Psalm 96:2-3 Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples
I have noticed over the past day or so many people sharing the gospel on Facebook. The word gospel means ‘good news.’ We often think of it in a Biblical context which is under-standable. The gospel that I see shared on Facebook is good news of a different sort. There are a number of posts written by people for whom the good news is that their football team won. They have excitedly posted about the continued success of their team. Others post about the good news that someone else’s team lost! They gleefully post in an effort to make sure that their friends feel sufficiently crushed over their team’s loss!
Genesis 3:15 is sometimes called the Proto-Evangelium, which is a highfalutin sounding term for the first appearance of the Gospel. We usually think of the Gospel being found in the first four books of the New Testament. The Gospel is the good news about what Jesus has done, after all. But in that verse in Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve that a plan is in place to deal with the problems that have come and will come about because of their sin. That is good news!
But it doesn’t just stop there. The Bible is a unity. It is all about the work of a loving God in the world. If Genesis 3:15 is the Proto-Evangelium, I think that Psalm 96:2-3 could be considered the Proto-Great Commission. (It doesn’t sound as polished without the Latin influence!) This Psalm tells us to sing to the Lord, but also to proclaim the good news of His salvation. We don’t need to proclaim it to Him, but to others who are unaware. We are to tell this good news from day to day. Just a lifestyle sort of thing. Tell of His glory and wonderful deeds.
What if all of us that are the committed followers of Jesus began to really do that? What if we set out to sing to Him and bless Him more? What if we began to proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day? What if we did that more than we do other things? I mentioned the gospel that people were sharing about football. What about all the posts that share how great the politician of their choosing is and the posts about how terrible you should feel about yours? Instead of all that, I submit that we
Sing to the Lord, bless His name; Proclaim good tidings of His salvation from day to day. Tell of His glory among the nations, His wonderful deeds among all the peoples!
Blessings,
Pastor Russ
