“Psalm 96: Calling for a Party” (Part Two)

Celebrate God,

our great Creator (96:4-6, 7-9)

He reigns because He owns the place.  He made it.  We are His creatures.

Our celebration of God is meant to be a conscious and constant joy inside us.  Even in the middle of pain.

And it is very easy to stay so busy; it is so normal to forget all this.

These thoughts are not to make us feel guilty about that, but just to start stopping to have parties along the way.  Celebrate God, with a song in our hearts.  With a prayer of thanksgiving.  With reminders of His greatness.

Verses 4 and 5 are pretty plain – He is above all gods.  In fact they are, literally, “no things.”  Isaiah says all that in chapter 40 when he scolds the people for giving time to vanities or idols, icons, or substitutes.

The Bible says what manmade gods really are – “no things.”

There is nothing to celebrate about sports or money if those are our gods.  Nothing that gets you through pain or handles your tension on a death bed or in tragedy.

But God is willing to give peace and be our strength by His Holy Spirit.  He is above all gods, and they are nothing.

Verses 6-9 are just plain majestic and splendorous in the way they describe God.  And all of this is part of the church purpose and ours as pastors, to point out not only the past miracles and majesty of God, but to call attention to who He is today.

Splendor and majesty and strength and glory are His.  In front of all of us are stones and rocks and dust and mistakes.  But in front of God are evidences of His holiness and His position.

Here we should show PowerPoint slides of His creation!  Or at least have them in our minds.  Or at least talk about the butterfly and the baby, the canyon and the sunset.  And especially to think about our own personhood – that we are spiritual beings who live in these amazingly designed bodies to give glory to God for all of our lives.  That this God of salvation not only will return to make the world the place God meant it to be in the first place, but to change who we are right now.  To resurrect our bodies.  To wind up all evil.  To make all things right.  To rule as He promised He would someday.

But in the meantime, we should have parties when we see a sunrise or know a day has been given to us again.  We should celebrate who God is with our friends, and even raise questions that simply provoke a thought or song of gratitude: “Isn’t God good to us?”

“Isn’t it amazing how the starlings turn to the left and right as a flock – who taught them that?”

“Check that full moon – how do the scientists know exactly what day it will be there again?”

“What a wonderful gift is your new baby!  Who designed that body?  Who made her a living soul?”

A celebration of the creation of God is meant to be a constant in our minds.  His two great works are creation and salvation, and we easily neglect them both.  In fact, they are the two boycotted subjects in many homes or schools.

You would be, and I would be, very disappointed if we created something or made something as the work of our hands and our friends just looked at it and yawned.  A cook who goes to such trouble to present a beautiful meal at least deserves a word of thanks and credit.

Surely God must feel disappointed that we celebrate His creation so little or misuse it so much.  But we can turn that around.

And so the church often starts its services singing something like, “All creatures of our God and King, lift up your voice and with us sing, Halleluiah…”

And we can do it personally.

One of the great reasons for the church is to call attention to who made this and why we are here and where it is all going.  The Lord reigns!

Let it be said and sung.  Let it be the theme of our party.  Let it be a celebration every Sunday as you call people to do that every day in a personal way also.

Farmers probably see this more clearly than most.  Children sometimes notice it when they see a sunset for the first time.  “David, go down to the sea in ships, they see His wonders in the deep” (Psalm 107:22-24 ).

And yet even in the city or the busyness in our lives and the blockage of skyscrapers – we still must notice it.  Our creator is magnificent.

His work is astounding.

And behind the scenes, we are told, and we believe, that He reigns.

The Blue Heron is His, and the gorgeous deer, and the wondrous future.  So the church is a place of celebration.  And we are people of praise.