Adult Enlightener: Young Adult Bible Study. R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

While there, they observed the Babylonians—and then the Persians after them—worship a wild collection of gods. There were gods for fertility, gods for good fortune, gods for this, and gods for that. Most houses had shrines, featuring a primary household deity depending upon what that household sought, surrounded by numbers of other gods just in case. One reason why the Israelites had difficulty during captivity is that the Babylonians were only too willing to bring Yahweh into their host of other gods as just another god. They couldn’t understand why the Israelites took offense at this. Why risk angering a god when it was easy to add one to the collection?

       #ShoutAnew Discuss why it is appropriate to give God a “Shout-Out” constantly. Share your thoughts and tag us @rhboydco and use rhboydco.

      The psalmist saw the difference between all these false gods and the one true God, Yahweh. While one could offer prayers to a fertility god for sufficient rain to water the crops, that god could not come through because only Yahweh can provide rain. However, if the rains came, the Babylonians thought their prayers had been answered by their fertility god. If drought came, then obviously they had angered the fertility god who was ignoring their cries in order to punish them. Yahweh, on the other hand, had demonstrated His power and glory for all to see. He made the heavens and dwelt in splendor and majesty.

      Because we sing to a God who has real creative power, we can trust that He is able to restore us and make us new again. We do not sing to a god who is made out of stone, who sits powerless on our mantle as our prayers and cries bounce off the stone from which it was made. We cry out to a God who has taken flesh upon Himself, who knows that we are dust, and who understands the frailty of our condition (see Ps. 103:14). We cry out to a God who has promised to make His creation new again and who has the power and the eternal patience to carry out His promise. This God delivered Israel from its captivity in Babylon, and He will just as surely deliver us from our captivity to sin. And so, we sing a song of restoration, a song of redemption, a song of deliverance, a song of healing, a song of salvation. We sing a song of newness.

      MAKING IT RELEVANT

      Compare and contrast Psalm 96 with I Chronicles 16:23–33.

       III. SING BECAUSE HE IS MAKING ALL THINGS NEW

      It is by God’s will alone that creation is firmly established and cannot be moved. By the right of being King of Creation, He will exercise judgment on all peoples, and His judgments will be true and unassailable. This is not cause for fear and trembling among the peoples, but for joy because His judgment concerns what needs to be done to restore His creation to its intended purity and glory. We can trust that any condemnation will be well-deserved. Those who are condemned are without excuse because God is a righteous Judge and His judgments are faithful.

      The people of Israel saw their deliverance from captivity in Babylon as a clear sign of the just nature of their God as well as proof of His power over the nations of the earth. It was by God’s will that the nation of Israel went into captivity, and it was by His will that they were restored. Both actions were just and worthy of the rejoicing of the people and all the earth.

      So, it will be for us who wait patiently for the return of our Lord in glory. For now we suffer the pain and trials of life on this fallen and sin-filled earth. For now blessings may come all too infrequently, and it may seem as if God is nowhere to be found. But we sing our song of rejoicing and praise because we know that when restoration comes, when our deliverance from sin and death is at hand, when our final salvation appears, it will all have been worth it. We will be tested by fire, refined by the furnace of life, and made fit for the glory that awaits us at Christ’s return. As you go through your daily life, are you singing the old or the new song? The old song separates, condemns, and judges. The new song is carried on the melody of love and compassion, just as Jesus commanded. The new song seeks to reconcile differences, seeks to bridge the divides that separate people from each other.

      JOURNAL IT!

      Write your own song of praise to God.