Sing to Yahweh a New Song
1 Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth. 2 Sing to Yahweh! Bless his name! Proclaim his salvation from day to day! 3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. 4 For Yahweh is great, and greatly to be praised! He is to be feared above all gods. 5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens. 6 Honor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 7 Ascribe to Yahweh, you families of nations, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come into his courts. 9 Worship Yahweh in holy array. Tremble before him, all the earth. 10 Say among the nations, “Yahweh reigns.” The world is also established. It can’t be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. 11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! 12 Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy 13 before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
The nations are told to bring an offering and come in, and the trees are told to sing because a judge is on the way.
Sing to Yahweh a new song! Sing to Yahweh, all the earth.
A new song, and the collection asks for one repeatedly. What makes it new is not novelty for its own sake but a new act to sing about; the phrase always follows something God has just done.
Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
The commission is missionary and it is given to the congregation. Israel is not told to enjoy this privately.
For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens.
The Hebrew is a pun that does not survive translation: the word for idols sounds like the word for gods and means nothings. The contrast is between things that were made and the one who did the making.
7 Ascribe to Yahweh, you families of nations, ascribe to Yahweh glory and strength. 8 Ascribe to Yahweh the glory due to his name. Bring an offering, and come into his courts.
The words are lifted from the twenty-ninth psalm, where they were addressed to heavenly beings. Here they are given to the nations, and what follows is an invitation into the temple courts — with an offering, which is what a worshiper brings rather than what a subject pays.
Say among the nations, "Yahweh reigns" Psalms 96:10.
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar, and its fullness! 12 Let the field and all that is in it exult! Then all the trees of the woods shall sing for joy
The invitation widens past humanity altogether. Sky, sea, farmland and forest are all called to celebrate, and the sea — chaos in the previous psalms — is here simply making noise on the right side.
before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.
The reason for the singing, said twice, and it is the arrival of a judge. This is the collection's most consistent surprise: judgment is announced to creation as good news.
The logic is available to anyone who has watched a field stripped by an army or a forest cut for siege works. What has been wrong with the world is not only what people do to each other; and the promise that someone is coming to judge the world with righteousness is, to everything that has been on the receiving end, the best news there is.
settled What this mark means