Human beings have a strange ability, and might I way a tendency, to take in information, intellectually process and understand it then summarily file it away into a pile of lots of other things we know but never really internalize or integrate the information into who we are. It happens with faith and Biblical truth all the time.

The mark of understanding isn't in "knowing" but when the knowledge changes who you are, how you respond to the world around you. By now I pray you've really begun to understand the pattern; God didn't abandon the nations. He fully intends to be known among them, to redeem them. This Psalm drive this truth home deep into our hearts.

This passage paints a glorious image of we, His redeemed people, declaring His goodness to the disinherited, the broken, to those wandering in the chaos of this broken world. It invites us to sing to the Lord, to bless His name and proclaim His salvation every single day.

The joy we are invited into in Psalm 96 isn't something painted as a hidden treasure kept for only us to enjoy. It shows an expansive, joyful, and generous posture where the worship of God spills over into the nations around us.

Through the years I've witnessed so many "religious" communities behave as though the grace of God was meant only for them. It's not something we would ever say out loud, but it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking our people, culture, church, worship preference, and methods somehow sit closer to the center of God's will than others. Psalm 96 shatters that idea with extreme prejudice. The glory of God is far too grand for that sort of small thinking. His name is great and deserves to be declared among ALL the peoples of the earth.

Where Psalm 98 helped us to SEE the world rightly, Psalm 96 helps us to FEEL rightly about what we see. It molds us to want what God wants. The nations aren't a threat to be feared or a burden to be tolerated. They are the very object of His Divine pursuit; future members of the heavenly choir who will sing His praises forever.

In this Psalm our mission becomes more than duty, it becomes delight. When God begins to soften our hardened hearts, we begin to want His glory known anywhere and everywhere it is currently denied, forgotten, distorted, or opposed. Instead of "How can I be blessed?" we begin to ask "How can His name be made known?"

In these devotions I intentionally attempt to steer away from politics and the like to focus on the person and mission of Jesus. However, in light of today's reading, how the Christian views and responds to the immigrant in our current culture is a fitting example of how our faith can walk and be lived out in the "real" world. People of the nations are not our enemies, they are our mission.

In light of today's reading, do you still think of God's mission as primarily an obligation, or is your heart being molded to love what, and who, He loves? Where might your heart still be resistant to God's desire for all peoples to know Him?

Father, forgive me for the many ways my heart becomes narrow and self-focused. Teach me to love others for Your glory and to long for Your name to be known among all the peoples of the earth. Let your mission of redemption become more than a concept of the mind and become a desire of my own heart. Amen.