There are certain types of tragedy so overwhelming that your mind shuts off. You are disconnected from your thoughts, feelings, memories or even your sense of identity. In severe cases, that’s what psychiatrists diagnose as “dissociation.” And numbness is the terrible norm simply because reality is too traumatising. While some of us might grapple with this condition, or struggle with moments of deep fatigue and disconnect from caring for a broken world, or experiencing brokenness in this world, it is thankfully not the normative experience for most of us.

Our psalm today speaks to such intense experiences, and it helpfully begins by addressing more commonplace experiences of numbness: the sort that you and I experience every Monday morning, or during that four hour Wednesday zoom meeting, or when it’s Saturday afternoon and you feel like you’ve exhausted every recreational option that Singapore and Netflix has to offer.

It speaks to both categories - the intense and the inane - because it identifies that there is a common problem: We have idols. Our idols hold great power over our hearts. And there is a common solution: Sing! 

(A) Sing anew: Songs of salvation answer idolatry’s numbness (Ps 96:1-6)

The psalm begins with three-fold repetition. It tells us what needs to be sung, who needs to sing to whom, and the song’s content.

Sing to the Lord a new song (Ps 96:1a): He is not a one-hit wonder, He reveals more of His infinite goodness to us with each new day; He does not call us to be content with yesterday’s mercies — He is the God who provided fresh manna for His people, and daily grace for our daily needs.

Sing to the LORD all the earth (Ps 96:1b): Very few things are truly universal. Very few things are for all people, at all times, in all places. So for salvation’s song to be for all the earth should perk our ears. This is a song for everyone without distinction. And this is a song sung to the “LORD” — the personal creator God of all the earth, and all the earth is called to live in light of His reality. And there is a personal aspect about this singing. You’re not just singing about Him, as though He’s somewhere out there in the metaverse, disconnected from reality. You’re singing to Him. It is a song with a dance. There is relationship!

Bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day (Ps 96:2): Adore Him, exult in Him, esteem Him for His glory, and do this because He is a God who has saved us for Himself.

Notice that the central activity here is singing. This means music, the engagement of our emotions in technicolor, multi-faceted fashion. And this means that we have to pause and do a little bit of mental rewiring, because our modern experience of music is terribly soul-numbing. 

Consider what tops the charts these days. This matters because music engages our emotional muscles. They teach you who you are concerned about, and what you are satisfied with. And here’s the danger. Music that is self-absorbed and self-focused will end numbing your soul. It teaches you that the main person you should be concerned about is you. The main thing you are to be satisfied with is sex. Or a cuddly K-drama relationship. Or power. Or cash money. But our souls are made for so much more than this. The tragic irony is that this obsession and devotion to the self only sets you up for disappointment and damage.

But this psalm reminds us that the world is much larger than me, my feelings about myself, and I. It lifts our eyes outward and upward. 

Psalm 96:3 tells us that this song is meant to sung as a global hit for it provides an instruction to declare his glory among the nation, his marvellous works among all the peoples (Ps 96:3). Why? The first reason is that God is great and greatly to be praised (Ps 96:4). Our devotion must be commensurate with its object’s worth and so, He is to be feared above all gods.

Why is this so? He is to be feared because ‘All gods’ are but worthless idols (Ps 96:5). And then there is an interesting contrast: but God is the creator of all things. A simple contrast would say, “All gods are worthless idols, but God is worthy of all praise.” David doesn’t do that here. He contrasts the worthlessness of idols with the reality of the creator God! Do you see the significance? David is telling us that God is operating on a whole different level. Idols might derive their value from many things in creation, or many benefits that they might bring in this world. But God created value itself. He fashion all things. These idols are the works of human hands, but God is the hand that created our hands that created these idols! 

So what is our problem? I remember being at a friend’s baptism 3 years ago when this friend shared how she had grown up in a Christian environment, knew many Christian things, practised many Christian ways, but realised over time that she had many other “functional saviours.”

That’s our problem, our idolatry. There is the God who created the heavens and the earths, and saves people for Himself. But we content ourselves with little functional saviours. We obsess over our looks and call it ‘self-care’, we sacrifice ourselves at the altars of our workplaces and call it ‘self-made’, we place our trust in the next charismatic figure to tell us how to think, or the next revolutionary economic tool to tell us how to organise our resource, or the next political figure to tell us how to move as a nation; and we trust that we can build our lives on these things, because they bear the imprints of our hands — this is the sort of salvation where we have a part to play! When we place our ultimate hope and build our lives on them, the Bible calls it idolatry. 

What does all of this have to do with numbness? Remember Ps 115:4-8. “Those who make them become like them, so do all who trust in them.” The word ‘become’ tells us that it is a process. It doesn’t start out numb. In fact, it starts out with great highs! If idols could not give us satisfaction, they would have no hold and no sway over our lives. You are super productive, you’ve been clearing off ten tasks in your to-do list. Your dopamine receptors are firing on all cylinders, which is the scientific way of saying you feel “shiok”.  You get into a relationship, you are thrilled with the joys of another person beholding you, and you start to feel like you finally have everything you need. These experiences begin with exhilaration. 

But what happens when things change? Burnout hits hard. Why? Because even though idols may actually bring good and desirable things, they cannot hold the weight of our ultimate hope.

What does your idolatry look like? What are your functional saviours? And if you really can’t think of these things, then consider your experiences of numbness, or burnout, as they call it these days. What do they reveal about the power structures of your heart? If we build our life on worthless idols, we will be lead to nothingness.

The psalmist proceeds to remind us about where true worth can be found. Splendour and majesty, strength and beauty are before God’s presence. They belong to God, such that where God is, there they are. These things rightly belong to Him. It’s not that created things have no value. It’s that the value we see in created things should remind us to seek their Creator! C.S. Lewis writes about this in his essay, “The Weight of Glory”, and I paraphrase him: “These things — the beauty we dream of in unrestricted air travel, the power we experience when our political party scores points, the glory of Loh Kean Yew winning a badminton world championship — are good images of what we really desire; but if they are mistaken for Goodness itself, they turn into dumb idols, breaking the hearts of their worshippers.”

Remember whose you are. And remember to remember it.

We have a really interesting case study of this in 1 Chronicles 16, where we see a record of Psalm 96 being sung by God’s people. They had thought that they could use God to work out salvation on their own terms (1 Sam 4), and so God’s presence and glory departed from them. But God shows Himself mighty to save — we see the Philistines defeated, the ark being brought back to Jerusalem, and then this scene of God’s people gathered by God’s presence. What happens when they gather? God’s king leads God’s people to exult in God’s salvation. They were to direct their emotional muscles to apply salvation to our hearts, and we are to do the same. 

They needed the true God to end worthless idolatry. And the same applies for us. Someone greater has to reveal a brighter glory. We need the light of the sun to snuff out our little candles. And we sing these songs of salvation to remind ourselves that God has done just that.

(B) Tremble and worship: Missional singing draws the nations into the holy God’s presence (Ps 96:7-9) 

The psalmist addresses the “families of the peoples”, i.e. all the earth (Ps 96:7a). They are called to ascribe glory and strength, the glory due his name and to bring an offering and enter the temple courts (Ps 96:7b-8). 

These are tangible actions that give sense to our worship. To “come and enter” means that you have to leave your previous location. To “bring an offering” is to perform a specific action that ascribes great value. Think about the Queen of Sheba bringing treasures to Solomon’s court, or the wise men bringing their costly treasures to baby Jesus.  And we ascribe great value not because God needs it. It is of His own that we give to Him. You do this because your heart desires to ascribe the glory due His name.

What happens when we enter God’s presence? We worship and tremble in the splendour of His holiness (Ps 96:9).  Worship! At the very least, this tells us that we should not expect to stay comfortable when we open our Bibles or gather as churches. We should never expect to stay unchanged and unchallenged when we enter God’s presence. We are here to worship, and that means that we are here to turn away from ourselves and to the splendour of holiness. We do not come to be entertained or inspired, and neither do we come merely to study, as though all that matters is that we learn many interesting bits of information or even right doctrine. We come to worship.

Ligon Duncan, a Bible teacher, describes the differences between approaching God as consumers versus worshippers:

“If we think of ourselves as consumers, we will view ourselves as the audience, and the preacher and others assisting in leading the service (especially the musicians) as performers there to inspire (and perhaps entertain) us, rather than understanding that God is the audience and we are beggars, rebels, and enemies, made heirs, friends, and children of God through His salvation.”

Isn’t this true of our church experiences, especially with live-streaming going on and we had tne other tabs open, with our messaging chats pinging on and on and on? 

But this is also why it is so important that we sing, that we sing to the LORD, of the LORD’s work, and we sing to each other. For when the church is gathered, and we belt out praise, we are not just expressing individualistic emotional highs. We are singing to each other, teaching and admonishing each other, beholding God with and for each other.

Think about what our weekly Sunday gatherings do to our identities if we approach it rightly. Think about how it shapes the way we think about our time and our life’s priorities. Our weekly gathering as a church  is meant to teach us that we are joyful worshippers, and not just satisfied consumers. From the moment that you step into your church building, to the instant when you hear your service leader welcoming you, or in some churches, issuing the call to worship, and then when the melodies resound and the voices ring clear, and the church goes to God in prayer before gathering to hear His word preached, the one thing we are meant to remember is not “oh i’m vibing”, but “come, let us adore Him.”

Ligon Duncan puts it this way:

“We have come now by his grace, to give something to God that he alone deserves and that we can only give him through Jesus Christ, in order that we might be what he made us to be (worshipers) and enjoy what he made us to enjoy: the greatest, deepest, best treasure in all the world (the triune God himself, and communion with him).”

This is missional singing, a singing that draws the nations in. It is simultaneously the simplest and most glorious mission. You don’t need to be smart to worship. You don’t need to be emotionally put-together to point to Christ. Anyone can worship! The only thing He needs is your need of Him. It is the simplest, most accessible mission. And it is the most glorious mission! We are all made with a deep desire in our hearts for significance. Our search is a search for meaning, for worth, for something that can captivate our lives even to the point of death. And here we have the guaranteed mission of joining in God’s call to the nations, joining in His work as He draws all peoples in. 

This is what we need to end the numbness of worthless idolatry! We need a captivating mission. We need to know that there is something bigger than me and my emotions here. Chasing a fat retirement account will not do. Power, prestige, and the next promotion at work will not do. Three children to raise the national TFR  and a comfortable life on freehold land will not do. But a cosmic, worldwide call that ushers in the nations and draws them into the presence of the only holy God with whom there is all glory and power and strength and unto whom alone is all honour and worship? Oh yes, this is exactly what we were made for.

I hope you see that this is really the sort of missional worship that carries forth into our days and weeks. This is the sort of worship that follows you on a Monday morning when you roll out of bed and get ready for work. For this is not just a “come and be saved” sort of song, it’s a “come and savour true goodness” sort of song. He is the God from whom all splendour, majesty, strength, and beauty flows. When we do work towards that end, we can do so knowing that our work finds its life in Him. We are working with Him and for Him, we aren’t just carried along by our own strength. And when our work produces thorns and thistles instead of good fruit, we can remember that there is a place where Goodness can be found again. This is salvation that goes beyond souls saved, this is salvation that redeems all of our lives!

(C) Join creation’s song: The faithful God blesses the world with His righteous reign (Ps 96:10-13)

Having called us outward and upward, the Psalm concludes by readying us to look forward.

Psalm 96:10 calls for proclamation. The LORD reigns, and we are secure because of that. We can trust that the world is secure in His rule. And He will come to judge with final justice. If you were with us in our previous study, you would have known that Isaiah paints a spectacular vision of what it will be like when Christ comes to institute His righteous reign: There is sifting between the righteous and the unrighteous, where evil receives its final recompense. And there is the reordering of all things wrong. 

We sometimes only remember the former, but forget the latter. He’s not only going to judge the wicked, but He will “decide with equity for the meek of the earth…The wolf shall dwell with the lamb.” All that is wrong will be made right.

What does this do to us? It saves us from a saviour complex. It also saves us from the bitterness of human vengeance. We think of Paul’s words in Rom 14:19-21:

“Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”

At the end of the psalm, the three-fold repetition shows up for the last time. This is creation’s song! The heavens, the seas, and all of the earth roar with exultation at the LORD’s coming. Picture it! Thousands upon thousands of deep sea creatures that no human eye has seen roaring their creator’s praise. The majestic lion on the sub-Saharan plain and even the lazy neighbourhood cat exulting in their maker. Creation worships its Creator.

These past two years should have humbled us to the awareness that the world is terribly broken. Most of us are sheltered from these “natural” catastrophes, but COVID has taught us the ancient truth that all creation is groaning in the pains of childbirth, and it will continue to keep on groaning. If we set our hopes on the idea that sheltered Singapore will enjoy peace from natural corruption on this side of eternity, then we are only setting ourselves up to be crushed. 

This psalm concludes by calling us to anticipate the time when all creation will be healed, and we will be healed with it. No longer will the earth and our work on it produce thorns and thistles. No longer will stillborn babies produce sorrow in hospital wards. No longer will chronic illnesses plague and wear us down. Expand your vision! God is coming, and He is coming to do a cosmic work. 

Psalm 96:13 builds up momentum with its repetition. The LORD will judge the world in righteousness and in his faithfulness.

In the lead-up to this study, I asked a Christian brother how he processes “numbness” in light of Christ and His coming righteous reign. This brother has experienced deep injustice in his life. Evil that no one should ever have to experience. Evil that numbs you because it is that overwhelming. He answered, my biggest comfort is that the one who will come to rule in righteousness knows my emotions. He has experienced the pain of our unrighteousness. 

Isn’t that wonderful? The God who will come to rule with perfect righteousness is not just the consultant who swoops in from the outside to reorganise a failing company, or the image of a distanced politician who institutes policies without walking the ground. He’s not just really really smart and wise. He is so good, that he has first come to walk amidst our brokenness. We oftentimes forget that the distance between Christmas in December and Good Friday in April in not four months, but thirty-three years. He knows what He will come to fix. So that in this time of waiting and anticipation, we know that we have a great high priest who is able to sympathise with our every weakness. And He doesn’t just sympathise. He leads us in singing salvation’s song.

On the night that He was betrayed, right after He instituted the Lord’s Supper, do you know what He did? The one who would bring about this salvation that all creation has been yearning for, by the costly price of His precious blood — He leads His people in singing songs of salvation. I believe God gave us this picture of His King leading His people in song to teach us that Christ has come to redeem our emotional lives as well, He is fully engaged! To teach us that our idolatry might be broken by the power of His passion, that our hearts would be comforted by the tenderness of His love, and that our vision would be filled with the glory of His grace. There is no other glory like this. We don’t know the exact words of the song. We can only imagine. What we do know, is that there will come a day when we gather in His presence, to sing to our God a new song. The words of a modern hymn put it well.

Shall forests hide their beauty?
Shall rainbows fade to gray?
Shall mountain streams stop dancing?
Shall lambs forget to play?
And shall I keep silence at grace beyond degree?
Before the Cross
I count as loss
What once was dear to me.

Shall birds forget their singing?
Shall constellations stray?
Shall thunderstorms be muzzled?
Shall sunlight fade away?
And shall I keep silent, ashamed of Christ my Lord?
His holiness
And faithfulness
Angel hosts adore.

Shall flowers mask their colors?
Shall waves die in the sea?
Shall full moon turn to darkness?
Shall laughter cease to be?
And shall I keep silent by basking in his love?
I’ll tell his praise
Through all my days
And then in heaven above.