The King is coming!
Though the world’s powerbrokers and their chosen gods seem always in control, God’s triumph over evil is decisive. His coming to make things right on earth is clearly cause for joyful celebration.
1 Sing a brand-new song to YHWH!
Sing to YHWH, all the earth!
2 Sing to YHWH—praise his name.
Day after day announce it:
“The Lord has won the victory!”
3 Proclaim his glory to the nations.
Tell everyone everywhere
what amazing things he’s done.
4 For YHWH is so great
he’s worthy of the highest praise
we can give him.
He’s to be revered above all gods
5 for all the nations’ gods are nothing-gods
while YHWH created the heavens!
6 Splendor and majesty surround him
strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.
7 Acknowledge YHWH, all you peoples
acknowledge YHWH’s strength and glory.
8 Give YHWH the glory he deserves!
Bring an offering and enter his courts.
9 Bow low before YHWH
in the splendor of his holiness.
Tremble before him, all the earth!
10 Proclaim to the nations:
“YHWH reigns!
The one with such a firm grip on the earth
that nothing can shake it
he’ll judge its peoples with justice.”
11 So, celebrate, you heavens
and rejoice, earth!
Let the sea and everything in it
roar the chorus!
12 Throw a party
fields and everything that lives in you
and shout for joy
all you trees of the forest
13 at YHWH’s approach!
For he’s coming
coming to put everything to rights.
He’ll rule the world with justice
and its peoples with perfect fairness.
This call to sing a new song isn’t driven by a desire for mere novelty. No, God’s decisive victory demands a brand new song because no existing song will do. Which victory? The psalm’s heading in the Septuagint suggests that the psalmist had in mind God’s bringing his exiled people back home from captivity and enabling them to rebuild Jerusalem’s temple and city wall. Confirming the Septuagint’s title, most of the psalm reworks praise from the time when David brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem (1 Chron. 16:23-33). Against all odds, little Israel’s God has bested all the gods of the superpower, proving that they don’t deserve to be called gods at all. The psalmist says this through a play on words, pitting the gods (elilim, an intensive plural of nothing) against Israel’s Elohim, an intensive plural of power.
We’re to proclaim the good news to everyone since it’s clear proof that YHWH is no provincial god. Abraham’s God had always said he’d bless the whole world through Abraham, and this victory proves his plan is still on track, Israel’s years in exile notwithstanding. Justice is on the way for all of earth’s peoples, not just the rich and powerful. So everyone everywhere must acknowledge God’s supremacy and worship, giving him the honor he deserves because he’s truly like no other god.
But humankind’s celebration isn’t enough. The rest of creation must join the party too because the seas and skies, farmlands, and forests, all have a stake in this victory too: the chaos ungodly societies unleash can devastate the environment around them, as the recurring forest fires our current climate crisis has unleashed on us makes abundantly clear. And God’s putting everything to rights includes the whole of creation.
I celebrate your victory over evil, Jesus! I’m thrilled that you’re coming not just to judge those who threaten your creation, but also to restore everything to its original purpose and unleash all the unqualified goodness you’ve planned for us. Even so, Lord, come quickly! Amen.
During your free moments today, meditate on these words:
YHWH is coming—
coming to put everything to rights.
He’ll rule the world with justice
and its peoples with perfect faithfulness.