God Promises the Earth Will Rejoice

Psalms 96:10-13 Say among the nations, “The LORD reigns.” The world is firmly established, it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity. 11 Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let the sea resound, and all that is in it; 12 let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy; 13 they will sing before the LORD, for he comes, he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth.
 
HERE is another worship song, joyfully calling us to v 1 Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. 2 Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. This is a song for all far beyond Israel’s borders for all nations of the world to rejoice “The LORD reigns. The world is firmly established; it cannot be moved.”
   Yes, God established the earth with his spoken Word. When the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array, and by the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing, he rested from all his work. (from Genesis 2:1-2)
   He rested because he knew the earth and the universe he created are his. He rested because he had established his dominion, and no other god could change the pattern of time and seasons he had formed. We can rest in the knowledge the earth will not suddenly move from its course and cast us into oblivion. We are secure, knowing the LORD reigns.
   The song points to the day all nature responds with worship to the LORD. The heavens rejoice; the earth is glad; all in the sea resonates with praise; the fields are jubilant, and the forests will sing for joy. This is not giving personality and human traits to nature. It is a poetic expression of God’s promise he will restore the world to creation’s perfection.
   Sin has corrupted God’s good creation. Genesis 3:17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. God’s gift of fruitful labor became God’s curse of pain and toil. The earth has suffered through the ages from drought, flood, earthquakes, storms and more. As the song writer describes nature in jubilant song to the LORD, he reminds us that God will fully restore the earth into creation’s perfection. Romans 8:19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope.
   Our hope is the sure promise that “the old order of things has passed away.” He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:4-5)
   This is good reason to “Sing to the LORD.” Heaven come to earth will be a forever joyful time.