Sing to Yahweh, praise His name; proclaim His salvation from day to day. Declare His glory among the nations, His wonderful works among all peoples. For the LORD is great and is highly praised; He is feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. (Ps. 96:2-5 CSB)
I fear that all too often our churches are communicating greed, envy, selfishness, immorality, disorderliness, strife, and abuse of authority among the nations rather than the glory of God. Are we singing his praises or our own praises? Are we proclaiming his salvation or our own righteousness?
We certainly know what we ought to be doing; the Scriptures are clear on that. We must be faithful in declaring God’s greatness and the works of Christ among all peoples. And we also know why we must do it. He is the great and only true God, creator of heaven and earth, the forgiver of sins. Furthermore, all the other gods worshiped around the world are worthless idols.
However, our head knowledge doesn’t always translate directly into our actions and behavior. We must be faithful and diligent to obey the Scriptures.
“Declare his glory among the nations” is an imperative we can’t ignore. I don’t want to give an account of my life before the Lord that doesn’t include my role in obeying this command. But it seems like such an immense impossible task; where do we start?
- Pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest (Matt. 9:38).
- Count the cost of being a disciple of Christ (Luke 14:25-33).
- Faithfully serve others starting in your local church (Heb. 10:23-25).
- Obey with joy (Ps. 100:2)!
Don’t forget to obey with joy. Sing his praises! He is the great God, not a tyrant like the gods made by other religions. That is both how and why we proclaim his name among the nations.
Editor’s Note: This article is fourth in a series journeying through the psalms. Read the previous installment here.
