Inviting Others to Worship God

Psalm 96

GOLDEN TEXT: “O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.”—Psalm 34:3

TO ONE acquainted with the Divine Plan of the Ages, this Psalm speaks a glorious message. It opens with the exhortation to sing unto God a new song, and reminds us of the repeated statement in the Revelation (5:9; 14:3; 15:3), that the Lord’s people will be instructed in His Word, and will be able to speak of His glorious character and purposes in harmony likened to that of a song. The notes for this song are found in the Old and New Testaments—the “song of Moses and the Lamb.”

But the first verse of our lesson suggests that this song, the harmonious understanding of God’s grace, is to be sung by “the earth” also, or “the land,” as another translation has it. This is not yet true, but will be in the new age when the song will increase in volume until, as the Revelator says, “every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, [and the restored and resurrected millions] and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honor, and glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.”—Rev. 5:13

This is indeed one of the most glorious things that we have learned about God’s Plan, namely, that He is interested in all mankind and has provided a way whereby they are to fully know Him and have a full opportunity of coming into happy relationship with Him as His children, through the Mediatorial Kingdom of our Lord, whose death provided a ransom for all “to be testified [to all] in due time.”—I Tim. 2:3-6

In verses 7-9 of this 96th Psalm, the people of earth are exhorted to recognize God’s glory and strength, to come near unto Him with an offering, and to worship Him in “the beauty of holiness.” Here we are reminded of the fact that consecration will also be in order in the next age, though, owing to the changed government of the world, consecration will no longer, as now, mean unto death, but on the contrary, will be unto life; for with the close of the reign of evil comes the end of pain, sorrow and death, except upon evil doers.

These thoughts are of intense interest to the Lord’s people of the present, too—the realization that worship of God to be acceptable must be “in the beauty of holiness” and that those who approach to worship and serve God must come with an offering.

Two offerings are necessary. One was provided “once for all” by our Lord Jesus, the “continuing” sacrifice, ever efficacious for those, who accepting the provision by faith are thus justified or reckoned righteous. The other offering is our own justified life, our human hopes and prospects including a part in the restitution of perfect human life and perfect earthly surroundings which are provided for the members of Adam’s race.

The Tabernacle types* indicate that the offering to be presented by the world in the next age will also include these two phases, namely, a recognition of the fact that a sin-offering was necessary and has been made for them, and based upon that, the offering of themselves in consecration to God. The Atonement Day sacrifices represented the cancellation of Adamic sin by the sacrifice of the Christ; but during the Millennium, the benefits of the atonement will he applied to the world and they will be gradually restored to actual perfection, life and harmony with God.

* Tabernacle Shadows, pp. 93-97

But this will require the co-operation of the sinner’s WILL to reach it. He will have to do what he can to climb up to perfection, but will have all the assistance necessary. The dove or pigeon brought by the poorest in the type represented the justified all of the morally poor and degraded; the goat offered by others more able represented the all of some less imperfect, while the bullock represented the all of those who had attained perfection of human nature.

When those of the world of mane kind, willing to accept God’s grace, shall have been brought to perfection, at the close of the Millennium, there will be no longer any poor in the sense of inability to offer a bullock, in the sense of deficiency of mental, moral or physical powers. All will be perfect men, and their offerings will be their perfect selves typified by bullocks. And so the Psalmist, speaking of this, says: “Then shalt Thou be pleased with sacrifices of righteousness [of right doing], with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall they offer bullocks [perfect sacrifices] upon Thine altar.”—Psa. 51:17,19

The closing verses of our lesson tell of the blessings of the Kingdom of God, and especially call upon all creatures to rejoice that God is to establish new heavens and a new earth in which dwelleth righteousness, and that all mankind are to be judged righteously—“with His truth.”

In advance of the world this is our great privilege to know of and proclaim this glorious Kingdom, now at the door, and that the present unprecedented distresses are but the birth-pangs of that new order. “Bow down unto Jehovah, in the adornment of holiness, be in birth-throes at His presence, all the earth.”—Psa. 96:9 (Rotherham)

QUESTIONS:

Why are the truths of the Bible properly likened to music?

Is God interested in all mankind, or only in a limited number?

Will mankind in the next age have the privilege of offering themselves to God in consecration? How is this represented in the lesson?

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