Biblion Bible Commentary
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Let the Earth Rejoice
Psalms 97:1-12
1 Yahweh reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad! · WEB
Cloud and fire surround a throne whose foundation is justice, and light is described as something sown.
Yahweh reigns! Let the earth rejoice! Let the multitude of islands be glad! Psalms 97:1.
The islands are the far coastlands, the edge of the known world. The psalm's first move is to include the places nobody had heard of.
Clouds and darkness are around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne Psalms 97:2.
The two halves of the verse do different work and are meant to be held together. What surrounds him cannot be seen into; what he sits on can be named exactly. The obscurity is real and it is not moral obscurity — a person who cannot see what God is doing is told what God's government stands on.
A fire goes before him... His lightning lights up the world. The earth sees, and trembles. The mountains melt like wax Psalms 97:3–5.
The vocabulary of Sinai, and the mountains that were shaken there are here liquid.
Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols Psalms 97:7.
The shame asked for is the discovery that the thing boasted in is nothing, which is the same judgment the ninety-sixth psalm passed in a pun.
Zion heard and was glad. The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of your judgments Psalms 97:8.
Heard, not saw. The psalm distinguishes between the nations who witness the display and the people who receive a report and are glad — which is the ordinary condition of faith.
You who love Yahweh, hate evil! Psalms 97:10.
The only imperative addressed to believers in the psalm, and it makes the two inseparable. Love of God is defined as producing hatred of a thing rather than merely warmth toward a person, and the collection is consistent that indifference to evil is not a form of gentleness.
Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart Psalms 97:11.
The finest line in the psalm and the strangest image in it. Light is planted like seed — buried, invisible for a season, and coming up later. It is a precise description of how the collection expects vindication to work: not switched on, but sown, and harvested at a distance from the sowing.
And it answers the clouds and darkness of verse two. What is around God cannot be seen through; what has been sown is not visible yet either, and both facts are compatible with a throne founded on righteousness.
Be glad in Yahweh, you righteous people! Give thanks to his holy Name Psalms 97:12.
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