A Word in Season: Singing Salvation (Psalm 96:1–3)

Psalm 96 and the Call to Sing Salvation

Does salvation make your heart sing? If you are one of God's people, then it should. It may not always feel like it does, but it should. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth.

Sing to the Lord, bless his name. Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all peoples. So opens Psalm 96 in the first three verses with that beautiful triple command or exhortation.

Sing, sing, sing. Echoed later on in the psalm. Give, give, give. Give to the Lord, oh families of the people. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory due to his name. Salvation should make our souls sing.

It should open our mouth in praises. We are called to sing to the Lord a new song. That doesn't necessarily mean we need to be constantly writing down new poetry that we can use to bring our hymns and our praises before the Lord.

It's rather a response to what God is doing. When there is a new demonstration of God's might, when there is a new manifestation of God's saving power, it calls for a new testimony from God's people. There's new circumstances.

There's a new experience of God's favor. And so we testify to what God is doing. All the earth is to sing to the Lord. We're to sing to the Lord and bless his name. We're not just to sing about him. We're to sing to him.

God himself is the great audience, if you will. God himself is the object of our praises. It is right for us not just to say God is like this, but you are like this. God has done this. You have done this.

And we bless his name. We testify of all those good things that the Lord has done. We speak of the wonders of his redeeming love. And, of course, for those who live today, the greatest demonstration, the greatest manifestation, the newest revelation of God's glory, the highest, final, ultimate demonstration of that glory comes in the new covenant in the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And so it's good and right for us to proclaim the good news of God's salvation from day to day. His mercies are new every morning. His blessings are without end. And so from day to day, we are to evangelize with regard to his salvation.

Our testimony of God's people should be a testimony of joy. It should be a declaration of the great things that the Lord has done for us and how he has had mercy upon us. And we are to declare that glory among the nations, the wonders of God among all peoples.

It is glorious that God saves. It shows his glory in a way that nothing else does. To bless his name is to explain and to expound how the attributes of our God are revealed in the great salvation that he has accomplished.

And now we're no longer working with what we sometimes call the types and the shadows, those signposts that are pointing forwards to the great and finished work of the Lord Jesus. We're dealing with the fullness of things.

We're dealing with the full and final revelation of God in Jesus Christ. We are telling people what God has accomplished through the redeeming blood of his beloved son as he pours out that lifeblood on the cross in order to save his people from their sins.

When we see then the love and the mercy and the justice and the goodness and the grace of God in salvation, it should make our hearts sing. Yes, there are many things that should come from the lips of God's people.

There are often expressions of grief or distress, but mingled amongst them and from day to day, perseveringly, persistently ought to be this testimony of praise that whatever else is happening to us or around us, nevertheless, we can sing to the Lord and bless his name.

We can make known this good news. We can tell forth the truth of all that God has accomplished, revealing his goodness and his mercy in his son Jesus Christ and call all the world to hear and to believe what God has done and is doing and to enter into that new song.