Creation's Standing Ovation Text: Psalm 96:11-13
Introduction: The Coming Mirth
We live in a world that is deeply confused about joy. Our secular age pursues happiness with a kind of frantic desperation, chasing after every fleeting pleasure, every distraction, every momentary thrill. But it is a joyless pursuit. It is the joy of the prodigal in the far country, a temporary buzz that gives way to the gnawing emptiness of the pig sty. The world seeks a party without a host, a celebration without a cause. It wants the fruit of joy without the root of righteousness, and so it finds neither.
But the Bible presents a radically different picture. Biblical joy is not a flimsy, sentimental thing. It is robust, muscular, and intelligent. And in our text today, we find that this joy is not limited to the hearts of redeemed men and women. The Bible teaches that the entire created order is caught up in the great story of redemption. When man fell, he dragged the whole cosmos down with him. As Paul says in Romans 8, the creation was subjected to futility and now groans in bondage to corruption. It is like a magnificent cathedral that has been vandalized, a masterpiece painted over with graffiti.
But the good news of the gospel is not just that individual sinners can be forgiven. The gospel is cosmic in its scope. Christ's death and resurrection did not just purchase souls; it purchased the entire creation. And so, when the King returns to claim His rightful throne and to set all things right, the creation itself will be liberated. The groaning will give way to glory. This is what our psalm is about. It is a prophetic summons for the whole world, animate and inanimate, to erupt in a symphony of praise for the coming of the King. This is not poetry for the sake of poetry. This is theology. This is eschatology. This is the promised future of the world, and it is a future filled with a joy so profound that even the trees will sing and the fields will clap their hands.
The modern, squeamish Christian often recoils at the idea of God's judgment. We have been taught to think of judgment as a grim, terrible thing, something to be whispered about in hushed tones. But the psalmist here, and the whole Bible with him, sees the final judgment as the greatest possible reason for universal celebration. Why? Because it is the final, decisive end of all injustice, all sorrow, all rebellion, and all pain. It is the day the music starts. It is the day the great wrong is finally made right. And so the creation, which has borne the scars of man's sin for millennia, anticipates this day with exultation.
The Text
Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
Let the sea roar, as well as its fullness;
Let the field exult, and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy
Before Yahweh, for He is coming,
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world in righteousness
And the peoples in His faithfulness.
(Psalm 96:11-13 LSB)
The Cosmic Choir Assembled (v. 11-12a)
The psalmist begins by summoning the entire created order to a festival of joy.
"Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, as well as its fullness; Let the field exult, and all that is in it." (Psalm 96:11-12a)
This is a universal summons. The psalmist divides the world into its constituent parts: heavens, earth, sea, and field. This is a poetic way of saying "everything." Nothing is to be left out of this celebration. The heavens, which declare the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), are here told to be glad. The earth, the stage of redemption, is to rejoice. The sea, often a symbol of chaos and tumult in the Old Testament, is commanded to roar, not in rage, but in acclamation. Its "fullness," all the teeming life within it, is to join the chorus.
The field, representing all cultivated and civilized land, is to "exult." This is a strong word, implying a triumphant, leaping joy. And "all that is in it," from the smallest blade of grass to the mightiest beast, is included. This is not a personification for mere literary effect. The Bible is teaching us that the material world is not neutral. It is not a silent, unfeeling backdrop to human drama. The creation is a participant. It was cursed for our sake (Gen. 3:17), and it will be redeemed for our sake (Rom. 8:21).
This is a profound theological rebuke to two ancient and persistent errors. The first is Gnosticism, which teaches that the material world is evil and that salvation is an escape from it. The Bible says the material world is good, and salvation is the restoration of it. The second is a deistic materialism, which sees the universe as a meaningless machine, a collection of atoms governed by blind chance. The Bible says the universe is a theater of God's glory, a choir waiting for its cue. Every sunrise, every storm, every harvest is a testimony, a pointer to the Creator. But right now, that testimony is muted by the fall. The creation praises God now, but it does so with a groan. This psalm is looking forward to the day when the groan is removed, and the praise becomes pure, unadulterated joy.
The Trees Clap Their Hands (v. 12b)
The psalmist then focuses on a particularly vivid image of this created joy.
"Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy." (Psalm 96:12b)
The trees of the forest, the wild, untamed parts of the world, will join the song. Isaiah uses a similar image: "For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isaiah 55:12). This is the great reversal of the curse. In the fall, the ground brought forth thorns and thistles. In the restoration, the trees will sing for joy.
Why this focus on trees? Trees are deeply embedded in the biblical narrative. The story of sin begins with a tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The story of redemption is accomplished on a tree, the cross of Calvary. And the story culminates with a tree, the Tree of Life in the New Jerusalem, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations (Rev. 22:2). The singing of the trees is the final answer to the silence of Eden after the fall. It is the sign that the curse has been fully and finally undone.
This is a picture of a world set right, a world where nature is no longer "red in tooth and claw," but is instead participating in the glorious liberty of the children of God. When the sons of God are revealed in their glorified state, the rest of creation gets to join the party. Our glorification is the trigger for the glorification of the cosmos.
The Reason for the Celebration (v. 13a)
Now we come to the central cause of all this cosmic mirth. Why are the heavens glad and the trees singing?
"Before Yahweh, for He is coming, For He is coming to judge the earth." (Psalm 96:13a)
The joy of creation is a responsive joy. It is "before Yahweh." All of this praise is directed toward the one true God. And the specific reason for the praise is His arrival. "For He is coming." The repetition is for emphasis, conveying certainty and imminence. The King is on His way.
And what is the purpose of His coming? "To judge the earth." This is the line that makes moderns uncomfortable, but it is the very heart of the celebration for the psalmist. We have been conditioned to think of judgment as inherently negative because our only experience of it is in a fallen world. We think of grim courtrooms, flawed judges, and imperfect justice. But God's judgment is not like that. God's judgment is the final, perfect, and absolute establishment of what is right. It is the ultimate audit of the universe.
Imagine a world where every lie is exposed, every secret sin brought to light, every act of oppression punished, every victim vindicated, every crooked path made straight, and every tear wiped away. That is what the judgment of God accomplishes. It is the great house-cleaning of the cosmos. It is the final victory over evil. For the creation that has groaned under the weight of man's tyranny, greed, and violence, the news that the Judge is coming is the best possible news. It means the long winter of injustice is over, and the spring of righteousness is about to dawn.
The Standard of Judgment (v. 13b)
The psalm concludes by defining the character of this coming judgment. How will He judge?
"He will judge the world in righteousness And the peoples in His faithfulness." (Psalm 96:13b)
His judgment will not be arbitrary or capricious. It will be conducted according to two perfect standards: His righteousness and His faithfulness. "Righteousness" is the standard. God will judge the world according to His own perfect, holy character. The plumb line of His law, which has been ignored and defied by men, will be laid against every human life and every human institution. All the moral relativism, all the self-justification, all the excuses will be burned away in the fire of His perfect holiness. For those who have built their lives on the rock of Christ's righteousness, this day holds no terror. But for those who have built on the sand of their own goodness, the storm of His judgment will bring utter ruin.
"Faithfulness" is the guarantee. The Hebrew word here is emunah, which means truth, firmness, and fidelity. God will judge the peoples according to His covenant faithfulness. He will be true to His promises. He promised to curse the serpent and his seed, and He will. He promised to bless the seed of Abraham, all who are in Christ by faith, and He will. His judgment is the final, glorious fulfillment of every promise and every warning He has ever made. It is the day when His Word is shown to be utterly true and reliable.
For the believer, this is the ultimate comfort. The Judge is our Savior. The one who will sit on the great white throne is the one who hung on the bloody tree. His righteousness has been imputed to us by faith. His faithfulness is the bedrock of our hope. Therefore, we do not dread this day. We long for it. We pray for it. We join with the heavens, the earth, the sea, and the trees, and we say, "Come, Lord Jesus."
Conclusion: Tuning Our Hearts to the Cosmic Song
This psalm calls us to get our eschatology straight. If your vision of the future is one of grim pessimism, if you see only decline and decay, you have not been listening to the song that the Spirit is teaching the creation to sing. The world is not winding down into nothingness. It is preparing for a coronation.
The gospel is not a fire escape plan to get us out of a burning building. The gospel is the news that the King has come, and is coming again, to put out the fire, renovate the building, and move in with us forever. This world, cleansed and renewed by fire, will be our eternal home.
Therefore, how should we live? We should live as people who are already hearing the music of the future. Our lives should be characterized by an irrepressible joy, a steadfast righteousness, and a confident faithfulness. When we see injustice in the world, we should not despair. We should work for justice, knowing that our efforts are a foretaste of the perfect justice that is coming. When we see the beauty of creation, we should not just admire it. We should hear it as a prophecy, a whisper of the glory that will one day be revealed.
The world thinks that Christians are the killjoys. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are the ones who know what the party is for. We are the ones who know the host. And we are the ones who have heard the overture. The whole creation is humming the tune. Let us join the song. Let the heavens be glad, and let us be glad with them. For He is coming to judge the earth, and to make all the sad things come untrue.