Rev. Garrett H. Stoutmeyer is pastor of the Faith Christian Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan. For the next six months he and Rev. John Blankespoor, pastor of the Pine Creek Christian Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan, are to provide the Meditations alternately.

“. . . show forth His salvation from day to day.” Psalm 96:2b

Psalm 96 has been well called “a missionary hymn for all ages.” The author addresses his thrice-repeated summons to “sing unto the Lord” to all nations. The psalm first appears in I Chronicles 16:23–34 at the time when David removed the Ark of the Covenant from the home of Obededom and returned it to Jerusalem. A time of great rejoicing and festivity followed the tragic events surrounding the Ark’s capture. first by the lawless sons of old Eli and later by the Philistines. When the Ark was again safely set in the tent David had erected he summoned the nation to thanksgiving and joy unto the Lord.

However, the psalm in its present setting is addressed to all nations and all peoples. All the earth must sing to Him who made the earth. Beyond the song of praise to be sung to Him though is the story to be told. And what is the story we are to publish? The psalmist is most explicit that it is exclusively “His” story! That is “His salvation”! The primary and fundamental message we are to bring focuses not on “self” or subjective experience but rather on Him and His salvation! “Our” salvation was, is, and always shall remain “His salvation.” We have never rightly understood nor gratefully valued the redemption wrought by the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, until and unless the Holy Spirit leads us to the discovery of its incomparable wonder.

Salvation is “His,” first, because He Planned It! We read in Ephesians 1:4 that the Divine plan of salvation was laid “before the foundation of the world.” Peter in his first epistle (1:20) adds another dimension to that Sovereign planning when he declares that Christ “the lamb without blemish and without spot” was also “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but was manifested at the end of the times for your sake.”

Second, what He fully planned in eternity, He Purchased in time! Salvation is His possession because He purchased our redemption, and not partially but fully! “Finished” was His cry. The price? The hymn–writer summarizes the Bible’s answer so beautifully:

There was no other good enough To pay the price of sin He only could unlock the gate Of heav’n, and let us in.

What the Father planned from all eternity, and the Son purchased in time with His precious blood, the Holy Spirit Proffers Today! God did not consider His work finished when the Son returned to His seat of eternal power and glory. Without the gift of the Holy Spirit and His Sovereign and irresistible operations in the sinner‘s heart our repentance and redemption would forever remain impossible. In His all-wise, eternal planning He never expected that man would of himself open the door of his own heart and “let Jesus come in who will save you from sin” because God knew that that is an impossibility! Nor does faith come by the works of man, nor the eloquence of some preacher, etc. Faith too comes by the Sovereign opera tion of the Holy Spirit. He who first gave His only-begotten Son, next His Holy Spirit, also reserves the right to Himself to bestow the gift of faith on whomsoever He will. He is the only One who can come into a depraved heart, convict of sin and convince of the truth of the gospel. And what He begins, He finishes!! With confidence wrought by the same Spirit Paul wrote to his Philippian friends “being confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ” (1:16). So, salvation from first to last is “His salvation.”

By amazing grace “His salvation” becomes “ours” when we receive it by faith. What was eternally His becomes eternally ours in His Sovereign good pleasure, and why? Spurgeon loved to answer that mystery with this little rhyme: “What was there in us that could merit esteem or cause the Creator delight? I was taken so Father we ever must say, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.”

Planned! Purchased! Proffered! Possessed by faithl Anything more? Indeed!! The psalmist says “Publish It Continually.” Let those who have learned what “His salvation” means bear faithful witness that there is salvation in none other, and that in Him and through His amazing grace salvation is to be found to the uttermost. What a message of “saving health” to be brought especially as the days of this Lenten season bring us closer and closer to Good Friday and Easter.

Let those refuse to sing Who never knew our God; But children of the heavenly King May speak their joys abroad.