Sing His Praise among the Nations

My dad planted a church in New Orleans, and the music was soulful. My mom played the Hammond B3 organ, and she sang riffs into the open spaces of the song. We sang a song growing up; it was so simple, but it was drawn straight from Scripture. We’d clap our hands on beats two and four and sing, “He Has Made Me Glad.” I would look around and watch those believers, and here’s what I was learning even as a child: The Lord is great and is highly praised! Listen, the nations aren’t drawn to praise God if his own people look like they’re doing chores. I wonder whether unbelievers who happen to come into the gathering of God’s people ever leave thinking, God seemed real! Those people sang as if God was giving them hope—as if God were holding them up, supplying them with strength.

Every Rival God Leaves Us Empty

That’s the reminder of verse 5. “All the gods of the peoples are idols.” In the original Hebrew it’s a play on words. All the elohim of the people are elilim. Elohim is the word for “God.” Elilim is the word for “nothing.” In other words, what they treat as a god really has no power, no life. This means you can buy all the cars and houses you ever dreamed of. You can get the trophy spouse and the corner office. You can wrap your fingers around every joy held out by this world, but you’ll never know rest a day in this world without Christ. Every trinket, self-help solution, or man-made religion is just one more in an endless line of broken cisterns that hold no water (Jer 2:13). Meanwhile, the living God is in verse 6. All the beauty your soul longs for isn’t on the next website. If only we knew where true strength and beauty are found. The Lord is the strength of his people. Jesus gives beauty for ashes. Jesus makes all things new.

That’s why we sing the way we do. The one explanation for the singing of the church is the greatness and strength and beauty of our God.

A Global Summons

Psalm 96:7-13

We call the nations to worship. Think about the work of the church. Why do we send out missionaries, including to places that are hostile to Christian witness, to closed countries where it’s illegal to convert to Christianity? We do it because verse 3 commands the people of God to “declare his glory among the nations.” It’s a global invocation, a global call to worship.

I remember the first time I heard the Muslim call to prayer in the horn of Africa. Suddenly a voice was singing over a loud speaker, and you heard it all over the city at the appointed hours. Unless you’ve learned the language, you can’t tell what they’re singing. Here’s what’s being broadcast all over the city:

God is the greatest!

I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except God.

I bear witness that Mohammed is the messenger of God.

Hasten to prayer.

Hasten to security.

God is the greatest!

There is no god but Allah.

I was sitting on the floor in the home of a gracious Muslim family. We were eating and talking. Then came the call to worship. The men stood and excused themselves to go and pray. They heard the call and answered. In our passage there is a wider call. Verses 7-12 are a call to worship that rings out over the whole cosmos.

As we go with the gospel, we go with verse 10 beating in our hearts. We go to say among the nations, “The Lord reigns!” To declare that Jesus Christ is Lord. To announce that the one and only Savior has come. He lived the life we could not live. He died the death we deserved to die. He rose and conquered the enemy that we could never conquer. This King now reigns over the nations. This King will return to judge the world in righteousness. But whoever trusts him now, whoever calls on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. This salvation is gloriously comprehensive: sins forgiven, conscience cleansed, death defeated, adopted into his forever family, and destined for pleasures evermore at his right hand.

As local churches committed to the Great Commission, our praying, giving, going, and sending are all aimed at one thing: global worship! We’re saying, “Ascribe to the Lord, you nations, you families of the peoples. You Hui. You Baloch. Kurds. Egyptians. Come sing a new song to the Lord. Let the whole earth sing to the Lord!” And we do this in the confidence that our labor will not be in vain. We call the nations to worship, knowing the nations will join in the singing.

What happens when the nations hear and turn from idols to ascribe glory to the one true and living God? The answer is in verses 11-12. The heavens are glad. The earth rejoices. The sea resounds. The fields celebrate. The trees shout for joy. What beautiful imagery! The gospel leaves joy in its wake. The Great Commission is the awesome prospect of good news spreading around the world. It’s a joy project. It’s gladness in tennis shoes, joy on the run.

We, God’s image bearers, were created for song. Our voices were broken at the fall, but many places in Scripture remind us that the world is waiting for the grand finale of history. Isaiah prophesied that God’s people would sing again. Isaiah 51 points to the finale of God’s redemptive story, when his redeemed exiles come home: “And the ransomed of the Lord will return and come to Zion with singing, crowned with unending joy. Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee” (Isa 51:11).

Christians are a singing people. We always have been, and we always will be. Christian, when God saved you, he retuned your voice. He put a new song in your mouth. However, we are not called to sing alone. We are called to sing in a way that invites others to join in the song. And we know the nations will join in the singing because we happen to have a window into the future. If you ever wonder what will become of the nations that are still shrouded in darkness, without the light of the gospel, Revelation 5 says, “I’m glad you asked.”

When he took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and golden bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song:

You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and you purchased people for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation. You made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will reign on the earth.

Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and also of the living creatures and of the elders. Their number was countless thousands, plus thousands of thousands. They said with a loud voice,

Worthy is the Lamb who was slaughtered to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing!

I heard every creature in heaven, on earth, under the earth, on the sea, and everything in them say,

Blessing and honor and glory and power be to the one seated on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!

The four living creatures said, “Amen,” and the elders fell down and worshiped. (Rev 5:8-14)

Missions exists because worship doesn’t. When this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. (Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad, 17)

Missions exists because worship doesn’t. What kind of church do we want to be? We can live for passing pleasures, or we can spread eternal joy. Christian friend, salvation has retuned your voice. Here’s God’s call on your newfound voice. Sing. Sing a new song. Sing and bless his name. Sing and tell his salvation. Sing and declare his glory among the nations. Sing for he is great and greatly to be praised.

Reflect and Discuss