O sing unto the LORD a new song: sing unto the LORD, all the earth.
Psalms 96:1-13 -Call to the earth to sing a nmw song to Yahweh (Psalms 96:1-3): He is in majesty, strength and beauty, worthy of this (Psalms 96:4-6); triple call to give Him glory and worship (Psalms 96:7-9); all who have heard that Yahweh has assumed the kingdom are to tell it to the pagan; so shall the world be established in righteousness, and all nature shall rejoice before the coming Judge (Psalms 96:10-13); the thrice-repeated "give" (Psalms 96:7-8) answers to the thrice-repeated "sing" (Psalms 96:1-2); Messiah's coming to set up God's kingdom on earth was a theme calculated to comfort Judah when threatened by the Assyrian world-power. This psalm is a later expansion of David's psalm, delivered to Asaph, to thank the Lord on the setting up of the ark in the tabernacle in Zion (1 Chronicles 16:23-33: cf. with Psalms 96:10; Isaiah 52:7; with Psalms 96:1; Isaiah 42:10; with Psalms 96:3; Isaiah 60:6; Isaiah 66:18-19). The Septuagint, Vulgate, Ethiopic, Arabic, and Syriac, attribute the psalm to David.
O sing unto the Lord a new song - (Psalms 33:3) A new song, as being for a new benefit never received before.
Sing unto the Lord, all the earth. Isaiah 42:10 is an expansion of 1 Chronicles 16:23, from which also this Psalms 96:1-13 is taken. This psalm, and Psalms 98:1-9, which begins with the same words, like the second part of Isaiah (from Isaiah 40:1-31) points to the future glorious kingdom of Messiah, reigning in Jerusalem over the whole Gentile world, as well as over Israel. The germ of the same bright hope appears in David's psalm, in 1 Chronicles 16:1-43, but not so fully developed as in this series of psalms, and in the probably contemporary prophet Isaiah. The fullest development appears in Revelation 5:9-10, "They sung a new song," etc.: "Thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation," "and we shall reign, on the earth." Yarchi observes that wherever "a new song" is mentioned, it is to be understood of Messianic times (cf. Psalms 96:13).