Outline of Chapter 96:

         Introduction         An Introduction to Psalm 96

         Inscription            Psalm 96 Inscription

         vv.     1–6           Jehovah is Above Every God—He Made the Heavens

         vv.     7–10         Jehovah is to be Glorified—He Establishes the Earth

         vv.    11–13         Let Heaven and Earth Rejoice—God will Judge All Things when He Comes

         Addendum          Psalm 96 Addendum

Charts, Short Doctrines and Maps:

         Introduction         Treasury of Scriptural Knowledge Outline Psalm 96

         Introduction         The NIV Study Bible Outline of Psalm 96

         Introduction         David is the Author of Psalm 96

         Introduction         The Old Testament and the Mystery Doctrines

         Inscription            Problems with the Inscription of Psalm 96

         v.       2              Joshua (or Jeshua), in the Greek, is Jesus

         v.       2              Summary Points on the Ark of God

         v.       3              A Brief Explanation of Matthew 13:3–23

         v.       3              Links to the Doctrine of Heathenism

         v.       3              Gentile Evangelism in the Old Testament

         v.       3              Logistical Grace Support—a Brief Summary

         v.       5              Online Doctrines for Satan, Demonism and the Angelic Conflict

         v.       5              The Bible on Idolatry as Opposed the God of the Universe

         v.       6              What Does it Mean for Majesty and Splendor [to be] Before Him?

         v.       6              Scripture on God’s Majesty and Splendor (or Glory and Majesty)

         v.       6              The Tabernacle and the Holy Furniture

         v.       7              Translations and Interpretations of Psalm 96:7 Part I

         v.       7              Translations and Interpretations of Psalm 96:7 Part II

         v.       8              What Tribute Offering Do We Bring?

         v.       8              What Courts Do We Enter into?

         v.       8              Psalm 96:8 Explained

         v.       9              A Summary of Psalm 96:9

         v.      10              Alternate Reading: The Lord rules by the wood (i.e., the cross)...

         v.      10              Old Testament Calls to Evangelize the Gentiles

         v.      10              Parallels in Psalm 96

         Addendum          Psalm 96 Parallels

         Addendum          The Theme of Psalm 96: Jehovah Elohim is God over all Mankind

         Addendum          A Complete Translation of Psalm 96

An Introduction to Psalm 96

I ntroduction: Psalm 96 is one of the psalms sung after the Ark of God had been deposited in the tent set up by David in Jerusalem. This was a part of the celebration, and, if 1Chron. 13, 15–16 are taken as fairly chronological, then this would have been part II of the celebration. Part I is moving the Ark from Obed-Edom’s home to the front gate of Jerusalem (which would have involved singing and celebration—this is 1Chron. 15); and part II would have been the celebration which followed, after the Ark had been successfully placed in its tent. Now, there is the alternative view that, at the end of 1Chron. 16, the original author (not of Chronicles, but of the manuscript which the writer of Chronicles used) wrote down what he recalled from this celebration, which would include songs sung both on the way to the city of Jerusalem and after the Ark had been put in the tent. I am not certain that this is all that important of a point, but I am simply making an attempt to accurately interpret the Word of God without making any unwarranted assumptions. In any case, sometime during the moving and depositing of the Ark, this psalm was sung.

Moving the Ark into Jerusalem was an event which involved great celebration; therefore, we would expect the psalms sung during this time to be celebratory. Psalm 96 is clearly celebratory, where the psalmist calls upon the heavens, the fields, the trees, etc. to rejoice.

In any portion of the Word of God, it does not strike me that celebratory language is enough (Psalm 150 may be an exception to this). I would expect that there would be some meat, so to speak. There are going to be two things which stand out in this psalm: Jesus will be spoken of by name and the psalmist will speak of the circular orbit of the earth (if you want to see this right now, just go to the final translation at the end of this document). When I came across these two things in the Hebrew, I must admit, it knocked my socks off. To prepare you for this, let me explain the writing of the psalmist versus the writing of the Holy Spirit. All Scripture is God-breathed, so the writer is breathing in Bible doctrine, and he breathes out Scripture. God the Holy Spirit is the source of divine viewpoint that the human author breathes in, and God the Holy Spirit has an effect upon the end product (i.e., the written Word of God). God the Holy Spirit so supernaturally directed the human writers of Scripture that, without waiving their intelligence, their individuality, their personal feelings, their literary style, or any other human factor of expression, His complete and coherent message to mankind was recorded with perfect accuracy in the original languages of Scripture: the very words bearing the authority of divine authorship.

I do not believe that every writer of Scripture fully understood all that they wrote. This does not mean that the authors of Scripture just opened themselves us, and God the Holy Spirit took over their bodies and hands—but there are aspects to Old Testament Scripture in particular, which were not fully understood by the writers themselves. What we find in Psalm 96 is a perfect example of this. One could read and translate this psalm, and never realize that one verse speaks of Jesus by name, and two other verses speak of the orbit of the earth. I do not believe that the psalmist himself knew this. However, as we find many times throughout the Word of God, the Holy Spirit seems to be giving us additional information from meaning-rich passages which even eluded the author. You might say that in many passages, there are layers of meaning, which, with time, become clear. It is like God the Holy Spirit is saying a few things to us through this psalm, and winking, so as to say, “Can you believe that I have inserted this information here?” In my examination of Scripture, I have often come across passages and events which seemed to be somewhat confusing—why are they there, what is being said, why is this important to point out? And, with a little study, all of a sudden, it all makes perfect sense. One example of this is when Saul spoke to Samuel, who was brought back from the dead. I must admit that, there were a number of times when I read this passage or heard it taught where I thought, what’s up with that? But, with a little bit of study, and guidance from God the Holy Spirit, when I realized what was going on, my jaw dropped in amazement. So was my experience with this psalm.

There are two more things which are found in this psalm, hidden away. We will find the name YHWH hidden in v. 11; and then we are told twice He has come!  Although it is common to repeat a verb in order to give great emphasis to the action, it is less common to repeat a phrase. I find it interesting that Jesus is hidden in the 2^nd verse, YHWH (one member of the Godhead) is hidden in v. 11; and now in v. 13, it sounds as if Jesus will come to the earth two times (two advents). So, although some might take this to be emphatic, I think the true understanding here is, Jesus will come to the earth on two occasions—first as God’s suffering servant (Isa. 53) and then He will return to judge the earth (Psalm 96:13).

Spurgeon comments on the theme of this psalm: [Psalm 96] is a grand Missionary Hymn, and it is a wonder that Jews can read it and yet remain exclusive. If blindness in part had not happened unto Israel, they might have seen long ago, and would now see, that their God always had designs of love for all the families of men, and never intended that his grace and his covenant should relate only to the seed of Abraham after the flesh. We do not wonder that the large-hearted David rejoiced and danced before the ark, while he saw in vision all the earth turning from idols to the one living and true God.

The NET Bible is even more succinct: The psalmist summons everyone to praise the Lord, the sovereign creator of the world who preserves and promotes justice in the earth.

In 1Chron. 16, we have the first third of Psalm 105 recorded; and a few lines from Psalms 106 and 136; however, nearly all of Psalm 96 will be recorded in 1Chron. 16. We will examine Psalm 96 carefully and in great length herein, and give it a superficial examination in Chronicles.

We should be able to reasonably limit the authorship of this psalm to one of two men: David or Asaph. In a moderately confusing inscription—which is not found in the Hebrew—David is named as the author. David did direct Asaph to put together the songs and choir for this celebration, and Asaph chose this as one of the psalms to be sung. There is no reason to assume that Asaph wrote all of the psalms for this celebration. This all took place—the planning and celebration—in a very short space of time. I suspect that there was maybe a week’s time involved in the planning of this event, as the Ark was only kept at Obed-Edom’s home for a period of 3 months. During this time, God’s blessing had become quite noticeable, so that the Ark was understood to be the source of blessing. It would make little sense for God’s blessing to be evident in much less than these 3 months. Someone had to actually observe, from the outside, what was happening on Obed-Edom’s ranch, and this observation is what led David to decide to try again to move the Ark of God. Also, David had apparently studied the Word of God in the meantime, and he figured out what went wrong in his first attempt to move the Ark.

Let me back up a bit: David had already tried to move the Ark into Jerusalem, and one faithful man died as a result from an action which obviously was not some sort of calculated evil. The Ark appeared to become jarred and ready to fall, and this man (Uzziah) reached out his hand to steady the Ark, and he died right there on the spot. So David took the Ark to the nearest residence, the home of Obed-Edom, and he studied the Scriptures in order to figure out what to do. After 3 short months, it becomes obvious that Obed-Edom is being blessed by housing the Ark.

So, David tells Asaph to make these preparations to move the Ark, and Asaph does, organizing quite a remarkable celebration where psalms are sung and musical instruments are played. Asaph may have written some of the psalms and he may have taken some of the psalms out of the ever growing collection of psalms. Therefore, it is reasonable to suppose that David wrote this psalm, as per the Greek inscription (to be discussed in depth later) or that Asaph himself wrote this psalm (which is less likely, and would contradict the Greek inscription). There is no inscription in the Hebrew and, apart from this psalm being reproduced is almost its entirety in 1Chron. 16, we have no other clues as to its authorship.

I am having a more difficult time than usual summarizing and outlining this particular psalm. We begin with 6 commands in vv. 1–3 and 8 commands in vv. 7–10. The numbers here are unusual. 7 is often related to divine things, but 6 is the number of man. I am not completely certain what the number 8 seems to indicate. Interestingly enough, none of the sources which I refer to have clear outlines either. In all other psalms, I am able to supplement my own outline from 3 to 6 different outlines, which are generally quite prominent. However, in this situation, I found only two clear outlines.

Of these imperatives at the beginning of the psalm, the first 3 are the same; and of the imperatives of the middle of this psalm, the first 3 are the same. The 3^rd time sing s found, it is followed by the phrase bless His name; the 3^rd time ascribe (give) is used, it is in conjunction with His name. After His name, we have Jesus (salvation) mentioned in the first part; and after His name we have an offering mentioned. So we apparently have a parallelism being set up, and to associate salvation (Jesus) with an offering. So we clearly have some parallels here, but they are still not easy to apply an outline to. Essentially, I am thinking out loud here.

In any case, we begin with 6 imperatives in the first 3 verses, which at first deal with singing, but the final two are clearly content filled, where the hearer is enjoined to tell, to proclaim. In vv. 3b–6, we are told why we ought to proclaim Jehovah Elohim above all other gods. In vv. 7–10, we have 8 more imperatives, ending with very interesting language about the earth and God’s judgment of all people (vv. 11–13).

When it comes to the outline of this psalm, I don’t think that I have done it justice, nor do I find great work done by other scholars either. I have this nagging suspicion that there is a key which unlocks and helps all of this to fit together as it should. David tends to have intricately organized psalms.

Now, despite the lack of a good outline, there is a general pervasive theme in this psalm: the universality of Jehovah Elohim and the fact that the God of the Jews will judge all mankind. This understanding is the basis of this psalm. First of all, this psalm is clearly directed to all the nations (vv. 3, 7, 9–10, 13). Secondly, the true God of all mankind is Jehovah Elohim (vv. 2, 4, 7–10, 13) because the gods of these heathen nations are empty, meaningless idols (vv. 4–5). This is the fundamental thrust of Psalm 96. If you understand this, navigating the psalm is easy.

There are remarkable similarities with this psalm and Psalm 95—specifically, the first 6 verses of Psalm 95 and the first 9 verses of this psalm. Being that we find these psalms together, and that the LXX also attributes Psalm 95 to David, it is reasonable that he composed them around the same time. In the latter portion of Psalm 95, David specifically speaks about the Meribah generation—Gen X—and, given that David is moving the Ark after studying the Old Testament (that which is available to him), it is reasonable that he would become inspired to write about some of the things which he finds in his Old Testament (the books of the Law, Genesis, and perhaps Job, Judges, Joshua, and Ruth).

Although I have done a commentary on Psalm 95, I wrote it back in 1997, when I was just beginning to write commentary; therefore, it definitely needs to be updated.

Matthew Henry comments about this Psalm: This psalm is a prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles; all the earth will have this new song put into their mouths, will have both cause and be called upon to sing it. The subject-matter of this song is His salvation, the great salvation which was to be brought about by the Lord Jesus; that must be shown forth as the cause of this joy and praise.

It is fascinating that, Psalm 95 speaks of the negative volition and failure of Israel and that this psalm speaks of the Messiah and evangelizing the Gentiles. This would give the pastor-teacher two different approaches to this psalm: (1) teach these psalms separately, as warranted in Scripture (for instance, Psalm 96 could be read either along side 1Chron. 16 or with the book of Nehemiah) and Psalm 95 after a study of the Pentateuch; or (2) as a pair of psalms taught consecutively, to introduce, for instance, Rom. 9, where, because of the negative volition of Israel, God has gone to the Gentiles. These two psalms illustrate God’s change of focus, without necessarily revealing any Church Age mystery doctrine (http://www.realtime.net/~wdoud/topics/mystery.html is a good link which will give you a quick and dirty look at the Mystery Doctrines).

Psalm 96 Inscription

The occasion of this psalm is clear: it was sung the second time that David moved the Ark of God. However, the inscription which is found in the Greek says something about the captivity and the building of the house (the Temple?). Therefore, we need to examine in depth, this inscription which is found in the Greek, but not in the Hebrew.

The inscription which follows is found in the Greek, Hebrew, Ethiopic and Arabic. It is not found in the Masoretic text, and English translations do not mention it.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Latin Vulgate                          A canticle for David himself, when the house was built after the captivity.

Masoretic Text                       Not found.

Septuagint                              When the house was built after the Captivity, a Song of David.

Syriac                                     A Psalm of David, a Prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, and of the calling of the Gentiles that believe in Him:... This is according to Gill; my Peshitta does not have this inscription (my English translation of the Peshitta does not have any inscriptions in it).

Significant differences:           This inscription is not found in the Hebrew at all. The Greek and Latin appear to be identical; the Syriac (which I have assumed is the Peshitta), mentions the calling of the Gentile believers in Him. I do not have this phrase in my English Peshitta.

Apart from the Complete Apostles’ Bible, I am not aware of any translation which includes this inscription. In fact, I am not even aware of a translation which even footnotes this discrepancy.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

None have this inscription.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Complete Apostles’ Bible      When the house was built after the Captivity, a Song of David.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

None have this inscription.

What is the gist of this verse? David is clearly named as the author of this psalm. The occasion of the psalm is associated with the building or restoration of a house (David’s palace?) or of the Temple, and this takes place after the captivity.

Translation: When the house [or, temple] was being built [or restored] after the captivity;... This is putting the cart before the horse, but we do not have verbiage here which indicates that this psalm was written to David or for David. David did have a house built for him by Hiram the King of Tyre (1Chron. 14:1) and this would have occurred possibly before David brought the Ark into Jerusalem (it is found in that order in both Samuel and Chronicles). This means that this psalm could have been written sometime prior to the moving of the Ark, ot celebrate the building of David’s palace.

The problematic phrase is after the captivity, which would cost most readers to believe that we are speaking of the Temple being restored after Ezra and Nehemiah return from captivity (originally under Babylon) with the small groups of Jews. However, what blows this idea out of the water, is the next phrase where this is a song by David. So, another thought on this is, perhaps this is a reference to David when he was out of the country of Judah and Israel, in captivity, as it were. The problem with this theory is, David has been king over Judah for the past 7 years, so it would be hard to see that as being in captivity.

Although I do not know if this final feminine singular noun lends itself to being interpreted after the exile, but that would sort of pull things together—again, there is still the problem that David was exiled, but that was at least 7 years prior to taking Jerusalem.

This introduces another theory: although in the text, David appears to have taken Jerusalem after becoming king over Judah and Israel (see 2Sam. 5:1–5), perhaps he first took Jerusalem and then was made king over all Israel (the northern and southern kingdoms?). However, by the given text itself, David was still king for 7 and a half years in Hebron over Judah prior to the taking of Jerusalem. In other words, it is difficult to associate David with the word captivity. Historically, it just does not hold water.

The end result here is, this inscription is quite difficult to reconcile with the historical events. However, stay with me on this, after we take in the final phrase.

Translation: ...a song by David. Interestingly enough, there is no way we could make this read a song to David or a song for David. That would have been the genitive/ablative case. Furthermore, even if we tried to place this psalm somehow with the rebuilding of the Temple after the captivity, we have the problem that, it is clearly sung when David moved the Ark into Jerusalem.

Let’s discuss this further: someone, at some point in time, apparently did affix this text to this psalm, and it would have occurred probably in the Hebrew text prior to 300 b.c. (because the Greek LXX was translated between n300–100 b.c.). The text of Samuel was written around 1000 b.c. and the text of Chronicles was composed around 400 b.c. If this is a psalm of David (and our Chronicles text places it during this era), then it also would have been committed to paper around 1000 b.c. Sometime later (this is one theory, by the way), someone added this inscription text to this psalm. There was a captivity which occurred 721 b.c. (the northern kingdom) and the other in 586 b.c. (the southern kingdom). The Jews do not appear to have returned after the first captivity (which is why they are often referred to as the 10 lost tribes of Israel); and some did return after the 2^nd captivity, around 516 b.c. This would suggest that someone, for reasons which are not clear to me, affixed these words to Psalm 96, to refer to the return from the Babylonian\Assyrian captivity.

A second theory: someone legitimately added these words to this psalm after 516 b.c. and the reason they did this is, this psalm was sung during the re-building of the temple. So, the song did not originate in this time frame, but was sung during this time frame. David, as author, was given credit. The only problem, and this one is slight, is, didn’t Asaph write this? Asaph was in charge of getting the musicians and music together for this occasion. There is no reason to assume that he wrote each and every psalm sung on this occasion. That means, in addition to all of the organizing in this area, he would have composed 4 or more psalms. So, it is reasonable to assume that Asaph took from psalms which had already been composed (although it is possible that he composed one or two psalms himself from this group).

This view, that someone simply added these words to the psalm to indicate that it was sung while rebuilding the Temple of God, solves a lot of problems. It explains where the words came from, why they were affixed to this psalm, and how this psalm could have been written by David, yet associated with the rebuilding of the Temple.

This also explains why this line was not carried over into the Masoretic texts. An intelligent scribe read this, seeing the words captivity and David in the same line, is nonplused. So he locates some older manuscripts to see if this phrase can be found with them. If he comes across any manuscript written prior to 516 b.c., then this phrase would be missing. Applying early textual criticism rules from their day, this phrase would not be carried over on subsequent Jewish manuscripts, which became the basis for the Masoretic texts. However, those who translated the Hebrew into Greek may have been using a manuscript produced after 516 b.c., with this inscription in it, and they ran with it.

What I have attempted to do is to provide a rational explanation as to why this is found in some texts (the Greek and Latin) but not in others; and why we have an inscription which speaks of David and the captivity in the same breath. All of what I have written is simply speculation and nothing more. Furthermore, it has no effect upon any doctrine whatsoever.

My apologies to anyone who is reading this, and comes to the conclusion, you spent several pages discussing this and now you say, it is really an unimportant matter? It is the way my mind works. I like to see the pieces of a puzzle fit together. When I run into a problem, I often verbalize that problem before I know the answer to it. The reason for this is, it will take me nearly a month to exegete this psalm, and when I am done, I will have written about 70–100 pages. As I write I will come across questions, so I commit these questions to paper (so to speak) so that I can see them periodically to determine if I answered them or not.

Now, because of this inscription, many have misunderstood or misapplied it. Keil and Delitzsch, for example, write: By this the LXX correctly interprets the Psalm as a post-exilic song: and the Psalm corresponds throughout to the advance which the mind of Israel has experienced in the Exile concerning its mission in the world. These are themes which run through this fascinating psalm, and, as I have said, this psalm was probably read/sung during the rebuilding of the Temple after the captivity; but, David probably wrote the psalm and it was definitely sung during the moving of the Ark.

Now, having all of this in mind, recognizing that this psalm speaks of Jesus directly, by name, and that it speaks of the evangelization of the Gentile world, what more apropos event to associate this psalm with, than the moving of the Ark into Jerusalem. This Ark coming into Jerusalem is Jesus coming into Jerusalem at the 1^st Advent. At the end of this psalm, after we have covered each verse, I will match the actual event of moving the Ark into Jerusalem with this psalm and with Jesus coming into Jerusalem.

Jehovah is Above Every God—He Made the Heavens

Here is how others have handled this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Sing to Y^ehowah a song new;

sing to Y^ehowah, all the earth.

Septuagint                              Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Sing a new song to the LORD! Everyone on this earth, sing praises to the LORD,...

Good News Bible (TEV)         Sing a new song to the LORD! Sing to the LORD, all the world!

The Message                         Sing GOD a brand-new song! Earth and everyone in it, sing!

New Life Version                    Sing to the Lord a new song. Let all the earth sing to the Lord.

New Living Translation           Sing a new song to the Lord!

Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             O make a new song to the Lord; let all the earth make melody to the Lord.

NIRV                                               Sing a new song to the Lord.

All you people of the earth, sing to the Lord.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

English Standard Version      Oh sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth!.

Young's Literal Translation     Sing to Jehovah a new song, Sing to Jehovah all the earth.

What is the gist of this verse? The psalmist calls upon us to sing a new song to the Lord.

Translation: Sing a new song to Y^ehowah;... I must admit that after I translated this line, I thought, haven’t I done this psalm before? Psalm 149:1 begins the exact same way. The author of this psalm—either David or Asaph—sat down to write, and these were the first words to be put to paper. At the time, this was a new song to Jehovah.

Barnes comments on the word new: The word new here implies that there was some fresh occasion for celebrating the praises of God; that some event had occurred, or that some truth relating to the divine character had now been made known, which could not well be expressed in any psalm or hymn then in use.

Henry writes: A new song is a song for new grace, for those compassions which are new every morning and fail not. A new song is a New Testament song, a song of praise for the new covenant and the precious privileges of that covenant. A new song is a song that shall be ever new, and shall never wax old nor vanish away; it is an everlasting song, that shall never be antiquated or out of date.

What is quite distinctive about this psalm is the Messianic nature of it and the hidden name of our Lord. It was very apropos to sing such a song to God upon bringing the Ark into Jerusalem. There was to be a spiritual resurgence, at the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem. I want you to recall the history here. During the reign of Saul, we hear practically nothing about the Tabernacle (semi-permanent Tent) of God, nor do we hear about the Ark or the priesthood. Saul has a close relationship with Samuel, a prophet, and Samuel has some things going on (his school of prophets), but we just don’t hear much about this, except when Saul decided to take some liberties and offer up sacrifices himself, not having enough faith that Samuel would show up and do this. This began a rift between Samuel and Saul (all Saul needed to do was to listen to Samuel’s instructions).

Saul interacts twice with the priests: once when he calls for them to bring the Ephod of God to him to guide him (not the Ark—1Sam. 14:18); and later, after David goes to the priests in Nob, Saul goes after David and kills all of the priests, save one, who gets away (1Sam. 22).

Now, there was obviously some sort of spiritual activity going on in Israel during Saul’s reign, as the priests apparently did have the Tabernacle set up in Nob, but, for all we know, this may have been akin to a monastery, where few show up for services and interaction with the public was minimal (we don’t really know here).

However, when David brings the Ark into Jerusalem, this is quite something. This means that the king of Israel recognizes the importance of Israel’s spiritual life, and the importance of the Ark (which apparently had not been in the Tabernacle for the entirety of Saul’s reign, but kept in storage instead).

If Saul wanted to do something during his reign, he could have united the Ark and the Tabernacle again, but he did not. So, we have a full generation where Israel was out of kilter with her spiritual life. David hoped to begin to solve this by bringing the Ark into Jerusalem. After this, he intended to build a Temple for the Ark, which he did not build.

In any case, this psalm celebrates the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem, which David had anticipated would be the beginning of a wonderful intermingling of Israel and spiritual things. Hence, he calls for us to sing a new song.

Spurgeon concludes: The song is for Jehovah alone, the hymns which chanted the praises of Jupiter and Neptune, Vishnoo and Siva are hushed for ever; Bacchanalian shouts are silenced, lascivious sonnets are no more. Unto the one only God all music is to be dedicated. Mourning is over, and the time of the singing of hearts has come. No dismal rites are celebrated, no bloody sacrifices of human beings are presented, no cutting with knives, and outcries of lamentation are presented by deluded rotaries. Joy is in the ascendant, and singing has become the universal expression of love, the fitting voice of reverent adoration. Men are made new creatures, and their song is new also. The names of Baalim are no more on their lips, the wanton music of Ashtaroth ceases; the foolish ditty and the cruel war-song are alike forgotten; the song is holy, heavenly, pure, and pleasant. The Psalmist speaks as if he would lead the strain and be the chief musician, he invites, he incites, he persuades to sacred worship, and cries with all his heart, “O sing to Jehovah a new song.” 

Translation: ...O sing to Y^ehowah, all the earth. All the earth is called upon to sing a song to Jehovah. Quite obviously, there has always been rebellion in this earth; and within all believers, there is still the ultimate rebel living and tempting us. Perhaps, in some way, we look forward to when God will place all things under His control.

David was also inspired to sing about how the bringing of the Ark into Jerusalem would be a cause for blessing to all the earth, and so he calls upon all the earth to sing to Jehovah. We will find this to be one of the most universal of the psalms, where David saw great import not just to the nation Israel, but to all the world.

Now remember in the introduction, how I said there are parallels between David bringing the Ark into Jerusalem, and our Lord going into Jerusalem for the Passover (where He would be the Passover sacrifice). Our Lord did not just die for a select few on the cross, nor did Jesus die for Israel only, but for all the world. Therefore, this psalm is appropriately to be sung by all the earth.

It is reasonable to assume that what is new here is that David calls upon all the earth to celebrate Jehovah God. Whatever distinction exists between the Jews and Gentiles appears to be removed, so that all mankind could celebrate our relationship to God. At that time you Gentiles were without Christ. You were excluded from citizenship in Israel, and the pledges God made in his promise were foreign to you. You had no hope and were in the world without God. But now through Christ Jesus you, who were once far away, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. So He is our peace. In his body he has made Jewish and non-Jewish people one by breaking down the wall of hostility that kept them apart (Eph. 2:12–14). This psalm will look down the corridors of time, to a time when Gentiles are brought clearly and fully into the plan of God.

This is not the only psalm or the only time that it is clearly stated that God speaks of the Gentiles. Let the peoples thank You, O God; let all the peoples thank You. Oh let the peoples be glad and sing for joy; for You shall judge the peoples uprightly and govern the peoples on earth. Selah. Let the peoples give thanks to You, O God; let all the peoples give thanks to You. The earth has given its increase; God, our own God, shall bless us (Psalm 67:3–6). Sing to God, kingdoms of the earth, praises to the Lord (Psalm 68:32). So throughout the Bible, it is known that God’s plan includes the Gentiles, and that through Jehovah, they would be blessed as well. Later in this exegesis, I will give you a long list of verses from the psalms which deal with the Gentiles.

Barnes comments: All nations. All people had occasion to bless his name; to praise him. What he had done, what he was still doing, was of interest to all lands, and made an appeal to all people to praise him. The psalm is constructed on this supposition, that the occasion for praise referred to was one in which all people were interested; or, in other words, that Yahweh was the true God over all the nations, and that all people should acknowledge him.

And they sang a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, for You were slain, and by Your blood You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth." (Rev. 5:9–10). Just as the book of Revelation ties together the new song, our Lord’s blood and all nations of the earth, so will this psalm. Psalm 40:3 reads: He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God: many will see and fear and will trust in the LORD. The many here will be Jews and Gentiles.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Sing to Y^ehowah,

praise His name,

announce from day to day His deliverance.

Septuagint                              Sing to the Lord, bless his name: proclaim his salvation from day to day.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       ...sing and praise his name. Day after day announce, "The LORD has saved us!".

Good News Bible (TEV)         Sing to the LORD, and praise him! Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.

The Message                         Sing to GOD--worship GOD! Shout the news of his victory from sea to sea,...

New Century Version             Sing to the Lord and praise his name;

every day tell how he saves us.

New Life Version                    Sing to the Lord. Honor His name. Make His saving power known from day to day.

New Living Translation           Sing to the Lord; praise his name.

Each day proclaim the good news that he saves.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Make songs to the Lord, blessing his name; give the good news of his salvation day by day.

Easy English (Churchyard)    Sing to the *LORD and say good things about him!

Every day, say that he has made us safe!

God’s Word™                         Sing to the LORD! Praise his name! Day after day announce that the LORD saves his people.

JPS (Tanakh)                         Sing to the Lord, bless His name;

proclaim His victory day after day.

NET Bible®                             Sing to the LORD! Praise his name!

Announce every day how he delivers! [Hebrew: "announce from day to day his deliverance"].

NIRV                                               Sing to the Lord. Praise him.

Day after day tell about how he saves us.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                Sing to the Lord, bless (affectionately praise) His name; show forth His salvation from day to day.

LTHB                                     Sing to Jehovah; bless His name, bear news of His salvation day by day.

NASB                                     Sing to the LORD, bless His name;

Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day.

New King James Version       Sing to the LORD, bless His name;

Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.

NRSV                                     Sing to the Lord, bless his name;

tell of his salvation from day to day.

A Voice in the Wilderness      Make songs to the Lord, blessing his name; give the good news of his salvation day by day.

Young's Literal Translation     Sing to Jehovah, bless His name, Proclaim from day to day His salvation.

What is the gist of this verse? The psalmist enjoins us again to sing to Jehovah, and then commands us to daily proclaim His Jesus.

Translation: Sing to Y^ehowah,... The 3^rd imperative calls for us to sing to Jehovah once again, and this word sing is used for the 3^rd time as well. Gill and other suggest that these 3 almost identical commands refer to the Trinity—the co-equal and co-eternal members of the Godhead. Interestingly enough, these triune imperatives occur several times in the psalms: Psalm 103:20–22 118:2–4 135:1 136:1–3.

Translation: ...praise [or, celebrate] His name;... The writer asks us to praise, celebrate, bless Jehovah’s name. This is quite remarkable given the imperative which follows. This is God the Holy Spirit winking at us, functioning through the human author, Asaph or David. Now, it is possible that the writer is calling upon us to praise or celebrate Jehovah’s reputation and character, but I think that here, name is more apropos, particularly given what follows.

Translation: ...every day, announce [the good news] of His deliverance [or, proclaim His Jesus]. The 5^th imperative calls upon us to announce the good news or to proclaim the good news, which we often associate with the gospel in the New Testament (gospel literally means good news). Proclaiming the good news of Jesus Christ is usually thought of as sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone or with a group.

We are to share this good news every day (literally, from day to day). Perhaps the proper understanding of this phase is, we are to share this good news periodically. We all have different gifts and different predilections. There are some believers in Jehovah who will literally share the gospel with 1–10 people every single day that they are out in public. A friend of my brother’s, according to him, is one of the few Christians who can share his faith regularly without being annoying. That has to be a spiritual gift. There are others of us who may share the gospel on the average of once a year.

Now here is what is remarkable: we are mandated to daily proclaim the good news of His Jeshuah. In the Hebrew, this means to daily proclaim His Joshua; in the Greek, this would be to daily proclaim the good news of His Jesus. Now, of course, this also means, Proclaim each and every day His salvation. Who or what is our salvation? Jesus. That is what this word means. The transliteration of this word in the Hebrew is Joshua and the Greek equivalent of Joshua is Jesus. Sing to Jehovah, celebrate His name, and proclaim the good news every day of His Jesus. This is not how a Jew would have understood this verse 3000 years ago, but it is a bonafide translation of this verse, in the light of what God has done by His Son. We find this sort of thing again and again in the Bible; it says one thing at the time it is written (Sing to Jehovah, celebrate His name, and proclaim the good news every day of His salvation); and it says something slightly different to us today: Sing to Jehovah, celebrate His name, and proclaim the good news every day of His Jesus. God the Holy Spirit knows the entire plan of God the Father. One thing that you cannot help but be impressed by in the Old Testament is how many times it looks forward to Jesus Christ. There are not just a handful of passages whose interpretation is questionable. I have put together a 12 page chart where we examine 6 aspects of our Lord’s life and mission, and line up Old and New Testament texts side-by-side, from every section of Scripture (A Chart of Christ Jesus in the Old and New Testaments). This is found at: http://kukis.org/Doctrines/Chart_Jesus_Old_New.htm

We find this sort of thing throughout the Old Testament. There are incidents, phrases and verses, which make reasonable sense in their historic setting; but when viewed in the light of the gospel—in the light of God’s plan for our salvation—this things take on a new and greater meaning. There are so many incidents which are glossed over by Jewish theologians over the years: God clothing Adam and Eve with an animal skin; God having respect for Abel’s sacrifice, but not for Cain’s; God’s severe discipline to Moses for what appears to be a rather minor act of disobedience (instead of speaking to a rock, he hits it twice with his rod); and God’s call to Abraham to sacrifice his son. There are so many Old Testament stories which seem to be fine and dandy in their historic setting, but then when you look at them as the Word of God, which lives and abides forever, and see these stories as authored by God the Holy Spirit, and think of them in light of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, suddenly they take on a whole new meaning. Furthermore, this does not occur just once or twice, but throughout Scripture. Not only do we find clear prophecies of our Lord Jesus Christ in such passages as Isa. 9:6 53; but again and again and again we find narratives that, in the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ, point toward the gospel of Jesus Christ.

None of this is a stretch; these are the very words used and the very meaning of these words. Furthermore, it is amazing how easily this verse flows into the next: Sing to Jehovah, celebrate His name, and proclaim the good news every day of His Jesus. Declare His glory among the Gentiles; [declare] His extraordinary acts among the peoples. In fact, this transition from v. 2 to v. 3 is smoother when we transliterate this word Jesus instead of translate it salvation.

I must admit I was surprised at the dearth of similar commentary by others, where they appeared to get so close, and yet miss the mark. Gill is typical: bless his name: speak well of Him, Whose name is excellent and glorious, sweet and precious; even every name of His, Jesus, Immanuel, etc. proclaim him the ever blessed God, as He is, as comes before with the blessings of goodness, and made most blessed for ever; as Mediator, ascribe all spiritual blessings to Him, and bless Him for them, and give Him the glory and honour of them. ...show forth his salvation from day today; the salvation of His people He undertook, and has completed; publish that as a piece of good news, as glad tidings; so the word used signifies; even evangelizing, or preaching the Gospel; for this is the Gospel, the sum and substance of it, salvation by Jesus Christ: this may be considered as directed to ministers of the Gospel, whose work it is, more peculiarly, to show forth the salvation of Christ; to point him out as a Saviour to sensible sinners; to declare that this salvation is done, is wrought out for sinners, is full and complete; is to be had freely, and to be had now; and this is to be done.

I have no idea why, but I have become fascinated with the Old Testament and have done 95% of my work in the Old Testament (and 99% of the exegesis which I do); and it amazes me how many times the Old Testament looks forward thousands of years and tells us about Who and What Jesus is, and what God plans to do. The more that I study the Old Testament, the more and more I am convinced that this is the Word of God.

Barnes suggests that perhaps there was some deliverance which occurred at this time, and perhaps that is what David is referring to. I certainly grant that is a possibility; but bear in mind that, we have no historical incidents to corroborate this with. I have no doubts that David is speaking here either of a temporal deliverance which took place in his life (perhaps when he took Jerusalem) or that He is speaking of the ultimate salvation of God, our redemption from sin and death. However, God the Holy Spirit has not seen fit to preserve this incident, but He has instead associated this psalm with the bringing of the Ark—which represents Jesus Christ—into Jerusalem.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Recount in Gentiles His glory;

in all the peoples His wonderful works.

Septuagint                              Publish his glory among the Gentiles, his wonderful works among all people..

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Tell every nation on earth, "The LORD is wonderful and does marvelous things!

Good News Bible (TEV)         Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.

The Message                         Take the news of his glory to the lost, News of his wonders to one and all!

New Century Version             Tell the nations of his glory;

tell all peoples the miracles he does,.

New Life Version                    Tell of His shining-greatness among the nations. Tell of His wonderful works among all the people.

New Living Translation           Publish his glorious deeds among the nations.

Tell everyone about the amazing things he does.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Make clear his glory to the nations, and his wonders to all the peoples.

God’s Word™                         Tell people about his glory. Tell all the nations about his miracles.

NET Bible®                             Tell the nations about his splendor!

Tell [The verb "tell" is understood by ellipsis (note the preceding line)] all the nations about his amazing deeds!

NIRV                                               Tell the nations about his glory.

Tell all people about the wonderful things he has done.

The Scriptures 1998              Declare His esteem among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

NASB                                     Tell of His glory among the nations,

His wonderful deeds among all the peoples.

WEB                             Declare his glory among the nations, His marvelous works among all the peoples.

Young's Literal Translation     Declare among nations His honour, Among all the peoples His wonders.

What is the gist of this verse? The psalmist enjoins his listeners to declare God’s glory and deeds to all nations and peoples.

Translation: Declare His glory among the Gentiles;... Whose glory are we speaking of here? We could certainly say that this refers to God the Father; but recall the previous verse where we were to speak of His Jesus every day—so this more reasonably refers to Jesus Christ. Whether we understand the previous verse to speak of Jehovah Elohim the Son and His salvation, or of Jehovah Elohim the Father and His Jesus, this verse would still refer back to Jesus Christ rather than to God the Father. Now, in the Old Testament, they would not necessarily make this distinction, so to them, they would be declaring the glory of the God Who led the Jews out of Egypt and established them in the Land of Promise. This is the revealed member of the Godhead, so we are still speaking of Jesus Christ, whether we view this from an Old or New Testament perspective. However, in the Old Testament, despite the many clues as to the existence of the Trinity, the Trinity was not an understood doctrine, even to saved Jews.

We might call our Lord’s glory His celebrityship, as He is the only true celebrity. Just as you might talk about some celebrity and who they are marrying or divorcing, or what movie they are acting in, or whose talk show they are going to be on, so much greater is Christ Jesus, Who has saved all mankind. Making Him known is one of the first steps in a person’s salvation—after all, you cannot believe in someone you have not heard about. So, declaring His glory is telling the world about the character and person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Again, we should always see the psalm both from our perspective and from the perspective of David. It was not necessarily as perspicuous to Old Testament believers as to what God would do. They did not fully understand our Lord going to the cross. They understood clearly that their God—the God of Israel—is the God of all mankind, the God Who created us and this universe. They also understood that blood sacrifices were required by this God in order to atone for (cover) their sins. God the Holy Spirit took whatever was necessary from what was revealed to them so that their trust in the God of Israel was sufficient to save them, just as our trust in Jesus is sufficient to save us, even though we may not grasp atonement, redemption, propitiation or much else about Soteriology. When we come to the cross, we have minimal information about the Person of Jesus Christ and what He has done for us. God the Holy Spirit reveals enough to us, that we go on positive signals when we hear the gospel. For Jews and Gentiles in the Old Testament, it was the same thing. Enough was revealed to the Old Testament person so that they would choose to believe in the God of Israel; they would choose to trust in the God of Israel. In this verse, His glory if to be declared among the Gentiles.

Those to whom our Lord’s glory is to be declared, are the Gentiles (peoples, nations). I am sure you have seen this word transliterated: goy. Here, it is Goiim, which is plural. This is clearly a Messianic psalm aimed toward the Gentiles. God reaches out to the Gentiles in various ways, and we have examples of this through the Queen of Sheba and Jonah. However, in no way should we understand these as the sum total of Gentile evangelism. They are examples. Again and again in various lists—e.g., David’s mighty men—we have many Gentiles mentioned (Uriah the Hittite, for example). In the line of Christ, we find Gentiles, e.g. as Ruth the Moabite. We know how God instructed Jonah to evangelize the Assyrians, a people he despised; and it is reasonable to assume that God, from time to time, moved other men to evangelize other groups of Gentiles.

Now, because Gentile evangelism was not codified in the Law, these words must have surprised the Jews, who gathered together for this national, religious celebration, and they hear the Levites sing loudly, Declare our Lord’s glory to the Gentiles. Some may have understood this and some may not have; but it is like any other doctrine which is a part of the Christian life—some believers understand it and most do not. I should point out that this is not a rare thing; we find similar statements in Psalm 2:8 9:1, 8, 11 18:43, 49 22:27–28 46:10 57:9 59:5 67:2 72:17 82:8 86:9 97:1 98:2 100:1 102:15 103:8 117:1. We will look at some of these verses shortly when we examine Gentile Evangelism in the Old Testament and later in the short doctrine Old Testament Calls to Evangelize the Gentiles.

There is one more thing that I should deal with, and that is the preposition in this verse: we do not have the lâmed preposition, which means to, for; we have the bêyth preposition instead, which indicates that they should declare our Lord’s glory among or within the Gentiles. This does not mean that the Jews are sandwiched between Gentile nations, and in their own nation, they are to glorify God (that would be in the midst of, a slightly different phrase); but they are to proclaim the Lord’s glory among or within the Gentiles, which essentially evokes the image of an evangelist.

This is also very accurate from a theological stance. I’ve given the gospel out a few times, and I am sure that, for some, it did not penetrate their skulls. This is the nature of the gospel. God the Holy Spirit must make the gospel clear and perspicuous to the hearer. Sometimes God does this, and the gospel stays with a person for a long time until they believe; I’v known one person who believed in Jesus Christ like this. There are others who, God speaks to, they hear the gospel, yet they neglect to believe, and it disappears from their thinking until they hear it again. Then there are others who, for whatever reason—intense negative volition, lots of scar tissue—that they hear the words and it never penetrates their skull.

Personally, I never heard or understood the gospel until age 21. If I heard it prior to this time, then it either did not penetrate my mind or if it did, I forgot about it, because when I first read the gospel, and understood the mechanics, it was a new thing to my mind.

My point in all of this is, I heard the evangelic message of God’s grace at various times, I am sure—I am certain that I heard Billy Graham on television and I did go to a Baptist Vacation Bible School one year—but I don’t know that it ever penetrated my soul. Whatever I heard, it either did not penetrate my soul or I simply forgot about it. If I heard the gospel in my earlier years, I certainly do not recall it. The gospel may have been proclaimed among me and other Gentiles, but not necessarily to me, as I have no such recollection.

Translation:...[declare] His extraordinary acts among the peoples;... God’s deliverance of Israel was spectacular. His taking them from Egypt through the desert and into Israel, and giving them the land was quite amazing. Throughout their history, God has been there closely involved with His people the Jews. So they are to declare these acts to all the peoples (we carry over the verb from the previous sentence).

The plural nouns used here and in v. 3a—the Gentiles and the nations—clearly suggests that the psalmist is declaring God’s works and glory outside of the nation Israel. Again, this implies that there was some evangelism which the Jews did outside of Israel. This is not a topic which the Old Testament spends much time with. There are clear instances of the evangelization of Gentiles, as with the Queen of Sheba or with Jonah going to Nineveh; but the primary focus of the Old Testament is upon God’s relationship with Israel. Now, we have clear hints of Old Testament evangelism in psalms (I have already given a long list of Scriptures from the psalms). However, I do not recall Gentile evangelism to be codified within the Mosaic Law.

On this topic, we do not know what occurred far outside of nation Israel—who believed in Jesus Christ and was saved from lands far away. However, Noah only had 3 sons, and they no doubt passed along what amounted to the gospel to their sons, and so on. Almost every culture has some sort of history or legend of a huge flood; so if this was carried on down through the ages, the God of Adam must have also been known to many as well. In any case, we know that God is fair and that He provides the gospel for anyone who expresses positive volition toward Him.

God acted in the ancient world in such a way as to cause a wave of news to spread throughout the ancient world. People with doctrine are herein charged with the responsibility of recounting God’s works to others.

Let’s talk about this evangelism thing and our function in the plan of God in general. I know people on welfare. They sit at home, they smoke cigarettes, they watch tv all day long, and they get various things from our government. They will never be rich; they will never have financial independence; they will never be a in position to buy anything that they want. They are stuck where they are. I have no idea what goes on in their minds, but our government has essentially subsidized them into just the right amount of poverty. They get enough money for their basic needs, and enough money to preclude them getting an education or a job. Their existence is not a great one; it is basic subsistence. God is not looking to subsidize welfare recipients. God is not looking to have people who simply sit on their butts all day waiting for the next check. This is not a matter of paying God back or trying to get on God’s good side, or trying to earn a little grace from God—this is a mater of normal human function. Most of us, when we put in a hard day’s work, and it is somewhat successful, we often experience a moderate level of satisfaction. When I am able to figure out how to do something and I do it and it comes out right, even if I am exhausted, I have a good feeling about it. Our work on this earth involves the salvation of people; people who will enter into God’s rest based upon some of the things that we do and say. Our walk on this life may affect someone so that they choose to learn the Word of God and become spiritually self-sufficient. So, God does have a place for us and He does have something which He expects us to do. On the flip side, we will enjoy it; it will be gratifying. And we won’t be spiritual welfare recipients sitting at home waiting for the next check. That is, we will live on more than just logistical grace. Essentially, if logistical grace is your life, and you have not progressed from that, you are essentially on spiritual welfare. You are sitting at home waiting for your sustenance check to arrive. You’re not starting, you’re not bad off; but spiritually, it is just not very fulfilling.

I spent a long time in the working world, and there were some aspects of work which are very gratifying. I have worked on things around my house, including doing some of the remodeling and planning almost all of the remodeling, and this is very gratifying. With the advent of women’s liberation in the US, millions of women have entered into the working world and these same women have a very difficult time choosing between work and running a home and family. Often, work can be more gratifying; or at least seem more gratifying. Our Christian service is very similar to this. There is gratification from our involvement in God’s plan; there is gratification in knowing what God wants us to do and then doing it. If you are a new believer and you read this, and think to yourself, I’m not really interested in doing any of this religious stuff; that is fine. Don’t get the cart before the horse. Learn Bible doctrine; learn what God does for you, and with spiritual growth will come a genuine interest in spiritual function.

Just so I don’t confuse you here: I am not saying that you personally need to get out there and do something really spiritual. You need doctrine in your soul and production will be automatic. Production is a normal thing for a person to do as he grows spiritually; and it is not excessive. Remember Jesus exhorting His disciples to take His yoke upon themselves, because His yoke is easy and the burden is light (Matt. 11:30).

Let’s see if I can come up with another illustration: you are a royal ambassador. You are living in a foreign country and you have a basic living stipend (logistical grace). You have news of a better way; you have news of your own Sovereign Who will freely give to those who ask. You can either sit on your duff and live on this stipend or you can share the news of your Sovereign, Who will freely give to those who ask of Him. Associated with the sharing of this information is great personal satisfaction as well as additional rewards.

However, I need to reiterate this: you cannot serve until your grow spiritually. In many cases, you may have no interest in serving until you grow spiritually. If you are revved up and you want to get out there and do great things for God, this is wonderful and commendable, but you need to have an idea what God actually wants you to do.

Let’s say that the President of the United States hired you tomorrow to represent our country in some other land. Most of us would be flummoxed by such a responsibility and in order to fulfill this commission, we would need to study and understand the field manual in order to know what our actual responsibilities and duties are. It is no different in the Christian life. We have our field manual (the Bible) and the contents of this manual are taught in Bible class. If you do not bother to learn the field manual, then you are essentially living on the stipend our government gives you, and you are doing nothing for our government. This would be the equivalent to being on spiritual welfare, living on logistical grace alone. Once you have some training, then you will be motivated to function in this capacity and you will have a clue as to what you are actually supposed to be doing.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       For great [is] Y^ehowah

and being praised exceedingly;

being feared He above all elohim.

Septuagint                              For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: he is fearful [awe-inspiring] above all gods.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       The LORD is great and deserves our greatest praise! He is the only God worthy of our worship.

Good News Bible (TEV)         The LORD is great and is to be highly praised; he is to be honored more than all the gods.

The Message                         For GOD is great, and worth a thousand Hallelujahs. His terrible beauty makes the gods look cheap;...

New Century Version             ...because the Lord is great; he should be praised at all times.

He should be honored more than all the gods,...

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all other gods.

Easy English (Churchyard)    Because the *LORD is great, and everybody should say that he is great!

People should be more afraid of him than of all (other) gods.

God’s Word™                         The LORD is great! He should be highly praised. He should be feared more than all other gods...

JPS (Tanakh)                         For the Lord is great and much acclaimed,

He is held in awe by all divine beings.

NET Bible®                             For the LORD is great and certainly worthy of praise;

he is more awesome than all gods. Or perhaps "and feared by all gods." See Psalm 89:7.

NIRV                                               The Lord is great. He is really worthy of praise.

People should have respect for him as the greatest God of all.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; He is to be reverently feared and worshiped above all [so-called] gods.

Clarke’s Translation              Jehovah is great, and greatly to be praised.

Elohim is to be feared above all. Clarke does not have a separate translation, but he believes that Elohim ought to be the subject here in the final clause.

LTHB                                     For Jehovah is great and greatly to be praised; He is to be feared above all gods.

NRSV                                     For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;

he is to be revered above all gods.

Young's Literal Translation     For great is Jehovah, and praised greatly, Fearful He is over all gods.

What is the gist of this verse? The reason that the Jews were to evangelize all the world is that, their God is great and deserving of praise.

Translation: For Y^ehowah [is] great [and immutable]... At this point, we are given reasons why we ought to sing to Jehovah, why we should proclaim His name among the Gentiles, and why we should proclaim His Jesus. First, Jehovah is great, both in power and wealth and magnitude; He is immutable—He does not change. Jehovah is the true God of the world, the only God of the world.

Translation: ...and [He is] greatly praised [or, celebrated];... Secondly, Jehovah is to be greatly praised and He is worthy of extreme praise. The verb can also mean celebrated, and, given the fact that we are sinful creatures who ought to be tossed into the Lake of Fire, we ought to reasonably celebrate our relationship to Him.

If you were about to be executed and the governor not only stayed the execution, but freed you, you would be quite thankful to that governor. I know someone who actually had to call upon Dennis Kucinich for a favor, and he came through, and this person has a great deal of respect and gratitude for Kucinich for this reason. To me, this man was just another unqualified Democrat running for president, but to her, this was a man who came through for her, who took up her cause and did not let her down. For that reason, she has a great deal of respect and gratitude toward Kucinich, which I fully understand. Jesus Christ has taken the punishment which we fully deserve upon Himself. We ought to be tossed into the Lake of Fire and burn forever for our sins and our rebellion; therefore, when David calls upon us here to praise Jesus Christ, our Savior, such a request is reasonable.

The continual calling upon man to praise God is not some super-ego thing. Who are you going to praise instead? Some movie star? Yourself? Buddha, whose religion has led many people into hell? There is only one logical and true celebrity in life, and that is Jesus Christ, Who died for our sins. It is impossible for us to fathom just how much suffering was involved at the cross. The cross itself and the physical pain involved is not the issue; God poured out all of our sins on Jesus Christ and judged Him for our sins. This is a pain and suffering which we will never know or completely understand or appreciate. So, Jesus Christ should be greatly praised.

Translation: ...He [is] feared [and respected] above all gods;... This is one of the many passages which indicates that our Lord is exclusive; there is none of this, worship whatever local god in whatever way that you choose; all roads lead to Rome. Jehovah Elohim of the Old Testament and Jesus Christ of the New is portrayed as a very specific God—He is the God of the Universe Who created all things, and He is all-powerful, immutable, perfect justice and perfect righteousness, and, apart from Him, there is no other. At the time of this psalm, we are speaking of Jehovah Elohim, the God of the Jews, the revealed member of the Trinity. However, as we read back in v. 2, we are to proclaim the good news of His Jesus, Who is Jehovah Elohim.

Furthermore, there has only been one sacrifice made which is efficacious, and that is Jesus Christ. Buddha did not die for our sins; Mohammed did not die for our sins; Confucius did not die for our sins. None of these men even point to our Lord in any way; they are just men, and probably burning in torments right this moment with most of their followers. For these reason, Jesus Christ is to be feared, respected and revered above all gods.

Barnes comments: He is to be revered and adored above all that are called gods. Higher honor is to be given Him; more lofty praise is to be ascribed to Him. He is Ruler over all the earth, and has a claim to universal praise. Even if it were admitted that they were real gods, yet it would still be true that they were local and inferior divinities; that they ruled only over the particular countries where they were worshipped and acknowledged as gods, and that they had no claim to “universal” adoration as Yahweh has.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       For all elohim of the people [are] empty [vain] things,

and Y^ehowah [the two] heavens made.

Septuagint                              For all the gods of the heathen are demons: but the Lord made the heavens.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Other nations worship idols, but the LORD created the heavens.

The Message                         Pagan gods are mere tatters and rags. GOD made the heavens—...

New American Bible              For the gods of the nations all do nothing,

but the Lord made the heavens.

New Life Version                    For all the gods of the nations are false gods. But the Lord made the heavens.

New Living Translation           The gods of other nations are mere idols,

but the Lord made the heavens!

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             For all the gods of the nations are false gods; but the Lord made the heavens.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      For all the gods of the heathen are demons; but the Lord made the heavens.

Easy English (Churchyard)    Because all the gods of every country are false.

But the *LORD made everything.

JPS (Tanakh)                         All the gods of the peoples are mere idols,

but the Lord made the heavens.

NET Bible®                             For all the gods of the nations are worthless [The Hebrew term אֱלִיל ('elilim, "worthless") sounds like אלֹהִים ('elohim, "gods"). The sound play draws attention to the statement],

but the LORD made the sky.

New International Version      All of the gods of the nations are like their statues.

They can't do anything.

But the Lord made the heavens.

The Scriptures 1998              For all the mighty ones of the peoples are matters of naught, But יהוה made the heavens.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                For all the gods of the nations are [lifeless] idols, but the Lord made the heavens.

Updated Emphasized Bible    For all the gods of the peoples are things of nothing [or, nobodies];

But Yahweh made the heavens.

MKJV                                     For all the gods of the nations are idols; but Jehovah made the heavens.

Young's Updated LT              For all the gods of the peoples [are] nothing, And Jehovah made the heavens.

What is the gist of this verse? The gods of the various nations are nothing; Jehovah Elohim created all things.

Translation: For all the gods of the people [are but] empty idols;... Again and again in Scripture, the exclusivity of our God is emphasized. Any god put forth by heathen is weak, deficient, and insufficient; heathen gods are false at their very core, and empty idols.

Bullinger suggests that this could read: The gods of the nations are imaginations. We know that there are demons which abound in this world and sometimes, in some way, demons affix themselves to idols. However, since the gods made by man are spoken of again and again as being empty, it is reasonable for us to suppose that, no particular demon or cadre of demons is assigned to any humanly-devised god (like Molech or Allah). However, it is equally reasonable to suppose that, at any given time, there are demons associated with these gods. The Bible is never very specific here, and our interrelationship with demons is never laid out with great specifics either. For instance, Jesus cast out demons, as did His disciples; but nowhere in the epistles do we have a list of specific mechanics relating to the casting out of demons, nor do we even find any mechanics given in the gospels. This would suggest that, although we are in the Angelic Conflict, that our actual interaction with demons, apart from their doctrines, is minimal.

Barnes writes: The meaning here is, that they were mere nothings; they had no real existence; they were the creations of the imagination; they could not in any sense be regarded as what it was pretended they were; they had no claim to reverence and worship as gods. Of most of them it was a fact that they had no existence at all, but were mere creatures of fancy. Of those that did really exist, as the sun, moon, stars, animals, or the spirits of departed people, though it was true that they had an actual existence, yet it was also true that they had no existence “as gods,” or as entitled to worship; and hence, it was also true that the worship offered to them was as vain as that which was offered to mere beings of the imagination.

Translation: ...and Y^ehowah made the [two] heavens. David (or Asaph) gives one simple reason why Jehovah Elohim is the only God—He created the two heavens, which would be the atmosphere and outer space. No religious figure or icon can make such a statement.

The thrust of this verse is, the gods of other nations are mere idols; and that God made the heavens. These heathen gods are thought to inhabit the heavens, and yet, Jehovah Elohim, the God of the Jews, actually made these heavens where they supposedly cavort. Now note how universal the thrust of this psalm is: (1) it is directed to the nations (vv. 3, 7, 9–10, 13) and (2) the true God of all mankind is Jehovah Elohim (vv. 2, 4, 7–10, 13) because the heathen gods are empty, meaningless idols (vv. 4–5).

There are two very amazing things about what God has created: what He has created is larger than we can even imagine. We can barely imagine our distance from the sun (93 million miles), the relationship between the size of the earth, the sun and the distance between us is something that few people fathom. We see a book with a picture of the planets rotating around the sun, and we do not have a clue as to how out of balance that artistic retention is. If we wanted to give a true representation of the sun and earth and the distance between them in a book, it would be flat out impossible. We could not print it, because even the sun would be too small. It would not even occupy one pixel of area, if a true representation of the distance between the earth and sun was to be represented to scale in a book. And this distance is nothing; 93 million miles of distance in space is tiny. The second amazing thing about what God has created is, just how small things are. It is beyond our ability to imagine the size of an atom, a proton or an electron. We see models of these things, but it is beyond our imagination to grasp how much space is between the various molecules of any substance or compound. We have very reasonable theories as to the way things are put together at an atomic level, but these things are far too small for us to see, even with the greatest microscopes. If you are not an artist, and you are given some burnt bark and a cave wall, and told to draw a picture of your mother, your finished result would be much more accurate than the pictures and drawings of what is going on at the atomic level in any chemistry book. And, apparently, the proton, neutron and electron are not the most basic building blocks, but they appear to be made of sub-atomic particles (and we have no idea how much further this can go). But, in any case, we can barely imagine those things at that size and draw crude, caveman drawings of these things. All that is created by God is too vast to imagine as well as too small to appreciate or to actually draw a reasonable representation of. It is amazing. And as small as a molecule to us is, we are even smaller in comparison to the universe that we live in; and yet, Christ died for us.

Can you imagine building some statue of some sort with your two hands and then worshiping that statue? Do you see how foolish that is to God Who created the universe—something whose vastness and smallness cannot be even imagined by us? Or can you imagine how silly it is for us to develop philosophies and religions—idols of our imaginations—and then worshiping whatever sort of imaginary god that we have created? And further, do you see how insulting it is to worship that which is not God, when He died for us? Look, if you were to sit down with a piece of paper and plus and minus columns, to compare, for instance, God and idols; or God and your own personal philosophy or religion (or that which you have been indoctrinated with), how lopsided this would be? For all gods are empty, meaningless idols; but Jehovah created the universe. These gods, these idols, these religious philosophies which you have developed, are nothing and meaningless; but God created the universe, which is far greater than you can even imagine.

Barnes comments: The power of “creation” - of causing anything to exist where there was nothing before - must pertain to God alone, and is the highest act of Divinity. No pretended pagan god has that power; no man has that power.

Remember, we are made in God’s image, so one aspect of our character, to whatever degree, is to create things (strictly speaking, we make things). For those of you who have ever built a bookcase, redesigned your kitchen, dug out a garden, customized your car, designed a worksheet or a test, developed a series of exercises for your team or your recruits—these acts are a reflection of Jehovah, Who made the two heavens and all that is in them.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Masoretic Text                       Majesty and splendor to His faces;

strength and glory in His sanctuary.

Septuagint                              Thanksgiving and beauty are before him: holiness and majesty are in his sanctuary.

Significant differences:           None.

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Give honor and praise to the LORD, whose power and beauty fill his holy temple."

Good News Bible (TEV)         Glory and majesty surround him; power and beauty fill his Temple.

The Message                         Royal splendor radiates from him, A powerful beauty sets him apart.

New American Bible              Splendor and power go before him;

power and grandeur are in his holy place.

New Century Version             The Lord has glory and majesty;

he has power and beauty in his Temple.

New Life Version                    Honor and great power are with Him. Strength and beauty are in His holy place.

New Living Translation           Honor and majesty surround him;

strength and beauty fill his sanctuary.

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Honour and glory are before him: strong and fair is his holy place.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      Thanksgiving and beauty are before Him; holiness and majesty are in His sanctuary.

Easy English (Churchyard)    (People that) are near him can see that he is a very great king.

(People that) are in his house can see that he is strong and beautiful.

God’s Word™                         Splendor and majesty are in his presence. Strength and beauty are in his holy place.

JPS (Tanakh)                         Glory and majesty are before Him;

strength and splendor are in His temple.

NET Bible®                             Majestic splendor emanates from him [Hebrew "majesty and splendor [are] before him"];

his sanctuary is firmly established and beautiful [Hebrew "strength and beauty [are] in his sanctuary"].

NIRV                                               Glory and majesty are all around him.

Strength and glory can be seen in his temple.

The Scriptures 1998              Excellency and splendour are before Him, Strength and comeliness are in His set-apart place.

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                Honor and majesty are before Him; strength and beauty are in His sanctuary.

Updated Emphasized Bible    Praise and majesty are before Him,

Strength and beauty [some codices have, joy; see 1Chron. 16:27] are in His sanctuary [some codices have, dwelling place; see 1Chron. 16:27].

NRSV                                     Honor and majesty are before him;

strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

Young's Updated LT              Honour and majesty [are] before Him, Strength and beauty in His sanctuary.

What is the gist of this verse? Before God the Father stands God the Son and the Holy Spirit (metaphorically speaking) as majestic and honorable. God’s strength and beauty can be found in His sanctuary.

Translation: Majesty and Splendor [are] before Him [or, in His sight];... What I see here is the Trinity. There is Jehovah Elohim, and in front of Him, in His sight is Majesty and Splendor. In God’s presence are the other two members of the Trinity, who have equivalent essence, and are therefore called, Majestic and Splendiferous.