Today’s Passage: Psalm 97
The LORD reigns, and the earth is told to rejoice. The psalm opens with clouds and fire and lightning, with mountains that namas, pronounced nah-MAS. Strong's H4549, to melt, dissolve. Mountains were the very picture of what does not move, the oldest and steadiest things a person could point to. This one line lets even the mountains run like wax. Nothing at all counts as solid when it stands next to Him. like wax before Him, and then the song lands quieter than it began, promising light for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart. He reigns, from the first line to the last. And the timetable of the fire, the day when it will finally fall, is not ours to close.
As you read, hold this: The LORD reigns. Let the earth rejoice.
Context Sinai's weather on a present throne
Verses 2 through 5 sound a great deal like the day the mountain shook, when God Himself came down upon it.
"Mount Sinai was completely enveloped in smoke, because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke rose like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked violently." Exodus 19:18 (BSB)
The psalm is not inventing some new storm of its own. It reaches back and takes Israel’s sharpest memory of His presence, and it sets that memory under the sentence already spoken over everything: the LORD reigns.
Psalm 97:1-3 (BSB)
¹ The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the distant shores be glad. ² Clouds and darkness surround Him; righteousness and justice are His throne’s foundation. ³ Fire goes before Him and consumes His foes on every side.
Notice that the rejoicing comes first, and that it reaches all the way out to the distant shores. Only then is the foundation of His throne named, and it turns out to be not raw force at all, but righteousness and justice. Fire goes before Him.
Psalm 97:4-5 (BSB)
⁴ His lightning illuminates the world; the earth sees and trembles. ⁵ The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth.
Psalm 97:6-7 (BSB)
⁶ The heavens proclaim His righteousness; all the peoples see His glory. ⁷ All worshipers of images are put to shame—those who boast in idols. Worship Him, all you gods!
All the peoples see His glory, and every idol is put to shame before it. Then comes a command aimed straight at every rival there is: worship Him.
Study notes Worship Him
Hebrews takes language like this and sets it on the Son.
"And again, when God brings His firstborn into the world, He says: “Let all God’s angels worship Him.”" Hebrews 1:6 (BSB)
No rival is exempt from that call. He reigns, and He judges, and on that much Article 9 stands closed and sure. The chart is not.
Psalm 97:8-9 (BSB)
⁸ Zion hears and rejoices, and the towns of Judah exult because of Your judgments, O LORD. ⁹ For You, O LORD, are Most High over all the earth; You are exalted far above all gods.
The very thing that makes the earth tremble is what makes Zion glad. They are the same judgments, handed down by the same King.
Psalm 97:10-12 (BSB)
¹⁰ Hate evil, O you who love the LORD! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked. ¹¹ Light shines on the righteous, gladness on the upright in heart. ¹² Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones, and praise His holy name.
After all the fire comes a quiet charge: hate evil. And a quiet promise with it, that He keeps His own, that light is sown for the righteous and gladness given to the upright in heart. The LORD reigns. Let the earth rejoice.