Psalms 96:10

THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH

"Say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth:

The world also is established that it cannot be moved:

He will judge the peoples with equity.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;

Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof;

Let the field exult, and all that is therein;

Then shall all the trees of the wood sing for joy

Before Jehovah; for he cometh,

For he cometh to judge the earth:

He will judge the world with righteousness,

And the peoples with his truth."

"This passage expresses the Messianic hope (Psalms 96:13) ... but here, as in Malachi 4:6, there is no thought of any personal Messiah. Yahweh himself is the deliverer."[11] Once more, we have an example of scholarly blindness apparently due to lack of a knowledge of the New Testament. Jesus Christ the Messiah, indeed a `Personal Messiah' was none other than God Himself in the person of his only begotten Son, who in the New Testament is declared to be "God" in no less than a dozen passages (John 1:1; 1:18; 20:28; Acts 20:38; Romans 9:5; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 1:8; James 1:1; Revelation 5:13; 6:16).

"Jehovah reigneth ... he will judge the peoples with equity" (Psalms 96:10). The reign of Jehovah was announced by John the Baptist as, "The Kingdom of God" and declared to be at hand in the year 26 A.D. That reign began on the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ and is in progress at the present time.

"He will judge the peoples" (Psalms 96:10). This judgment is progressing continually, as typified in Revelation 6:2 under the emblem of the Conquering Saviour on the White Horse. This judgment is being accomplished by the sacred inspired words of the Holy Apostles of Christ, in a spiritual sense, "Sitting upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of the children of Israel" (the New Israel, which is the Church) (Matthew 19:28). That this interpretation is correct appears in the fact that this judgment of mankind through the word of the Apostles of Christ will take place "in the times of the regeneration," that is, in the times when men are being saved, which is, without any doubt whatever, the present age.

"Let the heavens be glad and the earth rejoice" (Psalms 96:11). At the coming of the Messiah, on the night that Christ was born, the heavens themselves burst into song when the chorus of the angelic host sang, "Glory to God in the Highest; peace on earth to men of good will" (Luke 2:14); and the rejoicing of the earth is continuing throughout the ages in the hearts of those obeying the gospel, who go "on their way rejoicing," as did Philip the eunuch (Acts 8:39).

"Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof" (Psalms 96:11). This is most likely a reference to the unbelieving populations of mankind, often represented in Scripture as the sea (Revelation 13:1), and in the passage here. It is the equivalent of the rage of the heathen mentioned in Psalms 2:1. The meaning is, "Let the heathen rage," God's judgment of mankind through the gospel of Christ is steadily going forward.

"Let the fields exult ... the trees of the wood sing for joy" (Psalms 96:12). The joyful sentiment of this verse was captured in Isaac Watts' famed hymn, "Joy to the World," set to music by Handel.

Joy to the world, the Savior reigns,

Let men their songs employ,

While fields, and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy, Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy.[12]

"Before Jehovah, for he cometh ... to judge ... he will judge the people by his truth" (Psalms 96:13). We have already noted the application of this to the coming of the Messiah and the subsequent judgment of all nations by the Holy Gospels; but there are also overtones here of the Eternal Judgement of the Last Day. In all of the prophecies, there is a tendency to telescope the first judgment of Christ's Messianic coming that produced, among many other things, the destruction of Jerusalem, with that of the final Great White Throne Judgment of the Day of Jehovah. This occurred, because both of these judgments pertain to "the last times," of which Peter declared that "These present days" indeed belong to those last times (Acts 2:16-17).

Both of these judgments, the one proceeding now by means of the Word of God and the other to come at the end of the age, are tied together in the fact that the basis of judgment in both will be exactly the same. As Jesus said:

"He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I speak, the same shall judge him in the last day" John 12:48.