Reflections based on Psalm 96:1–13.

This psalm may well have been written by David, as it sounds similar to a hymn of praise he wrote in 1 Chronicles. It is a call to the people of Israel to declare the majesty and wonder of God to all the nations surrounding them. It is all about worshipping God because of ‘the splendour of his holiness’ (v9). As in previous passages, we see various attributes of God listed, such as His glory, splendour and majesty. What is interesting is how the psalmist tells the earth to ‘tremble before him’ in verse 9. This is another aspect of God’s holiness: it should cause us to honour Him with a reverential awe.

God’s holiness is absolute – and His wrath, or judgement, comes out of His desire to preserve that holiness in the world. However, this sort of language is not fashionable these days; we don’t often talk about wrath, judgement and awe very much, do we? And yet, even back in the 1960s, AW Tozer recognised that when we allow human trends and opinion to colour our understanding, then we lose something of our understanding of holiness/God. In his book The Knowledge of the Holy, Tozer said: ‘The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men… With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine presence.’

How fully we worship God is based on our knowledge and understanding of Him – we are called in today’s reading to reflect on how awesome God is and to ‘ascribe’ or give Him the kind of worship that He deserves. Why not give over some time to do this today?

Prayer: Lord, forgive me that I don’t always seek to understand Your character more fully. I see how it informs my worship. Help me to take the time to learn more about You. Amen.