Dennis Tuuri

# CLEANED TRANSCRIPT

is the sermon text for today as well. So please turn there in your scriptures Psalm 96. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. Psalm 96. 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. For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised.

He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the people are idols, but the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering and come into his courts. Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth.

Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. The world also is firmly established. It shall not be moved. He shall judge the people righteously. Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in all its fullness. Let the field be joyful and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord for he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth.

Let us pray. Father, we thank you for the beauty of your word. We thank you for the beauty of our savior. Now take that word, Lord God, and with your beautiful Holy Spirit, make us to be transformed to go from glory to glory and become your beautiful people. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.

John Donne raised Catholic, converted to the reformed faith in the early 1600s. He became a minister before that time in the Anglican church, Church of England before that time was a poet and continued his poetry after his conversion. His poetry is an excellent expression of the relationship of the Christian to his God. And I’m going to read Holy Sonnet Number 14. Batter my heart, three person God, for you as yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend that I may rise and stand. Overthrow me and bend your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like an usurped town to another do labor to admit you, but owe to no end. Reason your viceroy should defend, but is captived and proves weak or untrue.

Yet dearly I love you and would be loved fain but am betrothed unto your enemy. Divorce me, untie or break that knot again. Take me to you, imprison me, for I except you enthral me never shall be free nor ever chaste except you ravish me.

This is a love poem. It’s a love poem of the relationship of John Donne to his God. That should characterize our relationship to God as well. Younger children, you’ve read these love songs, you’ve heard love songs. You’ve seen love poetry. Perhaps you’ve seen your parents express love to one another. Here, John Donne puts the relationship of the Christian to his God in terms of love for the beautiful God that he is.

So we’re going to look at Psalm 96 today and we’re going to see it in its context, but we want to recognize first of all before dealing with the particulars of it or its placement in the scriptures, the enthusiasm that Psalm 96 portrays as the Christian sings this or says these words to God his savior. And Matthew Henry in his commentary on Psalm 96 says that these verses will be best expounded by pious and devout affections working in our souls toward God with a high veneration for his majesty and transcendent excellency. The call here given us to praise God is very lively. The expressions are raised and repeated to all which the echo of a thankful heart should make agreeable returns. Psalm 96 is a wonderful song of praise to God.

Now, I’ve given you two different handouts today. One of those handouts shows Psalm 96 in relationship to the fourth book of the Psalter in which it’s found, and the other is a laying forth of Psalm 96 and what I think are clearly delineated three specific stanzas or verses marked by triplets at the beginning of each one.

This is the first Sunday in Advent and in the Providence of God, we’re in a church that provides an Advent demonstration here. Candles: three blue candles leading up to the celebratory Advent and then the fifth candle is the celebration of the birth of Christ itself. Now, we’ve just sung a song about how the Father’s love begotten. And truly, the Lord Jesus Christ is a beautiful savior, begotten of the Father who comes and in that beautiful relationship to the Father says that his very food, his very meat is to do the Father’s will.

The church year begins with Advent and culminates in, as we spoke about last week, the feast of Christ the King. The three blue candles are blue. There’s some discussion I’ve seen about blue versus purple. The traditional churches use purple at times. Purple is also the color used during the season of Lent and has with it associations of passion. But blue is more celebratory than purple and so many churches have turned to blue during the Advent season.

Now that’s very much in fitting with Psalm 96. The center, as we’ve said before, of the chiastic structure of the fourth book of the Psalter is Psalm 98, which we are learning in parts and singing more beautifully to God our savior and is also the basis of course for one of the great Christmas songs of all time, “Joy to the World.” And leading up to that are these demonstrations that the King is coming. The King is coming. The King is coming. Psalm 96 is properly then an Advent Psalm. And so what I’ll be doing the next few Sundays in Advent is today I’ll speak on Psalm 96. Next week Psalm 97 and then Psalm 98. And Pastor Wilson will be bringing a Christmas message to us the following Lord’s Day. So that’s the plan for my participation in this.

Also in the Providence of God, we have these beautiful flowers today which were not, you know, really for the Lutheran church, but they’re fitting that God should in his beautiful Providence of all things give us them as a demonstration of beauty in the context of the worship of God that we engage in this day.

I want to focus at the end of my sermon on the beauty remarks in Psalm 96 that God is described as having beauty and we are to worship God in the beauty of holiness. And I want to talk about that as we get to the end of the sermon. But I want to first look at Psalm 96 in its context and then also with Psalm 96 in terms of it being a song and written in stanzas.

So take if you will your outline or the handout labeled page one of two where I’ve given you an overview of the fourth book of the Psalms and Psalm 96. You can see in this movement toward the center of this structure and I’ve drawn, rather I’ve written lines connecting the points in this chiastic structure and I think this is very easily outlined—this particular book of the psalms. And remember these books are delineated by doxologies at the end of each of these books: the first 41 psalms form a unit, then 42-72, and then 73-89, and then 90-106, and then 107-150. These five books of the psalms with their doxologies are part of the beauty of God’s revelation of himself to us.

You know, we just sang a song about how God on Sinai’s height in splendor and majesty gave the law to us. The law is a representation of the character of God. And it is phrased in the scriptures in the context of beauty, majesty, splendor. And as we celebrate the Advent, the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we celebrate amongst other things the advent of the one who is beauty and who is the definition for all things that are beautiful. And this savior has come to beautify the world and to beautify the meek with salvation. Quoting directly from the scriptures that we’ll look at in a couple of minutes.

Well, this chiastic structure, this literary way of weighing out and laying out this hymn book of our great God and King is also a beautiful thing. It draws associations for us, gives us a turning point and shows some commonalities as well as some progression.

There’s a movement of this fourth book of the Psalms from a consideration in the opening psalm—number 90 rather, the opening psalm that talks about sin and judgment. The judgment of death is one of the features of Psalm 90 and we think of the book of Genesis being correlated to that. Psalm 91 emphasizes God’s protection and salvation from the plague specifically mentioned in Psalm 91 and can be seen as reprising the book of Exodus.

Psalm 92 is a Sabbath psalm and of course talks about Sabbath worship and reprises as it were the book of Leviticus. Psalm 93 is a psalm where God is spoken of on his throne that he cannot be defeated. And in the book of Numbers, God’s people demonstrate that God cannot be defeated in the context of battle either. So Psalm 93 reprises to some extent the book of Numbers. Psalm 94 deals with external afflictions, enemies without. And in the context of Psalm 94, the people of God are taught in the second half of the psalm—the focus is that they’re taught out of the law of God. And so we have the book of Deuteronomy being reprised to some extent in Psalm 94.

So the first five of these psalms show a progression through really a recapitulation of the history of God’s people leading up to the central section of which the center is going to be Psalm 98 with this exalted breaking forth with musical instruments and voices because the King has now come. Psalm 95 begins that portion of this middle section of this book of the Psalms by speaking of worshiping before God—He will come. His kingdom will prevail. Psalm 96, which we’re talking about today, we’re coming to God. He is coming to us. He’s coming. Psalm 97: Yahweh reigns in heaven and soon earth will manifest his reign in heaven. And then in Psalm 98, this anticipation built up by Psalms 95, 96, and 97 comes to fruition. And now he has come and now at the center point where God has come and we sing a new song and instruments now join this entire musical celebration and praise of the beautiful God that we worship in the context of the beauty of holiness.

And then the last half of this book of the Psalms backs out the same way it came in. As an example of the movement of this in Psalm 102, it correlates in this chiastic delineation to Psalm 94. But whereas Psalm 94 talked about external enemies, Psalm 102 talks about internal afflictions, our sin afflicting us. And by the end of the book of the Psalms, we’re still dealing with sin and judgment. So you think, well, you know, it’s kind of anticlimactic, the end. But the thing is that after Christ comes, everything changes. The external affliction that dominates the world beforehand becomes more a focal point on internal affliction. Our own sins are our biggest enemies in the context of our world and frequently in the context of the world since the coming of our savior.

So history moves around this pivot point of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now having said that, it is true that Psalm 96 as an example was written in and then at least used in a particular historical situation in 1 Chronicles 16. We have portions of Psalm 96 actually written out verbatim. And in 1 Chronicles 16, what’s happening is David is bringing the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. And so what is actually the initial focus of the fourth book of the Psalms, while it’s speaking certainly of the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ that we celebrate in the immediate context, it was speaking of the advent of the ark to Jerusalem.

David had conquered this gentile kingdom, this gentile capital, Jerusalem. And the ark, you know, was not brought up. Remember, it went around to various places. Peter Leithart taught us excellently at family camp about what happened to the tabernacle. Remember, it goes into captivity under the times of Samuel and the Philistines take it, comes back, etc. So what happens now is David sets up worship in Jerusalem by bringing the ark.

Remember, he dances before the Lord as he brings the ark into Jerusalem. But the rest of the tabernacle, the actual tabernacle itself is elsewhere. The sacrifices are not going on at Jerusalem. Praise to God with musical instruments is happening at Jerusalem. And during the reign of David, you’ve got two separate worship centers essentially going on. You’ve got the sacrifices going on at the tabernacle, and you’ve got the worship that David here speaks of in the context of the presence of the ark in Jerusalem.

And so this is a specific event. It’s the advent of the ark to Jerusalem that Psalm 96 speaks of according to 1 Chronicles 16. And because the ark has come to Jerusalem, we see these statements in Psalm 96 to sing a new song. You know what does a new song mean? Well, we know ultimately in Revelation the saints in heaven sing a new song because Christ has accomplished redemption. But a new song here means you got new songs for new mercies. New providences of God demonstrating the coming kingdom of Christ are celebrated in Psalm 96. And the specific event I think that is what’s culminating in this new song is as we see in 1 Chronicles 16, David bringing this ark up to Jerusalem and establishing a tent there—not the tabernacle, but a tent, a different tabernacle as it were. I mean, it’s not the tabernacle that is prescribed in terms of its construction. All he has is the ark, but he pitches a tent around it and sets up worship in its presence.

Now, Peter Leithart has pointed out at the last ministerial conference that this is a very significant truth that the scriptures clearly picture that tabernacle worship is going on elsewhere. Jerusalem is not to be associated with the tabernacle or the temple. The temple is going to be built on Mount Moriah. That’s the temple mount, different place. But Jerusalem, Mount Zion, well, actually Mount Zion in Jerusalem is where the ark is set up and where this Davidic worship with musical instruments now begins. There’s no evidence of musical worship in the tabernacle in the wilderness.

Now, there undoubtedly was musical instruments in the tabernacle during David’s time where the sacrifices were going on probably, but what we know is that change comes because the ark is brought up to Jerusalem. And so by the time we get to Psalm 98 and the ark has arrived and the King has come, his presence is now there. All of a sudden now we’ve got musical instruments being employed. See, it’s a movement of covenant history that the people of God working through—you know, God working through David and Asaf and these other psalm writers—they rejoiced in that movement of God in history, his new mercies and moving them closer to the coming days of Messiah.

And when Messiah comes, the references are not to the greatness of Mount Moriah and the tabernacle worship that went on there or the temple worship later. The greatness is Mount Zion where this Davidic worship that we sing of in Psalm 96 was occurring. And so this is all picturing of course the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what we have in the times of David is we don’t have the wall of separation that exists in the tabernacle where the sacrifices are going on. We have the ark in a singular tent showing that Jesus will remove the veil and the heavenly waters from God’s covenant, his ark of the covenant, the gifts of God will pour forth to man. The beauty of God’s knowledge, the beauty of his glory, the beauty of his life will spring forth from the coming of our savior. Our Lord reigns. That he’s dispersing his beautiful gifts to his people now in a way that weren’t dispersed in the Old Covenant.

And that’s pictured in this Davidic worship with no separation. There’s also not an outer court for the Gentiles. And in fact, there’s evidence perhaps not conclusive, but there’s evidence the Gentiles actively participated in Davidic worship on Mount Zion where we’re talking of here. So it’s a picture of the inclusion of the Gentiles. No longer a different place for them to sit in the worship of God so to speak in the outer court, the court of the Gentiles. No, it pictures that when Messiah comes, the fullness of Gentile and Jew coming together in Christ is what we celebrate in the context of Psalm 96. That’s the advent of our savior.

So the blood is done away with. The wall of separation between Jew and Gentile is done away with. And the firmament that holds back the heavenly waters of the ark of the covenant is removed with our savior’s coming. The veil splits, right? He moves away that so that his blessings flow to his people. As far as the curse of ugliness of non-beauty is found, well, that curse is removed because of the beauty and the saving work of Christ on the cross.

Now, that’s what’s going on in the context of this movement of the fourth book of the Psalter. And then on the other half of this structure, the implications of that for our lives. That’s what we rejoice before God for—him establishing this Davidic worship that pictured the fullness of worship that we now enter into this side of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a wondrous event that happens in the time of David. And of course, its wonder is far surpassed in the coming of what this was simply a type of—the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to remove the separation between God and his people, to give us open access to the gifts that flow out from the Holy of Holies, to bring his people together into one, and to no more have the shedding of blood occur in the context of worship because our savior has once for all through the shedding of his blood made final atonement for our sins.

Okay. Well, how are we supposed to engage in this kind of praise? Well, let’s look at Psalm 96, page two. Now, your second outline, second sermon notes, I’m calling them, not an outline, where we see the actual layout that I’ve put down here in terms of Psalm 96. Most of this is based on the work of James B. Jordan, who in the context of extensive studies of the Psalter for years. I remember when Richard went back to the BH conference several years ago, he got instructed in these psalms. We began to pray through them. We began to do more study of the structure of the Psalter itself. And so this is where most of this comes from. And I think it’s very clear that if kids, young kids, you’ve got these hymn books in front of you, right? And you open them up and then that first verse has a one by it. And you know, you read through and you sing that first verse, then you read and sing the second verse. Then you sing the number three lines, right? We go through these what are called stanzas. And in long songs, we actually see—like we did this morning with “The Father’s Love Begotten”—on the right hand side of the page, these stanzas are clumped together, right?

You know what a stanza is? It’s the next set of words in that song that we’re singing. Well, here I think that God gives us a very explicit example or a sample here that he has three stanzas here. Why do I say that? Well, if you look at the beginning of each that I’ve labeled stanzas 1, 2, and 3 here, stanza one begins: “Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord, bless his name.” It’s a triplet demonstrating, I think, you can think of that in terms of singing praises to God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Triplets are based upon the triune nature of God. And then it moves to proclaiming the good news. But there’s a series of three there at the beginning of stanza one.

Drop down to stanza 2 and we read: “Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples, give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory to his name.” Another triplet. In other words, that whole first stanza should be seen as one unit. And the whole second stanza beginning with that triplet of “give” is seen as a unit. And then drop down to stanza 3, verses 11 and 12: “Let the heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad. Let the sea roar in all its fullness. Let the field be joyful and all that is in it.” So a triplet or maybe quadruple. We’ve got “let the earth be glad” in that first line. You see the repetition: in stanza one, “sing”; stanza two, “give, give, give”; stanza three, “let” shows us that these are three progressive stanzas.

Now, if we look at it, it’s like singing a song here. And unfortunately, the only version I have right now of Psalm 96 we only sang a little bit of this, but it seems properly to sing Psalm 96 properly the way God has laid it out would be to sing it in these three stanzas long as they might be—see the three separate units. And when I read that Psalm this morning, I tried to do that. I emphasized the triplets. I pause at the end of each stanza before I began the next series of triplets.

So there’s a structure here that helps us to understand the movement of this particular psalm. We’ve seen it in its context with the fourth book of the Psalter that it’s part of Advent, if you will. It’s an Advent psalm leading up to the celebration of the actual advent or coming of our savior. And now if we look at it specifically laid out in the structure that God clearly delineates to us, then we see that it has a movement in it as well.

In stanza one, the key is “the Lord made the heavens.” Okay? So he says, “Sing to the Lord a new song.” And I’ve talked about that a little bit. You understand now why in its context it was a new song. God was doing a new thing in the worship of his people. Things were moving, progressing toward the coming of Messiah and that was pictured in this establishment of Davidic worship at Mount Zion. So we have a new song ultimately of course like the saints in heaven—we sing a new song with a full apprehension of the benefits of Christ coming.

So “Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord bless his name.” Then we get into this declaration model: “Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations.” So here Israel who is praising God is to instruct the world, declare his glory among the nations, his wonders among all the peoples. So it begins by singing, then it says “proclaim”—evangelize is the actual word used in the Septuagint to translate this. Proclaim, evangelize, speak forth the good news of his salvation from day to day, and then it gives a reason for that: “For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols.”

Now this word “god” can mean rulers sometimes or it can mean idolatry: Baal, Asharoth etc. Here it obviously means idols. But the word used here for idols is not the only the normal word for idols. It’s a word that means “nothings.” The idols of the people are zeros. They are non-entities. They have no substance at all to them.

Now Paul says this in the first thing in 1 Corinthians 8:4: “Concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is none other god but one.” How did Paul know that? Well, he knew Psalm 96. He knew that Psalm 96 says that the gods, the idols of the people are nothings. They’re zeros, zeds, nada. There’s nothingness to them. And that’s what he tells us here.

Now, this word for idols being nothingness is found predominantly in the book of Isaiah. And Isaiah makes that point over and over again: the idols of the people are nothing. But it’s contrasted here just like Paul says: the gods, the idols around us are nothing in the world. There is none other god but one. Well, that same thing happens here. God is God of all gods. All the gods of the peoples are nothings. But the Lord, the one God made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

So the reason we’re highlighting in stanza one, what’s emphasized is that God is creator as opposed to the nothings of the idols. Not only are they not creator, they’re not even created things. They’re zeros. Contrast that. And that’s what Paul does: there’s only one God. So the reason God is—and specifically in stanza one, what does it tell us about God’s creation?—”But the Lord made the heavens.” Now we know he did make the heavens and the earth. But here the emphasis is “the Lord made the heavens. Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty in his sanctuary in heaven.”

So this the Psalm 96 as it moves to a conclusion begins by asserting that God is creator God—specifically of the heavens—and because of that we’re to evangelize the world.

Okay. Second stanza. “Give to the Lord, O families of the peoples. Give to the Lord glory and strength. Give to the Lord the glory to his name. Bring an offering and come into his court. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Tremble before him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns, the world also is firmly established and shall not be moved. He shall judge the peoples righteously.”

So stanza 2 says that we’re now to evangelize the world again. Again, in both of these first two stanzas we begin with praise and ascription of glory to God worshiping him and then we move to proclamation to the world. Run about and say among the nations—you people in the church go to the nations, go to Poland, go to India, go to the peoples around you. Say, here’s the essence of the gospel: the Lord reigns. Don’t go say we have personal salvation for you that’ll make you a happy guy and get you life insurance, get you rather a death insurance for when you die you won’t have to go to hell. That is not the gospel. The good news is summarized here: “Our God reigns.” He comes forth to reign and make that manifestation of his reign over the whole earth.

Like Jim Jordan said at family camp years ago, the gospel is Yahoo. Christ reigns. Ugliness is going to be driven out by the coming of the beautiful one. What about you? Are there ugly areas of your lives in your character, your demeanor, and your failure to attend to order and beauty in your home or in your workplace? You go about doing your work in a way that you perceive as beauty. It should be. And I know that’s why guys like to work. That’s why I like to work. I got this key ring for the keys in the church. And the first one I have on here is color-coded green because when I get here, I got to unlock the first door. Usually green means go. So I remember to go into the place with that green key. But the second key is the key to my office. And I put a blue, see a little blue thing on there. Why blue? Blue is Pacific. Blue is peaceful. Blue is beautiful. And when I go into my office, that’s the way I feel. And I think most men that are successful in their work, that’s the way they feel.

You probably haven’t thought about it, but you enjoy what you do in your vocation. It is a work of beauty. Beauty is on duty. When you go to work, you enjoy it. If you do it well, there’s a delight in it, isn’t there? I know there is. I know you guys are into programming. It’s a delightful thing to produce a product that has this unity and diversity that accomplishes a purpose using a lot of little elements in it in a beautiful structured way. You know, I’m sure it’s beautiful to fill the world with paper so that copies can be made and orders of worship can be printed. There’s a beauty to that. And when you go about doing your work in order and precision and excellence, you’re exhibiting beauty and you’re exhibiting this gospel: “Our God reigns.” His people are people of beauty and order and they’re manifesting that throughout the world.

And that’s what he says in the next line: “the world also is firmly established. You see stanza one: God created the heavens. Stanza two: the world also is firmly established. It’s picking up the same line really. Stanza one, the concluding portion of the first stanza where God created the heavens and the world also is firmly established. It shall not be moved. He shall judge the peoples righteously.

So this movement from God is in heaven—he created the heavens. He’s coming to the earth. He created the earth. It won’t change. It’s going to accomplish his purposes. He’s bringing heaven to earth. The Lord Jesus Christ in his advent brings heaven to earth. And the Lord Jesus Christ takes the beauty of holiness that is found in heaven in God’s throne room and he is the advent of that beauty and holiness to earth. Praise God. This psalm moves that way.

And then there’s a third stanza. “Let the heavens rejoice. Let the earth be glad.” He made heavens and earth. And now because he’s coming, both heavens rejoice and let the earth be glad as well. “Let the sea roar in all its fullness. Let the field be joyful in all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord for he is coming. For he is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.”

The field is an interesting term because a field is a beautified piece of dirt. A field is land that something has grown in and developed. That’s what a field is. It’s beautified, glorified dirt. It becomes more beautiful and productive. And so the seas roar and the fields are joyful and all that’s in them is joyful. All these things rejoice before the presence of God.

In the middle section, all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the Lord for he is coming. He is coming to judge the earth. He shall judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth. See, he’s bringing his righteousness and truth from heaven to earth to produce judgment in the context of the world. And that is a joyous thing for the Christian. That’s not a scary thing. For the Christian, that is a wonderful, joyous thing. The advent of the Savior brings joy to our hearts. Or at least it should. At least it should.

Before we go on to the next point, let me just mention here as I have at the bottom of your outline, there’s in each of these sections a call to praise Yahweh, to take the gospel to the nations, and then an emphasis on heaven, emphasis on earth, and then the new earth is established through the coming ultimately of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, before I forget this point of application: you’re to do this. Verse 2 says “day to day,” right? “Proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day.” Well, how am I going to do that? Well, there’s an indirect way you do that through your beautification of your home, your vocation, your recreation, and your relationships. But there’s a very specific way—again with the external witness to beauty. We don’t want to get rid of that concept, but we think of the interior qualities of beauty. And the same thing here: we don’t want to get rid of the idea that we’re actually to literally go out to people day by day and live our lives in a gospel orientation and reflect to the people that we meet the reality that God reigns. Our Lord reigns. That’s the message.

And very specifically for some of us here, God provides you an opportunity this Saturday to obey this requirement. These are requirements to sing to God and to praise his name, to declare his truth to the nations day by day, not just in worship. You have a very explicit opportunity to do that this Saturday and again next Tuesday through caroling. That’s what you’re going to do, right? You’re going to obey Psalm 96. Those of you who are going to go, you’re going to go out there and you’re going to proclaim: There is no nation. There’s just a group of people from one perspective. And you’re going to proclaim to the people in Oregon City that Christ reigns. You’re going to sing those wonderful Christmas carols of the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yeah, that’s what we’re going to do. You got an opportunity to obey Psalm 96 this Saturday and again this coming a week from Tuesday as we go to the neighborhood and do that.

And then our children are going to obey this commandment by participating in a beautiful event—a Christmas play a week from Friday—in which they’re going to proclaim to the nations, to us, to anybody else that comes, to relatives that may or may not be Christians. They’re going to proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ has come and is reigning now. So that’s a beautiful thing that we’re called to do. And the scriptures give us that requirement and we can fulfill that requirement.

Now, I said that when Christ comes and he brings judgment to the earth, that’s a thing of joy to us. It should be a thing of joy, but it may not be to some of us. I want to talk as I bring this to a conclusion about physical beauty. And I’ve talked about that already, but that’s really my purpose today—to focus on those elements, those two lines of this psalm that talk about God’s heavenly throne room exhibiting beauty and then this commandment to worship God in the beauty of holiness.

Jonathan Edwards in his book “Religious Affections” talks about the driving characteristic of the Christian as being a love for and a desire of and a joy in the beauty of holiness, the beauty of God’s holiness. God declares in the scriptures that he is indeed beauty. Now Edward’s book was written in a time of the Great Awakening when there was a lot of emotionalism going on and a lot of you know cold obedience to exterior forms of the faith. There was a lot of people that were converting, quote, in quotes to Christianity. And Edwards—one of the reasons as I understand it that he wrote this book on Religious Affections—was to help people discern, you know, to examine themselves to see if they were in the faith. And for us to look at each other to say, “This is the sort of manifestation that the true Christian life will have.”

And I think that if we want to take one element from Psalm 96, we can say that the Christian should have a love for the beauty of God’s holiness in his bosom that drives him to seek it, to desire it the way that John Donne desired God to ravish him lest he be unchaste. We should have that same kind of desire to manifest the beauty of God’s holiness and then to exhibit that in the context of our own life.

Edwards thought that the beauty of holiness was really what makes all the other attributes of God lovely. If God take the attribute of God’s strength—at that time they called these attributes natural attributes: God’s omniscience, his omnipotence—these are natural called so-called natural attributes that don’t have to do with moral character, but our description of power or knowledge etc. Well, if God is simply omnipotent but not having the beauty of holiness, then he’s a despotic tyrant to be feared. It is the beauty of holiness that undergirds…