Psalm 97 Commentary

Very near the center of Psalm 97 in verse 7 we find a curious turn of phrase.  It actually looks almost like some fractured syntax.  First we are told that all those who worship images are put to shame.  Well and good.  But then comes a line without a verb and that seems almost to trail off.  “Those who boast in idols . . .”  Those who boast in idols what?  It is almost an incomplete thought.  Instead of completing that sentence, suddenly we get “Worship him you gods!”

It is almost as though the psalmist is so perplexed by those who worship images and false idols that he almost sputters here.  It is as though the poet is so frustrated with such people he doesn’t know exactly what to say next.  So he just stops.  And then oddly enough he directly addresses “gods” and tells them to worship Israel’s one true God.  This is not the only place in the Book of Psalms where reference is made to other (false) gods.  Are we to conclude that such “gods” actually exist?  Or at least that the psalmist thinks they may actually exist?

We don’t typically think that way today as Christians.  We are aware that some in this world worship Allah or Vishnu or Buddha or Shiva but since Christians regard those as religious faiths that are not in touch with God in Christ, we assume that those other gods don’t actually exist.  Our God in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit does exist and is real.  But all other gods are not in existence.  Again, it may be difficult to know how to understand Psalm 97:7 and its direct address to some unspecified “gods” but is it possible there are spiritual beings in the cosmos who masquerade as false gods?  The New Testament will refer to the “powers and principalities” of this age or to the ruler of this age.  We may understand that to refer to the devil and his hosts and insofar as that is how we understand this, we do believe in their actual existence.  Might those beings—fallen angels perhaps—be the “gods” sometimes referenced in the psalms?  Maybe.

In any event, it is interesting that this is near the center of a psalm that otherwise makes some huge and sweeping pronouncements about how all peoples already see the glory of Israel’s God (verse 6).  But if all people really do see that God of glory, then how can there be so many who in fact worship images and false gods?  Well, both are true of course.  And so a good bit of Psalm 97 is as much aspirational as a description of how things actually are.  We long for the day when all people will see and worship the one true God but we’re not there just yet.  Not when this psalm was written several millennia ago and not now 2,000 some years after Christ ascended into heaven.

Of course Psalm 97 is assigned for a Sunday when some churches may observe Ascension Day.  Clearly the God who is depicted in this song is now the King of kings and Lord of lords known as Christ Jesus, the resurrected and ascended Son of God who rules the universe from his throne at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.  By faith we believe this to be true as Christians.  But it is indeed mostly by faith and certainly not by sight.  If you were to pause reading this sermon commentary long enough to open your web browser to visit the website of CNN or any leading newspaper in whatever country you are, you would see news story after news story each of which individually (and certainly in the aggregate of all current news) do not scream out the idea “Our world is being ruled by Jesus in ways that make the nations glad as they all bear witness to his glory!”

Not quite.

There is far too much injustice and cruelty all around us.  There are far too many who as much as worship images.  A lot of the time the idolatry in society does not look like some religion.  Most people don’t literally bow down to some idol or render prayers to spiritual beings.  But many still as good as do this as they worship at the throne of their own selves.  Mammon is king for lot of people who seek fame and riches for themselves at all costs and no matter what this may do to other people who struggle with poverty or homelessness or various forms of marginalization.

Yet as believers we do our best to persist in prayer for the nations and for all peoples.  We do our best to seek the image of God that each person around us bears.  We pray for God’s kingdom to come, for God’s will to be done on earth as we believe it is in heaven right now as Christ sits upon the throne.  We bear witness to hope.  We work for justice.  We believe God does shine on the righteous as Psalm 97 says in its conclusion.  And so we rejoice in the Lord even as we pray that the joy of this ascended Lord will one day come to all people.

Illustration Idea

It has often been said that worship is the church’s one most essential task and calling.  Modeling for the world the honoring and praising of our God in Christ is desperately needed.  As the liturgical scholar Alexander Schmemann put it in the title of his book on worship and the sacraments, the Church conducts its worship services For the Life of the World.  Worship bears witness to a realm and to a reality that runs decidedly counter to the world-and-life view of so many in this world.  Whereas too many people live within the shrunken boundaries of their own selfish selves or within the confines of a life seeking nothing other than money and power, worship seeks to expand people’s hearts and minds, to open them up to the limitless and infinite things of the Creator and Redeemer God.

If the vision painted by Psalm 97 seems almost too good to be true and perhaps too all-encompassing to be true, reality is just the opposite.  Psalm 97 reminds us that when it comes to the things of our God in Christ, we actually cannot ever get quite expansive enough.