Psalm 96:4 NKJV
For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised;
He is to be feared above all gods.
For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised: The psalmist would not give God empty or unthinking praise. He first spoke regarding the greatness of God and noted that His greatness made Him greatly to be praised. (Guzik)
i. For the LORD is great: “He is, in every possible sense, ‘great;’ great in dignity, in power, in mercy; and therefore ‘greatly to be praised’ by every creature.” (Horne)
He is to be feared above all gods: Yahweh deserves worship from the entire earth because He isn’t like the gods and idols of the pagans. He is the Creator who made the heavens. (Guzik)
i. “Idols; or, nothings, as they are called, 1 Corinthians 8:4, 10:19; or, vain things, as the word signifies, and is translated by others. The sense is, Though they have usurped the name and place of the Divine Majesty, yet they have nothing of his nature or power in them.” (Poole)
ii. “The term idols is elilim, which the Old Testament treats as a mere parody of elohim (God). It is the word translated ‘worthless’ in Job 13:4 (‘worthless physicians’) and Jeremiah 14:14 (‘worthless divination’).” (Kidner)
iii. “Yahweh alone is God and all other deities are ‘fakes.’ They cannot be gods, because Yahweh alone has made heaven. The pagans may claim that their gods have power over the heavenly realms, but this is excluded by virtue of Yahweh’s sole claim to having created ‘the heavens.’” (VanGemeren)
iv. “The contemptuous name of the nation’s gods as ‘Nothings’ is frequent in Isaiah.” (Maclaren)
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“For the LORD is great and greatly to be praised.” He is no petty deity, presiding, as the heathen imagined their gods to do, over some one nation, or one department of nature. Jehovah is great in power and dominion, great in mind and act; nothing mean or narrow can be found in him or his acts, in all things he is infinite. Praise should be proportionate to its object, therefore let it be infinite when rendered unto the Lord. We cannot praise him too much, too often, too zealously, too carefully, too joyfully. He deserves that nothing in his worship should be little, but all the honor rendered unto him should be given in largeness of heart, with the utmost zeal for his glory.
“He is to be feared above all gods.” Other gods have been worshipped at great cost, and with much fervor, by their blinded rotaries, but Jehovah should be adored with far greater reverence. Even if the graven images had been gods they could not have borne comparison for an instant with the God of Israel, and therefore his worship should be far more zealous than any which has been rendered to them. He is to be feared, for there is cause to fear. Dread of other gods is mere superstition, awe of the Lord is pure religion. Holy fear is the beginning of the graces, and yet it is the accompaniment of their highest range. Fear of God is the blush upon the face of holiness enhancing its beauty. (Spurgeon)
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For the Lord is great – Yahweh is great. See the notes at Psalms 77:13. This verse is taken literally from 1 Chronicles 16:25.
And greatly to be praised – Worthy of exalted praise and adoration.
He is to be feared above all gods – He is to be reverenced and adored above all that are called gods. Higher honor is to be given him; more lofty praise is to be ascribed to him. He is Ruler over all the earth and has a claim to universal praise. Even if it were admitted that they were real gods, yet it would still be true that they were local and inferior divinities; that they ruled only over the particular countries where they were worshipped and acknowledged as gods, and that they had no claim to “universal” adoration as Yahweh has. (Barnes)
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For the Lord is great,…. In the perfections of his nature; in the works of his hands, of creation, providence, and redemption; and in the several offices he bears and executes:
and greatly to be praised; because of his greatness and glory; See Gill on “Ps 48:1,”
he is to be feared above all gods; the angels by whom he is worshipped; civil magistrates, among whom he presides, and judges; and all the fictitious deities of the Gentiles, who are not to be named with him, and to whom no fear, reverence, and worship, are due. (Gill)
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The Lord is great, and therefore greatly to be praised (v. 4) and to be feared, great and honorable to his attendants, great and terrible to his adversaries. Even the new song proclaims God great as well as good; for his goodness is his glory; and, when the everlasting gospel is preached, it is this, Fear God, and give glory to him, Rev. 14:6, 7. (Henry)
Psalm 96:4 Geneva Bible 1560
4 For the Lord is “b” great and much to be praised: he is to be feared above all gods.
b Seeing he will reveal himself to all nations contrary to their own expectation, they ought all to worship him contrary to their own imaginations, and only as he has appointed.
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