Song of joy

Like today, most people in ancient times lived independent of God. This psalm calls the whole world to enter into Israel’s covenant relationship with God, as a matter of not religious drudgery, but over-the-top joy.

¹ Shout for joy to Yahveh
all the earth!
² Serve Yahveh joyfully.
Enter his presence with songs of joy.
³ Know that Yahveh alone is God!
He’s the one who made us—
we belong to him.
We’re his people
the flock he shepherds.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
his courts with praise.
Give thanks to him
and praise his name
⁵ because Yahveh is infinitely good.
His unfailing loving endures forever
his faithfulness for all time to come.

Viewing worship and joy as virtual opposites, many today associate serving God with constant slogging to save their souls, threatened by hellfire if they ever let up. Deeply wounded by leaders in toxic churches, some equate pleasing God with false humility, plastic smiles, phony love. Life can be so unfair, religion so distorted. Seeing all the pain and evil around them, some people give up on joy altogether—to seek mere happiness instead.

Biblically, God is the source of all true joy. Our good shepherd’s love and faithfulness never fail. He will yet realize his vision for our race—of a fully renewed cosmos, where loving community, meaning, flow and playfulness are forever one. That’s why he made us and made us his own. He wants us to share his endless joy with him. He’s not indifferent to this world’s evil or injustice. In fact, our Shepherd-king confronted their full force, head-on, and overcame them.[a] That’s the main reason we rejoice.

This psalm focuses on knowing God, who deserves our unqualified submission as both Creator and Good Shepherd.[b] Even life’s darkest, most desperate situations can’t bar us from experiencing joy in our gracious and faithful God. Adding our voices to heaven’s unreservedly joyful worship, we’re lifted above our pain, into the God who is joy itself.

Lord, as the Good Shepherd who laid down your life for your sheep, you overcame evil to redeem me. Since I belong to you, how can I not join the redeemed in bringing you the worship you so richly deserve? Help me to see you as the beautiful God you are and enter in with songs of joy. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

Know that Yahveh alone is God!
He’s the one who made us—we belong to him.
We’re his people, the flock he shepherds.

[a] Yahveh’s defeat of Egypt’s gods in the exodus was a precursor to his ultimate battle with evil in Christ’s passion.

[b] Together, this psalm’s content and structure make the command to “know that Yahveh alone is God” its focal point. The psalm gives us three worship commands flanking its central command to know (shout, serve, enter, KNOW, enter, thank, praise). This sets knowing God apart as the command everything else hinges on.

King Yahveh is holy!

Like today’s super-rich, ancient kings distanced themselves from the masses below them. So why wouldn’t the King of the universe, in all his holiness, do so? But God’s idea of holiness is far different from ours.

¹ Yahveh reigns—
let the peoples tremble!
He sits enthroned between the cherubim—
let the earth quake!
² Yahveh is mighty in Zion
exalted far above all the peoples.
³ Let them praise our majestic
awe-inspiring God—
he is holy!

⁴ Loving justice
this mighty king has established what’s fair
and done only what’s just and right
to Jacob’s descendants.
⁵ Exalt Yahveh our God as king
and bow low before his footstool—
he is holy!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were two of his priests
and Samuel another who asked God for mercy.
They cried out for help
and God heard their cries and rescued them.
⁷ He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud—
and they did what he said
keeping the laws he gave them.
⁸ Yahveh our God
you answered their prayers
and forgave their sins
yet you punished them when they did wrong.
⁹ Exalt Yahveh our God as king
and worship at his holy mountain
for Yahveh our God is holy!

This psalm repeatedly describes God as holy and views its proclamation of God’s kingship as cause for earth’s peoples to tremble and the earth to quake. What’s so awe-inspiring about God? Though utterly transcendent, he’s powerfully present among us, manifesting his presence between the ark of the covenant’s cherubim in Jerusalem. Transcendence and immanence don’t usually go together. But Yahveh is a one-of-a-kind God, reigning over all and calling for everyone’s submission.

Unlike any of his rivals, this all-powerful king loves justice, cares for the oppressed and has given his people a law that requires the same of them. All his dealings with his people have been just and right. So he asks nothing of them that he doesn’t unfailingly give them. Again, all this sets him apart as holy.

The psalm mentions Moses, Aaron and Samuel, who interceded for God’s people before Israel had kings. God heard them and spared his people because he’s merciful. We see another aspect of his holiness here, his ethical wholeness. We naturally either forgive or judge—or veer from one to the other. God does both because he’s totally committed to redeeming our world. That’s why the psalmist calls the world to worship this awesome king in Jerusalem where he reveals himself as the Holy One of Israel.

You determined to redeem the Israelites, God, for your holiness isn’t avoidance of sinners, so much as a commitment to show mercy while upholding justice—to bear our sins, at whatever cost. I exalt you, Lord! There’s no one like you! Make me holy as you are holy, I pray. Amen.

In your free moments today, meditate on these words:

Exalt Yahveh our God as king
and worship at his holy mountain
for Yahveh our God is holy!

The God who remembers

Sometimes it feels like we’ve been totally forgotten, forsaken. Even by God. This psalm celebrates God’s remembering his people’s plight and rescuing them—not just for their sake, but for that of the whole world.

¹ Sing a brand-new song to Yahveh
because he’s done such awesome things.
He himself has won the victory—
his holy arm has revealed his saving power.
² Yahveh has made it clear
that he’s a God who saves
showing all of earth’s peoples
that he’s going to put the world to rights.
³ He remembered his promise
to show his people, Israel
unfailing love and faithfulness.
And he’s done it in such a way
that the whole world has witnessed
his act of deliverance.

⁴ Shout in triumph to Yahveh
all the earth!
Burst into joyful song
and sing his praises!
⁵ Sing praise to Yahveh with the lyre
with the lyre and a sweet melody.
⁶ With trumpets and ram’s horns
play a joyful tune to Yahveh, our king.

⁷ Let the sea and everything in it
roar their applause.
Let the whole world
and everything living in it join in.
⁸ Let the ocean breakers clap and cheer
and the mountains sing together for joy.
⁹ Because Yahveh is coming to reign on earth.
He’ll rule the world with justice
and judge its peoples with fairness.

Psalm 89 expressed the psalmists’ sense of God-forsakenness, finally asking God how he could have forgotten the promises he’d so solemnly made to David. Likely written after the Israelites’ second exodus, from Babylon, this psalm celebrates the fact that God has faithfully remembered his promises and rescued them.

As in the first exodus, from Egypt, the Israelites bested the superpower without drawing a single sword. When they couldn’t save themselves, God’s holy arm overcame the power of evil purely by good. He thus revealed to a watching world that he’s still in control and the tragedy the Israelites had brought on themselves had in no way diminished his unfailing love and faithfulness.

This is cause for total joy—the sort of unrestrained elation a fan feels when their beloved team wins the playoffs. Having repeatedly failed God, Israel seems a most unlikely choice. But God remains faithful. And it’s joy not just for Israel, but for every people on earth because God is going to bless every people through Israel. So the psalmist calls absolutely everyone and everything in the world to join in celebrating the fact that God hasn’t given up on us. He’s determined to keep his appointment. He’s coming to reign over the earth with justice and fairness for all.

O God, humankind is broken and rebellious, yet you’ve relentlessly refused to forget us. We praise you that your heart is bigger than all our brokenness, your love stronger than all our hate—that your kingdom is coming to stay. We rejoice and celebrate your unfailing faithfulness. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

Yahveh has made it clear that he’s a God who saves
showing all of earth’s peoples
that he’s going to put the world to rights.

New management

While we may not worship gods of wood or stone, our society’s idolatry is endemic in the consumerism and sensualism that impoverish us. And all the while, God calls us to live richly in his love and joy.

¹ Yahveh reigns!
Rejoice, earth!
Celebrate, you far-off islands!
² Clouds and darkness surround him.
He founded his throne
on doing what’s just and right.
³ Fire blazes before him
consuming his foes all around.
⁴ His lightning bolts light up the world.
The earth trembles at the sight.
⁵ The mountains melt like wax
at the approach of Yahveh
at the approach of the Lord of the whole earth.

⁶ The heavens proclaim his righteousness
and all peoples behold his glory.
⁷ All those who worship idols are humiliated
who boast about their nothing-gods
for every god must bow before him.
⁸ Zion hears the news and celebrates
the towns of Judah burst into song, Yahveh
on learning how
you’re putting everything to rights.
⁹ For you reign supreme over all the earth
exalted far above all rival gods, Yahveh.

¹⁰ You who love Yahveh
hate evil.
He guards the lives
of those who are faithful to him
rescuing them from the grasp of the wicked.
¹¹ Light dawns for God’s people
and joy wells up in those whose hearts are right.
¹² Rejoice in Yahveh
you God-seekers.
At every mention of it
praise his holy name.

In proclaiming Yahveh king, the psalmist is announcing that the cosmos is under new management. This calls for cosmic celebration. She describes Yahveh in terms of mysterious clouds and darkness, but as a king determined to see justice done and relationships characterized by love. Her picture of his coming to earth reminds us of Sinai’s lightning, consuming fire, and mountains liquified by earthquake. She’s making it clear that Yahveh isn’t messing about—he’s utterly committed to seeing that his will is done on earth as in heaven.

The glories we behold every day in the skies above reveal God’s commitment to a beauty and order that’s right for all concerned. Everyone everywhere sees this, yet many persist in worshipping idols, bragging about their nothing-gods. While the powers behind those gods will all bow before Yahveh, leaving their worshippers humiliated, Zion and its surrounding towns sing for joy.

However, this proclamation goes out under circumstances showing that the change of management isn’t yet fully in effect, that the wicked still threaten God’s people. Nevertheless, he calls us to hate what he hates, celebrate his triumph over evil and praise his holy name. This calls for courage and for faith in God’s promise to protect us from evil and give us light and joy in him.

Lord, I rejoice that you’ve disarmed the evil powers bent on impoverishing us and are fully committed to filling creation with your love. Help me live into that reality—to love as you love and hate the evils you hate. Give me courage, protect me from evil and fill me with joy in you. Amen.

During your free moments today, meditate on these words:

Rejoice in Yahveh, you God-seekers.
At every mention of it, praise his holy name.