I want to read all of our songs today for, they're not really the law, so I wanted to have it be an Old Testament reading. And they're all four short little songs in the end of the 90s of the Psalter. And they will be, they will have a topic today, both Christ's birth and his second coming as well. So let's pay attention very closely because this is God's holy word. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord all the earth. Sing to the Lord and bless his name. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous work among all the peoples. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. The splendor and majesty are before him. Strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name. Bring an offering and come into His courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. Tremble before Him all the earth. Say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the heavens be glad and let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult in everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness. The Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the many coastlands be glad. Clouds and thick darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up his adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness and all the people see his glory. All worshipers of images are put to shame. who make their boast in worthless idols. Worship him, all you gods. Zion hears and is glad, and his daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord. For you, O Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. O you who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the lives of his saints. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name. A psalm. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and with the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and all those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. The Lord reigns. Let the peoples tremble. He sits enthroned above the cherubim. Let the earth quake. The Lord is the great in Zion. He is exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. The King in his might loves justice. You have established equity. You have executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. Exalt the Lord our God. Worship at his footstool. Holy is he. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the Lord and he answered them. In the pillar of the cloud, he spoke to them. They kept his testimonies and statutes that he gave them. Oh, Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings. Exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. So as happens many times as I'm preaching through books, I usually don't have to stop to give like a Christmas sermon. This has happened time and again, and we're going to see that again today that the passages that we're in talk about what it is that most people are doing as they come to church on this day, but they talk about so much more than that. So I'm gonna give you a recap of something that I think everybody in here probably has heard at least once in their life, but it's worth hearing again. And it's a recap of what it means that Jesus is the king. He came as one who was born the king. On their way to Jerusalem from a land far to the east, several magi traveled maybe as many as a thousand miles or more to see the one that the stars foretold would be born, as Matthew says, king of the Jews. The son of David, and David is the king and he's the son, so it would mean he would be the king. This man, Jesus of Nazareth, would grow in the grace and knowledge of God. As the time for his ministry would draw near, around the age of 30, he would call disciples to himself. And one of these disciples was a man named Nathaniel. And Nathanael would come to understand in a very personal way the power of Jesus' omniscience when he saw him under the fig tree. And he would confess, Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. And for three years this king would not rule from a throne inside of a castle, but would minister throughout the land, person to person, cleansing, and healing, and feeding, and providing, and teaching, until it all came to this climactic end in the last week of his life. And you remember that first day of that week, he was ushered into the holy city on a donkey, just like his father David before him, to shouts of Hosanna. And they said, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest. But by that week's end, he was on trial for crimes that he did not commit. Are you the king of the Jews? Pilate asked him. You have said so, Jesus responded. And by morning's new light, he found himself hanging on a cross. Soldiers began to mock him. Hail, king of the Jews. And a sign with the same slogan was put over his head for everyone to see. The king died that morning in humiliation. And it was humiliation for you, for his death was a gracious atonement that satisfied the wrath of God for sin and provided the way whereby people from every tribe and tongue and nation could be reconciled to a holy God. And since he died for your sins and not his own, It wasn't just that he would be dead and death could not hold him. So he rose from the dead early on the first morning of the new week. And 40 days later, after showing himself to hundreds of people after he had been dead, he ascended in the clouds of heaven to sit at the right hand of the father, which is a sign of kingly authority enthroned above every name that is named. Now many years later, an old scraggly man living as a prisoner on a cold barren rock called Patmos saw a sign in heaven. A host of heaven he saw, those who had conquered the great beast and its image, were standing beside a sea of glass that was mingled with fire. They had harps in their hands and they were singing by the shore the song of Moses, it says, and yet it says it was a new song, the song of the Lamb. Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God, the Almighty. Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations. Later he saw another vision. He said, Behold a white horse, the one sitting on it is faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and in the name by which he is called the Word of God. And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. And he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. So this is the great story of the great King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to earth as a man, born in the womb of a virgin, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. The third day he rose from the dead. He ascended to heaven. From whence he will come to judge the living and the dead, as we've confessed this morning. But this is also the story that's told by Psalms 96 through 99. The four of which we're going to look at now. So let me start by giving us a little background as we usually do of where we're at in the Psalter as we're going through this great book of songs. So four songs, 96 through 99, continue a string of several songs that talk in profound ways about all that it means that God is king. Many have noticed that Psalms 96 through 98 share a lot of themes in common. Some of them include themes from 93 and 94 in the mix. When discussing the Psalms together, it's usually those three that get their own grouping, but a few have noticed that all four of these can be grouped together. With 96 and 97 forming one division and 98 and 99 forming a second parallel division. And it seems to me that without question when you group them as two and two like this and you see their placement is deliberate. and that they are meant to be mutually interpreted of one another. So, for those of you who have the PDF, you can see even in the way that I gave you the Psalms at the beginning, I've put them in parallel form so that you can notice the verses side-by-side. But here's an example, or a couple of examples of this. Listen to how Psalm 96 begins, O sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth. Now listen to how Psalm 98 begins, O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. Both of those songs, 96 and 98, end almost exactly the same way. Before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness. Before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. Do you hear how they're saying the same thing? Again, 97 and 99 begin almost the same way. The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice. The Lord reigns, let the peoples tremble. And then they have similar ideas at the end as well. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to his holy name. Or exalt the Lord our God and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. So when you read them together, you see that they tell us about God the King in relation to complementary things. They're not telling the exact same thing, but they're complementary. The first two that we'll look at are focusing in a great way on heaven. In them, Yahweh is the God of gods. In these two songs, both heavens and gods appear several times. However, neither idea occurs in the next two songs. By way of contrast, 98 and 99 talk about things that are below, especially God's chosen people. So you find things like Israel, Zion, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, and Samuel. Those ideas are not found in the first two songs. Back in the first two, though, while there is a focus on the heavens and the gods, there's also this great emphasis on the nations, and the world, and the earth, and the peoples. So think about this for a moment, if you will. Why would he talk about the heavens, and the gods, and then the nations, and the earth, and the peoples? Well, it's because the nations have their gods, and the gods are what led the whole world into darkness. Yet God is still king over all the nations. Now by again, way of contrast, the second two songs also sing about the nations and the world and the earth and the peoples, but they do so only in as much as the Lord has made himself known to them through Israel. And only in as much as God will judge everyone on the earth, including his people. Now, all of this is wrapped together in verses that are like bookends holding a great series of novels together, which prophesy incredible things about the Incarnation and the Second Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's just a couple on the Incarnation. For example, Psalm 97 7. Worship Him, all you gods. Now, what does that have to do with the Incarnation of Jesus and His birth? Well, this is a prophecy of Jesus, as we will see later. Psalm 98.3, it says, he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to all the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Again, you may go, what does that have to do with the birth of Jesus? Stick around and you'll see, okay? There's verses about the second coming as well. Two of the songs end in nearly identical words as we saw. Psalm 96 ends, Before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in faithfulness. And then 98 ends almost exactly the same way. Along with Old Testament images of God's having already come, these words point even to our own future as we eagerly await the glorious return of Jesus Christ, the King. But Jesus isn't just in the future in these Psalms. The thing to grasp is that for Israel, even back then, okay, a thousand years before Jesus came in the flesh, Yahweh already was the King. It is this Yahweh, listen carefully, it is this Yahweh who is the king already, who is coming in the future in these songs. So if Jesus is the one who fulfilled those words, and the one who was coming was Yahweh, then Jesus is the Yahweh of these songs, the God of Israel in the Old Testament. So, let's go to each one and we'll look at them briefly. Psalm 96 is a preparation of the nations. The king is coming. The songs do not introduce all of these things at once or in a tidy outline like we've just seen, but they wade you down slowly into these pristine deep waters of the world to come. Psalm 96 sets the stage for the incarnation, even as it ends in the second coming. It focuses on the nations of the earth, the people living in darkness who were promised to be blessed in Abraham. The song was written during the days of David and it's almost word-for-word repeated from the second half of a song that you find in First Chronicles 16. Now, one of the few changes that appears there is at the beginning. The psalm adds things that are not in the Chronicles version. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. That's not in the Chronicles edition. The word new attached with song has been sung before. In fact, it's interesting, the phrase appears seven times in the Old Testament and two times in the New Testament. And Tremper Longman has argued that it always occurs in a military context, including the two New Testament times. That was new to me. So when it sings about a new song, God is doing something new militarily. That's true of our songs today as well. In the Psalm, the new song is sung to Yahweh, the Lord, all caps. But in the New Testament, the new song is sung to Jesus. In one of those instances, Jesus' death and his ransoming people from the nations is the object of the new song, and the language is warfare. In other words, Jesus is Yahweh again. This is Revelation 5. We read it earlier. They sang a new song saying, worthy are you to take the scroll and 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 into a kingdom and priests to our God and they shall reign on the earth. The cross of Jesus is the ultimate expression of a battle of supernatural proportions. even as Christ's ministry, as he's going through the towns, casting out demons as a proclamation of his power over them. Notice how in the psalm, back in Psalm 96, it's the whole earth that is to sing. Sing to Yahweh all the earth. That's the same thing you find in Revelation 5 with that new song. And of all the Old Testament usages of this phrase, new song, by far and away, Psalm 96 fits Revelation 5 the best. For this psalm is directed towards the same peoples, the whole world. So what is the message of the new song? What is the earth to sing? Verse 2, sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day. Now again, when you hear that kind of language, you easily think of Jesus, salvation, even though it's a psalm. Salvation is the mighty thing to be sung about. And in the context of the new song, salvation is the spoils of war. It's available to the nations. The nation God has chosen is singing about salvation that's being made available to all the nations. The Old Testament, especially the Prophets, but also the Psalms, regularly predicts this otherwise unforeseen grace of God to the nations. And amazingly, this is exactly what Jesus does in Revelation 5, as he's ransoming the peoples of the world. John sees Yahweh of 96 as Jesus in Revelation 5. In the song, salvation comes because of God's glory. Here's Psalm 96 again. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous works among the peoples. So salvation is the glory of God there. It refers to Jesus as John says it's fulfilled in the incarnation. We have seen His glory, the glory of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth. The song is saying that the glory is coming to bring salvation to all the world to benefit from the marvelous works of God. And John says we've seen that glory who is the Son of God. After this three-verse introduction in Psalm 96, the king theme that's so prominent in this whole collection of songs now begins to seep up into the forefront. And it does this first by showing who Yahweh is in relation to the gods of the nations. the very beings that those nations presently worship and serve. So look at verse four. For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. He is to be feared above all gods. Now we saw the gods come up in the previous three songs, especially in the last song in 95. And they will return in the next song. And since it's explicit and prominent theme in half of our songs, I want to talk a little bit more about them. A little here, and then a little bit as we come to Psalm 97. So this idea of the gods really throws some people for a loop, and I understand that it does. Most people in the West, including Christians, think that the gods are as real as the X-Men. Am I wrong? They are purely figments of the imagination of men. But this is not the view of the scripture. Ask yourself, what sense does it make to tell someone that God is to be feared more than Magneto? Is that not actually a mockery to compare the greatest being in the universe to something that doesn't even exist? Yet that's exactly what people think about the gods. One of the reasons may very well be the next verse, verse 5. For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens. And that's the translation in the ESV. The ESV and many other translations make it sound like the gods and idols are identical things. And we know that idols are man-made objects, right? And so the idea becomes that gods must be man-made inventions too, but that's not what the Hebrew word means here. The normal word for an idol, for example, that's found in the second commandment, which is talking about those things made of stone or wood, is the word pestle. And it refers to man-made statues of some kind that were meant to represent, or better, to house some kind of an invisible spiritual being. Through an incantation, they thought that the deity would come and reside in the idol. But that's not the word that's used here. The word that's used here is the word el-elim. The word means worthless, or vain, or insignificant, or empty. Sometimes the word is parallel to a pestle or a pillar or a figure of stone, but those are always things that are representing something. What are they representing? Well, according to the Bible, they're representing something that is worthless, but not necessarily something that doesn't exist. For example, Job had worthless counselors, same word, but they still existed, right? Here the word is parallel to Elohim, so it becomes a wordplay. The Elohim are Elilim, they are worthless. And importantly, the translators of the Septuagint into the Greek understood this point well. And so they translate it not as worthless idols, but as demons. The gods of the nations are demons. That puts a little bit of a different spin on it, doesn't it? As much as we could continue to investigate what's going on here, we could lose ourselves pretty quickly in the reason that the gods are brought up. God is comparing himself to them and calling them worthless. And why is he doing that in the song? It's because the Lord made the heavens. Their worthlessness is their powerlessness. They are impotent compared to him. Therefore, he is to be feared, not them. Now in the context of a war, especially Jesus' victory over Satan, I said this is a new song. It's warfare. What is Satan called in the New Testament? The God of this world. In the context of that at the cross, this should take on very precious significance to you. Satan is powerless. God made the heavens. God made Satan. This should keep you from ever being tempted to worship supernatural beings. The Bible mocks their power and through it, and though it's vastly greater than your own, their power, your God's infinitely greater than they are because he created them. The king theme is developed more as the song winds down. Verse six, splendor and majesty are before him, strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. Now, notice the tense of this. It's present tense, it's not future. And therefore, right now, Israel, ascribe to the Lord, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Bring an offering, come into his courts, worship the Lord in the splendor of holiness. tremble before him all the earth. The present reality is of the beauty of King Yahweh in his sanctuary in Israel. So even back then, this is the reason the nations are already supposed to be praising him. And we even see hints that this was kind of being fulfilled in things like the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon to worship the Lord. Now suddenly at the end of the song, the audience expands. Not merely all the nations are to praise God, so are all things. Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice, let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. And then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord. Why? The most obvious reason that comes to mind, especially given the previous songs, is that he's the king of creation that's been singing about this for several songs now. He made all these things and therefore to him alone is rightful praise due. The song ends on a different note, though. It prepares the world and the heavens for something to come. For he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. I like that, how he does it. For he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the people in faithfulness. So the theme is judgment. But behold, judgment in equity and faithfulness. God's judgment is never capricious, never despotic, never unjust. So what could this possibly mean? Well, I've actually said several times that it talks about the second coming, and rightly so, but First, I want something else to come to your mind, which is why I find it so helpful to read these songs together and why I think that they were placed this way on purpose. Psalm 97, preparation of the heavens, the king is coming. Psalm 97 has no introduction, no superscription. It does have one in the Greek though, and it's kind of important. It says to David, when his land is established, The song is dedicated to King David, and it foresees some future time when his kingdom will be established. When could this be? Let's look at the song. Verse 1, the Lord reigns. Let the earth rejoice. Let the many coastlands be glad. The Lord reigns now. This begins similarly to the previous song, but this time you see a truly dreadful sight of this God in his condescending glory. This is where I wish my voice was stronger. I also always wish I had a voice like Chris so that I could be loud and low. Clouds and thick darkness are all around him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him and burns up all his adversaries all around. So clouds and darkness should remind you of various comings of God in the Old Testament, especially on Mount Sinai. Fire going before him, burning up adversaries, makes you think of Sodom and Gomorrah, or Nadab and Abihu, and many other instances of judgment upon the people of God. It was truly terrifying to think about God coming in the midst of sinful people. Nothing like today, where so many feel so warm and fuzzy with God, who is more like their childhood teddy bear than what is sung about here. The Theophany comes to a climax. His lightnings light up the world. The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of the earth. Think about driving in this morning, and all you have to do is imagine what Hollywood would do of the mountains that you see as you're driving. melting away. The point is obvious. When God comes, everything uncontrollably trembles before him. Even the mighty mountains cannot help it because God is king. Something I find interesting here in verse five is the name for God. First he's Yahweh, then he's Adonai. Now this could just be poetic parallelism. In fact, it is poetic parallelism, meaning that it's the same being, one God. But the longer I've thought about this, especially with the New Testament's own reflections on this, the more I come to wonder if maybe the very form of poetry itself Where you can have parallel ideas but also teach you something different isn't actually a reflection of the triune God. We're going to see more of this especially when we come to Psalm 110 where the Bible makes a big deal of Yahweh and Adonai being separate. I raise the issue here because of what comes next. The heavens proclaim his righteousness and all the people see his glory. This is parallel In thought, to Psalm 9611, let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice. The reason is different. A moment ago we saw that all creation must worship God before King Yahweh comes in judgment upon the earth. Now we read, all worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols. Worship Him, all you gods. As we try to understand this verse 7, which is a very important verse in the New Testament, and why it's here, first I want you to realize that judgment is still in view in the psalm, verse 8. Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord. So, worship him all you gods, as in context, the judgment of God, and then it turns right back to the gods in verse 9. For you, O Lord, are the most high over the earth. You are exalted far above all gods. Whatever judgment is in mind, it makes Zion and Judah, and notice this, it makes them happy. How often do you think of the judgment of God and go, that makes me happy? But that's what it says here. because Yahweh in his judgment is exalted far above all gods. There's a for there, a because. So what is this talking about? Well, believe it or not, it's talking about the incarnation of Jesus Christ. You may wonder how, but then you read Hebrews, which begins the whole letter by saying this, in these last days, God has spoken to us by his son. Now these last days are not the second coming, but they are these days. They are the days of now or in Psalm 95 today. Today, it immediately tells us that the sun has become. People don't understand why does it start this way? The letter superior to angels. Then it quotes our psalm and says, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him. And you may notice the language here, it sounds very much like Psalm 97, except rather than say gods, it says angels. This is because Hebrews is quoting the Septuagint, the Greek translation, instead of the Hebrew. And I actually like that it does this for this reason. It helps us see in a different way, and remember how I said that earlier the gods were translated as demons, now they're translated as angels. It helps you grasp how the Old Testament Elohim are real beings, real entities. By translating it as angels, suddenly the problem that so many people have about the existence of gods fades away. Because hardly any person I've ever known is suspicious of the existence of angels. Okay? That obstacle caused by the word God is just taken away. It takes away an unnecessary offense to the hearer. Notice how in verse 7 we have the same three words talked about earlier. We have the images, the worthless idols, and the gods. They're all in parallel in this verse and they're all related to one another. But now realize that cartoons or X-Men again are not in view, because cartoons cannot be commanded to worship the Lord. Well, what sense would that make? Spider-Man, worship God. Could you imagine putting that in the Bible? Therefore, consider these verses are fulfilled in the New Testament. Worship him, O you gods. Luke chapter two. First, think about how the angels did this very thing at Jesus's birth. Suddenly there was with the angel and the multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. Second, understand that it was this first coming that great judgment came, but not upon men. Judgment came, but not upon men at the first coming. Now is the judgment of the world, Jesus said. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. He's talking about Satan. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. Those who are tempted to see judgment in these Psalms only the second coming will miss the glories of the judgment in the first coming. Jesus was born so that Jesus could die. Christmas is nothing without Easter. And here in these words we learn that at his death, Jesus won a great victory over Satan as As some theologians say, delivering humankind from bondage to him, fighting against and triumphing over the evil powers of the world and tyrants under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, crushing the serpent's head, as was foreshadowed in his victory over the demons, sickness and death during his earthly ministry. See, this is the reason why Zion is glad. Indeed, why the entire earth was rejoicing It's what so many Christmas songs actually celebrate explicitly. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Give ye heed to what we say, Jesus Christ is born today. O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come, come to Bethlehem, come and behold Him, born the King of angels. It's how our song ends, Psalm 97. O you who love the Lord, hate evil. He preserves the lives of His saints. He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous, and give thanks to His holy name. Psalm 98 is a preparation of Israel that the King is coming. It's simply a psalm, the Septuagint adds a psalm to David. It's very similar to Psalm 96. It begins with singing a new song and ends almost word for word with the same theme of judgment. And in the middle it commands us and the whole world to praise the Lord. Like Psalm 97, It also predicts the first coming. You see this when it says in verse two, the Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. Whereas Psalm 96 is a song explicitly about the nations, the song turns towards Israel as the source or origin of the revelation of God to man. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of God. What does that have to do with incarnation? Elizabeth. full of the Holy Spirit, tells her cousin Mary, "'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. God has helped his servant Israel in the remembrance of his mercy.'" It's echoing our psalm right here. In other words, this very verse is about the baby Jesus in the womb of the Blessed Virgin. When his mouth was finally opened after months of silence, Elizabeth's husband Zechariah said something almost the same. A horn of salvation for us in the house of David, his servant, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God. And even the old man Simeon, when he held the baby Jesus, says, my eyes have seen God's salvation. All of this is from our verse in the Psalm, and it all occurs at Jesus's birth. Again, the birth of Jesus is nothing without his life and death and resurrection, though. The song begins, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. So with Psalm 96, we see something marvelous. There's only one time in the New Testament where marvelous things appears. Jesus is quoting the upcoming Psalm 118. Have you never read in the scriptures the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone? This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in his eyes. The marvelous things, in this way Psalm 98 is also predicting the birth and death of Christ because it's the stone the builders have rejected has become the cornerstone. It doesn't end there. Psalm 98 ends the same way Psalm 96 does. Before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth, he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in equity. Now I said the second coming this is also about this and certainly it is. Paul references this in his sermon to the Athenians when he tells them this, God has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead. Then John says the same thing, I saw in heaven and heaven open and behold a white horse and the one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness he judges and makes war. So both refer to the Lord Jesus as the one who fulfills these words for these words are about him in the totality of what he came and is coming to do. For the Lord Jesus is Yahweh, the God of Psalm 96 through 99. Psalm 99 then, bow down because the King has come. Psalm 99 becomes a climactic song of the four songs set. It begins the same way Psalm 97 did, the Lord reigns. The focus of them is all on God as King. It changes the former song title. Instead of let the earth rejoice, now it's let the peoples tremble. So Christmas is what I think of as this safe holiday. It's like the great safe holiday, isn't it? The cuddly baby Jesus, safe in the arms of his mother, cooing upwards at her as she snuggles the infant in her arms. It's good and right that we remember that Jesus was a baby born in the womb of the Virgin. But if that's all that we think, friends, how many people tremble at Christmas time? When you're listening to Cozy on the radio, are you trembling? Let the people's tremble. The remarkable thing that we have seen this about is coming as predicted here is that angels bow down in worship. Salvation is delivered strongly to Israel and Satan is cast firmly to the ground. These are not deeds that are done by a helpless little babe, but by a divine warrior. This is the new song, remember? Those who has through pure strength and sheer will and perfect holiness has overcome all of his enemies. And through absolute love and pure grace has won freedom for captives. Listen to Revelation 12, now the salvation and power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before God and they have conquered him by the blood of the lamb. The Old Testament had ways of helping Israel think about trembling. So the song continues, he sits enthroned upon the cherubim, let the earth quake. So you have Yahweh pictured as sitting on the Ark throne, and because he's enthroned, the earth cannot keep still. Earthquakes are terrifying, because in them, the most stable and trusted of all things, the very ground beneath your feet, becomes like pudding in the hand of a kid going to lunch. The Lord is great in Zion. He's exalted over all the peoples. Let them praise your great and awesome name. Holy is he. The king in his might loves justice. You've established equity. You've executed justice and righteousness in Jacob. As Yahweh ruled over Israel, the peoples all saw what kind of a God he was. And in these verses, more attributes are mentioned. He is exalted. That is, he is lifted up, he is high over everyone else. No one can touch him. Think about how difficult it would be for you to get into the Oval Office to see the president just because you felt like it one day. There are layers upon layers upon layers of security such that it is impossible unless you are invited. It is infinitely more so with God, he is exalted. Second, he has a great and awesome name. His name is unlike anyone else's. It means I am who I am. He is not created. He simply is. He is eternal. So also is the one who bears the name who comes down from heaven to do the will of his father. He is holy. Holy is he, it's repeated twice as a mini refrain again in verse five. To be holy is to be set apart as special and different in a religious sense, primarily because he's untainted with worldly defects and sin. He is just. The kingly office is on full display here. In Israel, God has established laws that are fair and equitable to the poor. And yet, unlike our own nation, okay, They are not a kind of reverse discrimination. They're fair to everyone. God does not take care of the orphan and widow and yet do harm to fathers and husbands. His law spread throughout the land, establishing his rule in the 12 tribes, showing the world that he is just and righteous. He is worthy of worship. Exalt the Lord our God and worship in verse five. Worship is something that you only rightly give to someone who has these kinds of attributes. The gods or angels, they don't have them. Fallen kings, they don't have them. Presidents don't have them. Senators don't have them. David didn't have them. Only God is worthy of worship. All of this is true because God has done something. He has, in the rest of the psalm, condescended to man. He has come down to be with us. So it begins in verse 5, worship at his footstool. If God has a footstool and we can worship there, then it's because God has come close to us. This is exactly what they believed happened in the temple. That's why they had to go to the temple to worship. That's where the ark was, where his footstool was. God had come down to them there so they could worship. He condescended. God did not just come to them in the temple though. He was also among them and their leaders. Moses and Aaron were among his priests. Samuel also was among those who called upon his name. They called to the Lord and he answered them. Think about the names here for a moment. Moses and Aaron are at one end and Samuel's at the other end. Their book ends again of the period in the wilderness wanderings and the judges just before the kings start reigning, right? So it's during this time between Moses and Samuel that God is especially the king in Israel. Remember? They've rejected me from being king, is what Samuel told Saul. and he was talking about the Lord. But God made these guys priests who would then speak to him on behalf of the people and offer sacrifices to make atonement and so on. In other words, God came down to them. These men talked to God. They even saw him. If we have the time to look at Exodus 34 with Moses or the story where they're going up the side of the mountain and Aaron is there or 1 Samuel 3 where he actually sees the Lord standing there. You see this embodied person that they call upon. This particularly means that they knew the second person of the Trinity, the angel of the Lord. And then because they called upon him, he answered them all because he condescended to be with them. And in verse seven, it continues the condescension in the pillar of the cloud. He spoke to them. They kept his testimonies in the statutes that he gave them. So now all the people see the Lord, albeit veiled in a pillar of cloud, and they hear the voice, they don't see a form, they heard the decrees, they begin keeping his covenant as his people. Sometimes, actually quite often, they fell. Verse 8, O Lord our God, you answered them. You were a forgiving God to them, but an avenger of their wrongdoings. So his condescension was gracious in that when he was among them and they sinned, he didn't destroy all of them, but he forgave their sins through the mediation of Moses and others. And how does this not point us to the work of Christ that we've already looked at in the other Psalms? Okay. He didn't let these things go unpunished. They're punished in Christ. So in this we come full circle. Psalm 96 to 99 are proclaiming the future even as they're teaching about the past. Jesus' incarnation as a human being is the climactic condescension of God with us. That's what his name means, right? Emmanuel, God with us. He's condescending. But it's rooted in God with them in the Old Testament. His coming and judgment future is mitigated by His coming and salvation 2,000 years ago in the womb of the Virgin Mary. And as He dies on the cross, judgment for your sin is poured out on Him. And when He dies, He delivers a message of victory to the powers of evil in heavenly places. And He's raised as vindicated and having power over death. Now that he's ascended and has begun reigning in his kingdom from heaven, he sent the Holy Spirit in his place. His Spirit now goes before the Word to tell all about the good news of salvation that's offered freely to the nations, that in the name of Jesus, forgiveness of sins and salvation can be had if you repent and trust that the King has come for you. If you do not, the warning has gone out in several of the songs. Judgment awaits you for your rebellion against God, the avenger of wrongdoings. If you would, trust King Jesus and sing the last verse of Psalm 99 from your heart. Exalt, O Lord our God, and worship at his holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. Father, we ask you would bless the hearing of your word today as we have thought about the birth of Christ, his death on the cross, his victory over the grave, his second coming in judgment, his glorious reign now as he is king, as he's born, as he's dead, as he's raised, as he's in glory. He's the great king, and Father, I would pray that every knee here would bow now before it's too late, and they would have to bow in recognition of their own, of what he's going to do in the future. You've been so great and kind and gracious for 2,000 years with Christ and Christianity, not coming in a second coming in judgment yet. Would you please continue to hold off that judgment for the salvation of your people? And we would ask that you would bless us all for having heard your word today and been in your presence near where you come to be with us. We ask you here to prayer in Christ's name, amen.