“For He is Coming…”
Psalm 96:9-13
9 Oh, worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness! Tremble before Him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD reigns; The world also is firmly established, It shall not be moved; He shall judge the peoples righteously."
11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; Let the sea roar, and all its fullness;
12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the woods will rejoice before the LORD.
13 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.
Psalm 96 begins with telling us three times to “sing…, sing…, sing to the LORD…” (vv.1-2). We are told to “sing, proclaim and declare His salvation, His glory, and His wonders among all peoples.” (vv. 2-3). We do this because “the LORD is great and greatly to be praised…” (v.4). Then we encouraged to “give…, give…, give to the LORD the glory and worship Him in the beauty of holiness” (7-9).
Now in verses 10-13, we are told to rejoice because the King is coming to reign over all the earth! "The Lord reigns" in verse 10 can also be translated, "The Lord has become King". John’s vision in Revelation 11:15-17 gives us description of the fulfilment of this prophecy: “Then the seventh angel sounded: And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" And the twenty-four elders who sat before God on their thrones fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying: "We give You thanks, O Lord God Almighty, The One who is and who was and who is to come, Because You have taken Your great power and reigned.”
This is referring to the day Jesus will sit on David's throne and rule over the nations. The angel Gabriel prophesied about this to the virgin Mary when he revealed to her that she would give birth to the Messiah. Luke 1:31-33: “And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." The Apostle John saw a vision of this event when Jesus comes as King of kings and LORD of lords in Revelation 19:11-16.
Three times in Psalm 96:10 and 13 we are told that, “He will judge the peoples, the earth, and the world with righteousness”. Only then will there be true justice on the earth. Isaiah prophesied about this one-thousand-year reign of Christ in Isaiah 9:6-7; 32:1, 16; and 42:1-4.
Today, creation is in bondage to corruption and futility because of Adam's sin, but when the children of God are fully redeemed at Christ's return, creation will also be set free. The Apostle Paul wrote about this in Romans 8:18-23: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”
No wonder the psalmist described the joy of heaven and earth, the seas and the dry land, and even the trees of the earth as they welcome their Creator, and then there will be justice on the earth (Psalm 7:6-8; 9:7-8; 98:7-9; Isaiah 55:12). This is what the psalmist is describing in Psalm 96:10-13. “The LORD is coming, He is coming…” It is if the psalmist sees this and says, "The whole creation is on tiptoe to see the wonderful sight of the sons of God coming into their own" (Rom. 8:19, Phillips).
My friend, it is clear to me in prophecy that the coming of Christ is just around the corner. He comes first to rapture His Bride, the Church and then seven years later He will come to judge, rule, and reign with Righteousness! We definitely will be rejoicing on that day, but we can also rejoice today in anticipation of that glorious day!
God bless!
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