I got back into my study this Wednesday, after being away with my family for over a week as my dad worsened in the hospital and we brought him home to die with his people. The worst storm in ages was playing havoc with the roads, and it was cold the day my father went to be with Jesus. The next day, my daughter was calling for sledding and snowball fights, as I worked through obituaries, funeral arrangements, and getting our house back to normal.
Josh met me at the church to catch up and asked if I needed him to preach. I told him how much I appreciated it, but I needed to be in my study with all the familiar tools of my trade around me. I figured it would be therapeutic; it ended up being even better than I thought, and it did clarify some things for me, in my own thinking and reflection. I can’t wait to share it with you.
Psalm 96 is all joy: it overflows with joy and brims with hope. It is eaten up with singing and praising, and the end of the Psalm pictures not the world as we know it, but a future glory—where God’s rule and reign are complete, heaven and earth are one, and all is as it should be. Kidner says it like this: “Where God rules (it implies), his humblest creatures can be themselves; where God is, there is singing. At the creation, ‘the morning stars sang together’; at his coming the earth will at last join in again; meanwhile the Psalter itself shows what effects his presence has on those who, even through a glass, darkly, already see his face.” (Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150)
Notice he says that while we see through a glass darkly, we still see. And also note the effect of this future reality on us now! This week we will talk about it and see just how much better Jesus is.
Blessings,
Jim