Ps. 96.1 (the catholic song)

Sing to Yhwh / a new song
sing to Yhwh / all the earth. 

This psalm inaugurates us into the festive, prodigal, over-flow of Yhwh. Here, in the opening verse, the momentum starts and, like some tidal wave, it will gather force as the psalm proceeds, gathering more and more into itself. We first should note the ‘direction’ of the opening verse—it is “to Yhwh”. This simple phrase will be repeated continuously throughout. Yhwh is the ‘receptacle’ of all praise, all glory, all song. As we will see, this ‘to Yhwh’ is closely aligned with being ‘before Yhwh’, where Honor and Majesty, Might and Glory are. Everything is in ecstasy (outside of itself), moving toward Yhwh and his presence. More deeply, though, is the fact that this moving ‘to Yhwh’ is instigated because, as we will see, Yhwh is preparing to come ‘to earth’ as King. It is an important dynamic to catch—the people are in ecstasy to Yhwh because, in a some sense, Yhwh is in ecstasy to them. They are in an almost feverish joy to Yhwh because Yhwh is “coming to judge the earth” (vs. 10—11). In other words, they’re joy is not the joy at a static, immobile Yhwh—but one that is exerting himself, who is ‘coming’ to earth to reign. They ‘taste the future’. This points us toward “the new song”.  

 The Scriptures often speak of a ‘new song’, and it is found in different contexts. The one I think that is most resonant to this psalm is the one in Isaiah (43 and 48), where the prophet tells the people to not look to the past, but to the “new thing” that he is about to accomplish. They have “never been heard of” and are “created now, not long ago”. These prophecies are looking toward a day that is so glorious that it seems to stand outside the course of events that gone before; it shatters them in its overpowering majesty. Even the ‘old exodus’ wont compare to this ‘new one’. What is important to note here is that the future is blindingly glorious. Yhwh’s ‘coming as king’, quite literally, exceeds every possibility (“…no mind has seen nor ear has heard….”). As such, this ‘new song’ that is being sung now is a song that originates in this future of overwhelming. The song is an already-but-not-yet future reign. It is more than an ‘anticipation’. It is a song that comes to us from the future.  And, this song is sung ‘to Yhwh’. Again, as we have said in previous reflections, when we look at Yhwh we are not looking “into the future”; we are looking “at the future”. This song as being given by Yhwh’s future reign, is now returned back to him as a type of thanksgiving, for something that has not yet occurred, but is in fact occurring through the song. This is the essence of Scriptural hope (not optimism). It is a type of living within the sacred time of Yhwh. 

All the earth. It is within this dynamic that we need to see this call to “all the earth”. This ‘catholic’ (universal) vision is one that must be rooted in the future orientation (that is already here in part) of the ‘new song’. This catholic momentum will echo in nearly every verse: “all the earth”, “day after day”, “among the nations”, “all the peoples”, “all the gods”, “families of the peoples”, “the heavens and earth”, “the seas and all within it”, “fields and everything in them”, “all the trees”. Again, this catholic dimension to reality opens up because of the concluding verses (the source of the ‘new song’): “He will judge the world with righteousness, and its peoples with his faithfulness”. It is the catholicity of the judgment that inspires the catholic outpouring of creation. This is a truly profound point—that when Yhwh ‘becomes King’, so too will all of creation arrive at its ‘catholicity’ under Yhwh. His judgment is what makes the catholic; his judgment is what begins the catholic (the ‘kingdom of god’). More to the point—the resurrection (as Yhwh now as king) begins the church. The Church that now ‘speaks in the catholic tongue’ of every land.  The catholic body that now sings the new song back to Yhwh.