Psalms
Psalms 96
Commentary
No commentary on this chapter yet.
What others are saying
3 commentators · 20 notes on this chapter
Matthew Henry2
Writes as a pastor rather than a critic. Expect devotional and practical application over historical or linguistic analysis, read through a Reformed covenantal frame — and expect the Old Testament to be read forward toward Christ throughout.
Why this voice is here: The most widely read English commentary for three centuries. Included as a baseline: where Henry and a modern voice diverge, the divergence itself is usually the interesting part.
These verses will be best expounded by pious and devout affections working in our souls towards God, with a high veneration for his majesty and transcendent excellency. The call here given us to praise God is very lively, the expressions are raised and…
We have here instructions given to those who were to preach the gospel to the nations what to preach, or to those who had themselves received the gospel what account to give of it to their neighbours, what to say among the heathen; and it is an illustrious…
John Gill13
The most exhaustive and the most doctrinally committed here. Expect high — even supralapsarian — Calvinism applied consistently, and unusually heavy use of rabbinic and Talmudic sources for Jewish context. Where a passage bears on election or the will, Gill will read it in one direction, and knowing that in advance is the point.
Why this voice is here: The strongest Calvinist reading available in the public domain, and the best on Jewish background. Read alongside Clarke, not instead of him — between them you get both sides of the argument.
O sing unto the Lord a new song,.... A famous excellent one, suited to Gospel times, on account of the new benefit and blessing of redemption and salvation lately obtained by the Messiah; which should be sung to him, who is the Lord or Jehovah here designed…
Sing unto the Lord,.... Which is repeated to show the vehemency of the speaker, and the importance of the work exhorted to: this being the third time that the word Lord or Jehovah is mentioned, have led some to think of the trinity of Persons, Father, Son…
Declare his glory among the Heathen,.... What a glorious Person the Messiah is; the brightness of his Father's glory; having all the perfections of deity in him; how the glory of God appears in him, and in all that he has done; and especially in the work of…
Keil & Delitzsch5
The technical one, and Old Testament only. Expect Hebrew grammar, textual argument, and direct engagement with nineteenth-century critical scholarship — closer to a scholarly apparatus than a devotional read. Where a modern critic claims a text is late or composite, this is where the conservative counter-argument was made.
Why this voice is here: Old Testament only, and heavy going — but the place to look when someone asserts a passage cannot mean what it appears to.
Call to the nation of Jahve to sing praise to its God and to evangelize the heathen. שׁירוּ is repeated three times. The new song assumes a new form of things, and the call thereto, a present which appeared to be a beginning that furnished a guarantee of this…
Confirmation of the call from the glory of Jahve that is now become manifest. The clause Psa 96:4, as also Psa 145:3, is taken out of Psa 48:2. כל־אלהים is the plural of כּל־אלוהּ, every god, Ch2 32:15; the article may stand here or be omitted (Psa 95:3, cf…
Call to the families of the peoples to worship God, the One, living, and glorious God. הבוּ is repeated three times here as Psa 29:1-11, of which the whole strophe is an echo. Isaiah (ch. 60) sees them coming in with the gifts which they are admonished to…
World English Bible — Public domain