96:1-3 God is worthy of our continual praise. Every day we have a reason to rejoice because every day we have a God who strengthens and gives hope, provides and protects. As His children, we must proclaim the good news: His existence and authority, for it has changed our lives.
96:4-6 All other "gods" are idols, things which tempt us away from the truth. They are things that hold us captive: greed and anger and fear. We must declare ourselves obedient to the true Creator and God of life in order to be free from such things that our bodies are susceptible to.
96:7-9 We cannot be free to hope or pursue joy when within the confines of fear or greed or anger. God teaches us how to shed the worldly and grow the spiritual. He feeds our souls with love and righteousness, hope and joy. He makes us realize that we do not need to succumb to anger and fear and greed in order to find fulfillment or achieve our own justice.
In Old Testament days, people made physical sacrifices to God. Now we offer ourselves. We offer ourselves as obedient children. We offer our time and our resources to others as agents of the kingdom of God. As instruments of God's will. And we worship. We spend time just proclaiming and soaking in the majesty of our God.
96:10 Our God creates life and sustains it eternally. No one can shake or move what He makes permanent. No one can rearrange the order He has established. His righteousness is solid; He is the firm foundation we, as His children, can rest and safely explore righteousness upon.
96:11-13 All created things: souls and seas and trees and earth be glad. Rejoice. The field and that which fills the field has reason to be joyful because God establishes and fills. For He arrays with beauty. For He is coming back to us. For He has never truly left. And with Him comes justice and truth to crush and remove the injustice and deception that has plagued humanity.
