Many of the Psalms are calls to praise. I reflected recently on how Psalm 96 calls us to praise God when I was asked to read it as the call to worship at the beginning of the worship service.
Though a short psalm, it is big in scope and extent of worship that should be offered unto God. I observed first of all that the psalm may be divided into three types of praise: 1) Sing and say (v. 1-6), 2) Ascribe (v. 7-10), and 3) Nature resound (v.11-13).
After reading it several times to myself I mused on the question, what do we praise God for? First and foremost, we praise Him for His person as described in His attributes. Who He is, is totally sufficient for our praise to Him. Secondly, we praise Him for His works. There are many categories of His works that help us to focus our praise: His works in creation, the peoples of the earth, His own, in heaven eternally as well as preparing us a place, His sovereignty in the universe, and on it could go. Thirdly, we should praise Him for His name which represents in concept and use His glory and power. Fourthly, we should praise Him for His holiness. You may react that this is just separating out one of His attributes for focus. But holiness, that separateness from His creation, His otherness, speaks of the perfections of His attributes. By this I mean that I think that holiness is an attribute of His attributes. Is He good? Infinitely so, utterly holy in His goodness. Is He strong? Beyond imagination, a holy power in His person. Each of these reasons to praise Him could be expanded in sermons and books, and of course have been. Psalm 96 praises God directly in all of these ways (1).
At my first several readings of Psalm 96, three terms jumped out at me. The first one was “ascribe” (2) in verses 7 and 8. A few other English translations use “give”, but ascribe seems the better and stronger word, because it denotes the acknowledgement of the Source of all glory and strength in the world spoken of in the verses.
The term in verse 9 is “holy attire”, a much more problematic translation. It seems that the Hebrew is vague on the antecedent of the holy attire (3). Does the Hebrew word, hadarah which means “adornment, glory” (4) refer to God’s covering or the worshippers or even the site of worship, the temple? Many translations choose God and translate it “splendor of holiness” (NIV, ESV, HCSB) or “beauty of holiness” (KJV). Two older versions chose “glorious sancturary” (1599 Geneva) or “holy hall” (Wycliffe). Other than the NASB, its older precursor translates it “holy array” (American Standard Version). I would be remiss not to mention a certain conservative bias (5) in the following discussion due to a nearly life-long use of the NASB. I think that the immediate context of “holy attire” supports the strong possibility that it is the intention of the writer. The worshipper is commanded to ascribe glory and strength to God and glory to His name (v.7-8). As a part of this worship the worshipper is urged to “bring an offering and come into His courts.” (v.8b) It follows then that the worshipper should have an attitude of reverence in all respects for this God of glory and power including how he dresses. And furthermore, the actual presenter of the offering was required to wear “the holy garments for Aaron the priest and the garments of his sons, to minister as priests.” (Exodus 39:41) They did not wear these garments apart from ministering, as Ezekiel 42:14 says, “When the priests enter, then they shall not go out into the outer court from the sanctuary without laying there their garments in which they minister, for they are holy. They shall put on other garments; then they shall approach that which is for the people.”
The third term that arrested my attention was “equity” in verse 10. It is a word very near fairness in our modern thinking. Other translations render it “righteously” (KJV) or “fairly” (HCSB). The word means “evenness, uprightness, equity” (6). Any accusation that God is not fair in His judgments of men’s sins is wholly false. He always has done and will do rightly. It is a parallel idea in the moral realm to “He reigns” and the “world is firmly established” in the verse.
The overflow of praise in this psalm ends with Creation praising Him in the future when He comes again to judge the earth. Why would the Creation praise Him for this act done to people? I think that we can glean the answer from Romans 8:19-22 where it says, “For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 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. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now.” Creation will rejoice at His coming, so should we. Our great God will return for His own and set all things right in “righteousness” and “faithfulness”. (v.13)
Let us not be silent in our praise for our great and good God.
- Verse 8a does enjoin the worshipper to ascribe glory to His name. Furthermore, there is implied praise for His name by the singular use of LORD, YHWH the covenant keeping God revealed to Moses, eleven times in the thirteen verses and six of those times in two triplets (v.1 and 7-8). For more direct praise of His name, see Psalms 7, 66, and 68 to name but a few.
- I study and memorize from the NASB.
- I am told that the Hebrew language is notoriously vague. My first strong realization of this fact came in the writing of a song I composed whose chorus comes from Psalm 90:12. My chorus says, “Help us count our days so we give to You a heart of wisdom.” When I sang it for a former pastor, he admonished me that the verse said, “that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (NIV). In the NASB from which I wrote the song it says, “that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.” Do we give or gain? The Hebrew is ambiguous. Could it be both? Could it have been intended to be both? Or do we not have native language context to discern which one it is?
- “New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, p.1510, entry 1927a.
- or preference bias if you are considering science rather than psychology.
- “New American Standard Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible”, p.1548, entry 4339.
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