Psalm 96 Let the Earth Be Glad

“O sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth.”
Say among the nations, “The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.”

Ever try to sing a new song in a congregation that was like the earth that would not be moved?

Buzzwords pop out at me from the media everywhere. Fundamentalist. Traditionalist. The “Old Ways.” Conservative. Christian Nationalist. Global Methodist. I could go on. To all of these, I ask a simple question: What does it mean to you to sing a new song?

Which verse are you clinging so strongly to? To sing a new song or to be the world that is firmly established and shall never move? Which should you cling to?

Change is a difficult thing. If history has taught us anything, it is that not all changes are good. We went from the Garden of Eden to being cursed to till dry soil by the sweat of our brows and the strength of our own backs. That’s what independence and free thinking got us: the destruction of perfection. Perfection was a world reliant upon the goodness of God.

On this day we celebrate, the birth of, you guessed it, a new song. A tiny baby, covered in slop, and goop, blood and sweat, tears and love. God incarnate as an earthly child. Something totally new, completely different. This was not the child of a God but God himself.

For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.

Roman and Greek gods were idolized humans. They were what the people considered to be perfect human beings, which is what they believed made them divine. They had supernatural powers but were still subject to the forces of this earth. Gravity and physics applied to them. They could not fly without wings or magical items and were subject to falling from grace and death. They were also subject to human fallacies such as greed and lust for power.

The Romans believed that their god Jupiter granted them supremacy on this earth because they honored him more than any other people on this earth. He was the god of the sky, lightning, and diving oaths. Sounds a bit like the god of the Israelites, but the God of the Israelites did not have sexual relations with human women like the gods of Rome and Greece, producing children inferior to themselves. The God of the Israelites came to earth himself. Through the Holy Spirit, God became a child, equal in strength and power, a part of him that embodied all the weakness of his creation. Not to shed his weakness but to be a living demonstration of how powerful those weaknesses really were. Our God did something new.

It’s hard to imagine God being entirely dependent upon their own creation for survival, isn’t it? Requiring a mother’s milk for nourishment. A sheep’s wool for warmth. A tree’s wood for a bed. What kind of all-powerful God would do that? Ours would. Our God would do what no other god would ever even consider doing. A master who would serve its own slave.

A lot of religions get caught up in this idea that when God granted Adam dominion over the earth, it meant that he could bend and use it to his will. They are mistaken and haven’t read the whole story. Because the rest of the story is all about how much mankind would suffer because he tried to dominate the earth instead of serving it as God intended for him to do.

Jesus Christ knelt to the ground, prostrated himself before his disciples, to wash their feet. He touched the untouchable. He ate with the filthy and scandalous. Jesus Christ, God himself, the one who truly has dominion over all the earth, gave his life to show mankind what it truly means to have dominion over something. It means you are the lowest of the low. The servant to the servant. You are the foundation upon which everything is built. You are a supporting stone, not the colorful flag upon the top of the highest steeple flapping in the wind. To have dominion means to lift everything else up, not use it to raise yourself.

Jesus Christ sang a new song. The alpha and the omega sang… the first song anew. The song that was meant to have been sung since the beginning of time, but has been ignored by a world that refuses to be moved by it. The one who serves you is superior to you.

The baby Christ relied upon all that the world considered less-than to survive. A woman. An animal. A plant. All those things that man was supposed to have dominion over. That man was supposed to be serving. God lowered himself to one who needed to be served that mankind might see how the weak become powerful by serving, and as they grow in power, they become the servant.

Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar and all that fills it; let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the LORD, for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth.

The water, the earth, and the plants rejoice in the judgment against the one who has dominated them for so long. They wait for the new old song to be sung. They wait for the unmoving earth to move.

All those buzzwords that are plastered all over the internet might seem to some that the world is still refusing to move. It continues to refuse to see. But me? I see the words because I think they feel threatened. God is indeed singing a new song. God set this world in motion, upon a path which no human can alter. It will follow that path whether humans cooperate or not. God is giving us a chance to embrace a new song. The one that existed from the beginning that we have never learned to sing.

A song that embodies peace on earth and goodwill toward mankind. A song of service and love. A song where the weak become strong. The poor become rich. The lowly are lifted up. A song where all the earth rejoices, not just the humans, and then only some of them. A song where the sea sings, the trees sing, all that crawls and swims, and flies, and burrows, sings. A song of an earth that does not fear being judged with equity, righteousness, and truth. A new song. An old song. A song of a world moving.

A song that predates tradition. A song that acknowledges “the way things used to be” was not the right way. A song of a God willing to humble itself to the point it would allow its creation to feed it from its own breast, clothe it in its own skin, support it with its own life, and wipe away its filth. A god that was a helpless human baby, the weakest of the weak, that through nothing but kindness, love, and devotion would regain all of its power.

A God that was willing to sweat, poop, burp, fart, and even choke on its own spit occasionally. Our God came to earth as a tiny babe to challenge the world to move. To change its evil ways. Our God came not as a display of power through fire or torrent but as the meekest and weakest of all the creatures of the earth. The ultimate show of humility and strength. A challenge to us to show just how weak we were willing to admit we are.

For only in weakness is true strength found. Only in sinking to the bottom can we learn to look up. Only in dominion can we find servitude. Only by offering can we receive. Only by learning the oldest song can we learn to sing anew.

This Christmas, we go back to a time when humanity was in its infancy. We go back before patriarchy, discrimination, oppression, and colonialization. We step back as far as this creation goes, and we prostrate ourselves to the place of service for which we were designed. We bow down and wash the feet of all that we have dominion over. We cleanse from it our lust for domination and instead embrace the songs the earth itself sings. We give voice to the waters, the fields, and the skies. We give voice to the sheep, the woman, and the trees.

We fully embrace what it means to be king and to rule over others as Jesus Christ rules over the earth, bending down, not towering over. We lift creation rather than subdue it. We sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD; bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. For great is the LORD and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods. For he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth.

For those who have dominion over the earth, there is no reason to fear this judgment. But for those who instead choose to dominate, there is much reason for fear indeed.