise the Lord!

Now this next section is central to the meaning of Psalm 96:

III. WHO is to Praise the LORD:

7 “Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
  Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.

8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory of His name;
Bring an [e]offering and come into His courts.

9 Worship the LORD in [f]holy attire;
Tremble before Him, all the earth.

10 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns;
Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will

not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity.”

WHO is to praise the LORD? This section makes it clear, doesn’t it? The WHOLE EARTH is to praise Him. One way to point this out to your class is by using the following exercise:

EXERCISE: 

Pass out a photocopied page of Psalm 96, and instruct your group to circle every reference to “nations, peoples, earth, world,” etc.

(There are MANY: 

— :1 “all the earth”

— :3 “the nations … the peoples”

— :5 “the peoples”

— :7 “the peoples”

— :9 “all the earth”

— :10 “the nations … the world …. the peoples”

— :11 “the earth”

— :13 “the earth … the world … the peoples”

All in all, at least THIRTEEN references to how all the nations, peoples, earth, world, are to worship YHWH. The point being, YHWH is God of the WHOLE WORLD!

+x scriptures:

— In Genesis 12:3, when God first called Abram, He told him: “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” God’s plan from the beginning was to reach every nation for Him.

— Psalm 100:1 “Shout to YHWH all the earth …”. The whole world is to praise Yahweh!

— In Matthew 28:19, Jesus gave the Great Commission: “Go, and make disciples of ALL the nations …”. 

— Revelation 5:9 says: “Worthy are You to take the [j]book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

From first to last, from Genesis to Revelation, from Abraham to Jesus, God’s plan is that the whole world would worship Him. 

As God tells His Messiah in Isaiah 49:6, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” 

YHWH is God of the universe! It’s too small a thing for Him to be praised in Israel only; or by any one country only. He must be praised by all the peoples of the world! This is the command to international missions that Israel missed, when they hated the Gentiles and called them “Gentile dogs.” Let us not miss it as well. Our God is so great; He is worthy of being praised by the whole world. So as His people, let’s do all we can to tell the whole world about Him!

One good application you can make here is to talk about International Missions, and especially evangelizing Unreached People Groups (UPGs) through our Southern Baptist International Mission Board. You might talk about missionaries you know, or that your church supports, and encourage everyone to give/pray/go to support this work of leading all the nations to worship the Lord, just as Psalm 96 says.

For some resources you might go to the imb.org website, the home of our SBC International Mission Board, where you can get news, stories, and statistics about foreign missions to share Sunday:

— like this map of The Global Status of Evangelical Christianity, at https://grd.imb.org/wp-content/uploads/gsec-page-map.pdf

— a great place to go is:   https://www.imb.org/pray/  where you can download the IMB PRAY app, find daily missions prayer requests from SBC mission spots all over the world, and get a daily missions prayer email.

Spend some time on that IMB website, and you may find something that is useful to you personally, as well as something to share with your group Sunday.

Then you could lead into the next section with this

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What are some of the WAYS these verses tell us that the world is to worship God?”

(— give Him glory (:7-8a) Many translations say “Ascribe to YHWH glory and strength; the old King James has it right with the word “give.” It just means “give Him glory;” ascribe/credit to Him the glory due to His name!

— :8b “come before Him” — gather to worship before Him.

— :8b “bring an offering” +x Deuteronomy 16:16b-17 “They shall not appear before the Lord empty-handed. 17 Every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you.” 

— :9 “worship YHWH in the beauty of holiness” — this is an interesting term: “the beauty of holiness.” And you should know this term is somewhat disputed in its specific meaning: Does “worship in the beauty of holiness” refer to HIS holiness, or to the holiness of His people? Some translations have put their own “spin” or interpretation on it, for example:

NIV = “the beauty of HIS holiness”

NASB = “in holy attire” — so they think it’s OUR holiness.

At first blush, you might think “Well, this must obviously refer to God’s holiness, not ours!” but when you investigate it, there are reasons to believe otherwise. There are several Old Testament passages that use this phrase, that you could take either way. But Psalm 110:3 seems to settle it: “Your people will volunteer freely in the day of Your power; IN HOLY ARRAY, from the womb of the dawn, Your youth are to You as the dew.” THIS IS OBVIOUSLY SPEAKING OF THE HOLY ARRAY OF GOD’S PEOPLE.

SO it IS “the beauty of holiness” in which God’s PEOPLE are to come before Him. Our holiness is beautiful to Him. That should be our highest motivation. You WANT to be attractive to the One you love.

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

What are some things that men/women do to be attractive to the opposite sex?

(You/your group can share all kinds of things: dress nicely, put on makeup, “muscle up,” etc.)

But then say: If we as believers want to be “attractive” to God, we should put on HOLINESS. “Come before Him in the beauty of holiness”! Your holiness makes you attractive to God!

(Now we might also point out that Psalm 149:4b “He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation” — so as we know, God GIVES to us the righteousness of Christ in salvation — so again, it’s ALL really “His” holiness which He has given us anyway. But this is a very interesting, and very challenging term! 

— :9 “tremble before Him” — give Him the reverence and awe that He is due

— :10 “SAY among the nations, ‘YHWH reigns’” In other words, speak of Him before others. Witness to Him with your words. Talk about Him out in the world.”

(I’ll admit I’m not always the best at this, but last week I was able to share with an auto mechanic who was giving me a ride home from the shop, how God really really answered our prayers by getting us this house …”. 

DISCUSSION: 

You/your group might share different opportunities that you have had. Talk about God; use Biblical expressions like “Lord willing,” out in the world. Just speaking of Him out in the world can be one of the best ways of worshipping Him. 

IV. The JUDGMENT that Praises the LORD (:11-13)

11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, and all it contains;

12 Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy

13 Before the LORD, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness.”

Verses 11-13 just speak of how the whole creation anticipates the coming of the Lord, and His judgment to make all things right. (Reminds me of Romans 8:19-21, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, [i]in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” The heavens/earth/oceans/trees all rejoice at the coming of the Lord!

— TWICE :13 emphasizes: “For He is coming … for He is coming”!

— And what will He DO when He comes? TWICE here in :13, “He is coming to JUDGE the earth. He will JUDGE the world in righteousness …” It’s the same Hebrew word in both cases,  “Shaphat,” to judge 

“Judge” also has the meaning of “to govern,” or “lead.” The point  is, YHWH will rule ALL the peoples of the earth, not only Israel.

He is not just some “territorial god,” but the Lord of the whole earth! All the world is accountable to Him. We need that point re-emphasized today, because so many have the attitude: You have your God, other nations have theirs; just leave them to their ways. But God is not just the “American God” or limited in any way geographically. He is the Creator of the whole world, as :5 indicated. He made it all! And the whole world is accountable to Him. He will judge the whole world, and everyone in it.

NOTICE also this term: “He will judge the peoples in His faithfulness.” Some translations use the word “truth” instead of “faithfulness.” The Hebrew word here is literally His “firmness.” God’s truth is FIRM! It is faithful. It does not change. 

ILLUSTRATION:

“In the early 1950s, (Jimmy Carter) began experiencing doubts about God. He viewed his father’s death as a ‘harsh act’ of ‘the God of the Old Testament, a stern, judge figure, very different from the loving, forgiving Jesus I knew from the Gospels.’ Carter later described this period as a ‘torturous time of searching.’ 

His theological breakthrough came slowly, he said, from an intense period of reading and contemplation. He learned what he considered a simple yet profound truth: God never changed. While he remained a classic New Testament man throughout his life, Carter saw the fusion of the Hebrew Bible and the Gospels as critical. ‘The turning point for me was the realization that there was no difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament, between the perfect love of Jesus and that of God the Creator,’ Carter wrote.” (Jonathan Alter, His Very Best, pp. 138-139)

What Jimmy Carter discovered there is part of the message that Psalm 96 is conveying to us: Yahweh God is to be praised by the whole earth — because He is the God who created the whole earth, and the whole earth and all who dwell in it, will be judged by Him and His unchanging standards of right and wrong. Let’s make sure we are praying, and giving, and going, to share about this glorious God, with all the people He has created! 

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