1 O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the whole earth.
Justin Martyr · AD 165 Then Trypho said, "We know that you quoted these because we asked you. But it does not appear to me that this Psalm which you quoted last from the words of David refers to any other than the Father and Maker of the heavens and earth.
Jerome · AD 420 Sing to the Lord a new song. Happy penance! Though you have fallen, yet if you do penance, you are called the new house of Christ. Sing to the Lord a new song. A new house deserves a new song. Sing to the Lord a new song. Who are to sing? Sing to the Lord, all the earth. If it is said of the temple at Jerusalem, O Jew, how is all the earth summoned to praise?
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 Just as a door leads into a house, so does the title of a psalm lead into understanding. It is thus prefaced: When the house was being built after the captivity. You ask what house; the psalm already indicates to you: Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Behold what house this is. When the whole earth sings a new song, it is the house of God.
2 Sing unto the Lord, and praise his Name: be telling of his salvation from day to day.
Jerome · AD 420 Sing to the Lord, bless his name. The name of the Lord is Savior, from the fact that he was made for us. Sing to the Lord. Proclaim day from day his salvation. What does it mean to say: Proclaim day from day his salvation? The simple man understands it thus: On all days praise the Lord — that is, let day succeed to day — that is, you have praised today, praise tomorrow also.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Sing unto the Lord, bless His Name: be telling good tidings of His salvation from day to day" (ver. 2). How doth the building increase? "Be telling," he saith, "good tidings of His salvation from day to day." Let it be preached from day to day; from day to day, he saith, let it be built; let My house, saith God, increase.
Bede · AD 735 "A savior who is Christ the Lord has been born to you today in the city of David." It is good that [the angel] said "has been born today" and did not say "this night," for with heavenly light he appeared to those who were conducting the watch by night and brought the good news that day was born, namely, the one concerning whom the psalmist foretold, saying, "Announce well his s…
3 Declare his honour unto the heathen: and his wonders unto all people.
4 For the Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised: he is more to be feared than all gods.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "For the Lord is great, and cannot worthily be praised" [Psalm 96:4]. What Lord, except Jesus Christ, "is great, and cannot worthily be praised"?
5 As for all the gods of the heathen, they are but idols: but it is the Lord that made the heavens.
Tertullian · AD 220 True, Scripture says, "Make no mention of the name other gods, neither let it be heard out of your mouth." What it stipulates is that we should not call them gods. For in the first part of the law it says, "You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," that is, apply it to an idol. So anyone who honors an idol with the name of God falls into idolatry.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 But, if he is of too little importance, according to their reasoning, to be capable of the partnership of the term "Godhead" with the Father and the Son, he is not worthy of sharing any other of the terms proper to God.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 Everything that is adored other than God is either an intellectual creature, such as angels and demons; or a corporeal creature, such as heaven and earth and water and the like; or it is a figment of the human mind. And the Lord prohibits adoring these three.
6 Glory and worship are before him: power and honour are in his sanctuary.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Confession and beauty are before Him" [Psalm 96:6]. Do you love beauty? Wishest thou to be beautiful? Confess! He said not, beauty and confession, but confession and beauty. You were foul; confess, that you may be fair: you were a sinner; confess, that you may be righteous. You could deform yourself: you can not make yourself beautiful.
7 Ascribe unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of the people: ascribe unto the Lord worship and power.
Eusebius of Caesarea · AD 339 And if they say that they were chosen to act as priests and to offer worship to God, it can be shown that the Word promised that he would give to the Gentiles an equal share in his service, when he said, "Render to the Lord, O you kindreds of the nations, render to the Lord glory and honor: bring sacrifices and come into his courts." To which the oracle in Isaiah may be conjoin…
Jerome · AD 420 Bring to the Lord, you families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor. If it is said of the temple at Jerusalem, what does it now mean: Bring to the Lord, you families of the nations, bring to the Lord glory and honor? The multitude of the nations, the calling of the nations, is the gathering of the Church. Bring to the Lord glory and honor.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 What then? If "confession and beauty are before Him: holiness and greatness in His sanctification" (ver. 7). This we declare, when we are building the house; behold, it is already declared unto the heathen; what ought the heathen to do, to whom those who have cleared away the wood have declared the Lord's honour?
8 Ascribe unto the Lord the honour due unto his Name: bring presents, and come into his courts.
Jerome · AD 420 Take up victims, and enter into his courts. 'A holy victim, living, pleasing to God.' Take up victims. Bring victims yourselves. What victims? Be yourselves the victims. Virginity is a whole-burnt-offering to Christ: all chastity, whether in virginity or in widowhood or in continence, is a victim to Christ. I speak a new thing: the victim of chastity carries itself.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Ascribe unto the Lord glory unto His Name" (ver. 8). Not unto the name of man, not unto your own name, but unto His ascribe worship. ...Confession is a present unto God. O heathen, if ye will enter into His courts, enter not empty. "Bring presents." What presents shall we bring with us?
9 O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: let the whole earth stand in awe of him.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "O worship the Lord in His holy court" [Psalm 96:9]: in the Catholic Church; this is His holy court. Let no man say, "Lo, here is Christ, or there.
10 Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King: and that it is he who hath made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved; and how that he shall judge the people righteously.
Justin Martyr · AD 165 And from the ninety-fifth (ninety-sixth) Psalm they have taken away this short saying of the words of David: "From the wood." For when the passage said, "Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned from the wood," they have left, "Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned." Now no one of your people has ever been said to have reigned as God and Lord among the nation…
Jerome · AD 420 Let all the earth be moved before his face. See what it says. Heaven is not moved before the face of God; but whoever is earthly, he looks upon the Lord, and is moved, and trembles. Say among the nations that the Lord has reigned. Unless the earth has been moved and has withdrawn from its earthly works, the Lord will not reign among the nations.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Tell it out among the nations, that the Lord reigns from the wood: and that it is He who has made the round world so fast that it cannot be moved" [Psalm 96:10]. What testimonies of the building of the house of God! The clouds of heaven thunder out throughout the world that God's house is being built; and the frogs cry from the marsh, We alone are Christians.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad: let the sea make a noise, and all that therein is.
Hippolytus of Rome · AD 235 "Let the Sea Roar (Be Moved), and the Fulness Thereof." By these words it is signified that the preaching of the Gospel will be spread abroad over the seas and the islands in the ocean, and among the people dwelling therein, who are here called "the fulness thereof." And that word has been made good.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad" [Psalm 96:11]. Let the heavens, which declare the glory of God, rejoice; let the heavens rejoice, which the Lord made; let the earth be glad, which the heavens rain upon. For the heavens are the preachers, the earth the listeners. "Let the sea be stirred up, and the fullness thereof." What sea? The world.
John Damascene · AD 749 Furthermore, let no one maintain that the heavens or the heavenly bodies are animate, for they are inanimate and without feeling. So, even though sacred Scripture says, "Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad," it is really calling on the angels in heaven and the people on earth to rejoice.
12 Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "The plains shall be joyful, and all things that are in them" [Psalm 96:12]. All the meek, all the gentle, all the righteous, are the "plains" of God. "Then shall all the trees of the woods rejoice." The trees of the woods are the heathen. Why do they rejoice? Because they were cut off from the wild olive, and engraffed into the good olive.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 When the Lord invites certain ones from villages and streets to the supper, He clearly designates that people who had known how to keep the law under civilized society; but when He commands His guests to be gathered from highways and hedges, He doubtless seeks to gather a rustic people, that is, the Gentiles, of whose signification it is said through the Psalmist: "Then shall a…
13 For he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: and with righteousness to judge the world, and the people with his truth.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 "Before the face of the Lord. For He cometh, for He cometh to judge the world" (ver. 13). He came at first, and will come again. He first came in His Church in clouds. What are the clouds which bore Him?