Ps. 96.10 (world awaiting)

Say among the nations / Yhwh reigns
the world / is firmly established / immovable
he will judge / the peoples / with equity. 

What is proclaimed among the nations – “Yhwh reigns!” – is a type of summary of what then follows: the establishment of the word and judgment in equity. In other words, this is how Yhwh’s reign is manifest. These twin realities need to be seen in their unity under Yhwh. What I mean is that ‘the world’ and ‘justice’ both exhibit the authority of Yhwh. In the realm of ‘the world’, it is no longer something weak and subject to being overthrown (by the forces of chaos…?). Yhwh’s ‘reign’ becomes that force that calls it out of the ‘waters’ and “firmly establishes” it such that it cannot be moved. What we see here is the fact that in the absence of Yhwh’s reign the ‘world’ itself ‘shakes’; it exhibits a tendency to be unreliable; it causes anxiety and cannot be depended upon. It is like some poorly constructed building, ready to cave in. By contrast, when Yhwh reigns it partakes of Yhwh’s own authority. It is directly established by him and infused with his ‘immovable’ authority. Flowing from the previous verse we must ask whether idolatry—the portioning out to the gods the glory that is only properly attributed to Yhwh—in a sense ‘bleeds’ into the earth and causes its foundations to become weak and unstable. 

This leads to the next realm of Yhwh’s reign—establishing equity. If in the realm of ‘the world’ Yhwh’s reign is exhibited by it being ‘firmly constructed’ and immovable, then this sense of strengthening authority in the realm of man is exhibited in his establishing equity. In other words, in the absence of Yhwh’s reign, the ‘social fabric’ is unstable; man extorts man; brother kills brother; injustice is everywhere. Under Yhwh’s reign, ‘justice’ is established. Yhwh’s reign, in other words, reaches from the bottom up, from the material to the moral. And, importantly, the entirety is in need of Yhwh’s governance and care (not just the ‘moral’). Man’s ‘inhabited space’ (the world) is as in need of ‘establishing’ as man’s ‘social space’ (man to man). As we will see in the next few verses, this is why, when Yhwh reigns, the ‘world’ itself will erupt in praise. It is as if it is groaning in anticipation, awaiting a time…