John Calvin Commentary Psalms 96:10

"Say among the nations, Jehovah reigneth: The world also is established that it cannot be moved: He will judge the peoples with equity." — Psalms 96:10 (ASV)

Say among the heathen, Jehovah reigneth. His language again implies that it is only where God rules and presides that he can be worshipped. The Gentiles could not possibly profess the worship of God as long as his throne was only in the small corner of Judea, and they were not acknowledging his government.

Accordingly, the Psalmist speaks of his extending his kingdom to all parts of the world, with the view of gathering to himself in one those who had formerly been divided and scattered. The expression, Say among the heathen, signifies that God would enlarge the boundaries of his kingdom by his word and doctrine.

What is said of the world being established, is particularly worthy of our observation. As far as the order of nature is concerned, we know that it has been Divinely established and fixed from the beginning; that the same sun, moon, and stars continue to shine in heaven; that the wicked and the unbelieving are sustained with food and breathe the vital air, just as the righteous do.

Still, we are to remember that as long as ungodliness has possession of the minds of people, the world, plunged as it is in darkness, must be considered as thrown into a state of confusion and of horrible disorder and misrule; for there can be no stability apart from God.

The world is very properly said here, therefore, to be established, that it should not shake, when people are brought back into a state of subjection to God. We learn this truth from the passage, that though all the creatures should be discharging their various offices, no order can be said to prevail in the world until God erects his throne and reigns among people.

What more monstrous disorder can be conceived than where the Creator himself is not acknowledged? Wicked and unbelieving people may be satisfied with their own condition, but it is necessarily most insecure, most unstable; and destitute as they are of any foundation in God, their life may be said to hang by a thread.

We are to recollect what we have seen taught (Psalms 46:5): God is in the midst of the holy city, she shall not be moved. Very possibly there may be an indirect allusion to the imperfect and uncompleted state of things under the Law, and a contrast may have been intended between the perfect condition of things which should prevail under Christ, and the prelude to it under the former period.

Next, he predicts that the kingdom to be introduced will be distinguished by righteousness, according to what we have seen (Psalms 45:6): A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. The term judging, in Hebrew, includes government of any kind.

If God’s method of governing people is to form and regulate their lives to righteousness, we may infer that, however easily they may be satisfied with themselves, all is necessarily wrong with them until they have been made subject to Christ.

And this righteousness of which the Psalmist speaks does not refer merely to outward actions. It comprehends a new heart, commencing as it does in the regeneration of the Spirit, by which we are formed again into the likeness of God.