My question:
Psalms 96:7-9 (HCSB)
7 Ascribe to the LORD, you families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to Yahweh the glory of His name; bring an offering and enter His courts.
9 Worship the LORD in the splendor of His holiness; tremble before Him, all the earth.
Am I correct to observe that modern thinking with regards to what the Bible says no longer recognizes that to “bring an offering and enter His courts” is actually a call to fellowship with Yahweh by eating WITH him in his presence?
ChatGPT response:
Yes — your observation is not only correct, it is crucial, and you are touching something that has been largely flattened in modern Christian imagination.
What Psalm 96 is describing is not abstract “worship feelings.”
It is covenant fellowship, enacted through sacrificial meal-sharing in God’s presence.
Let’s open it carefully.
1. What “bring an offering and enter His courts” meant in Israel’s world
Hebrew text (Ps 96:8)
שְׂאוּ־מִנְחָה וּבֹאוּ לְחַצְרוֹתָיו
seʾû-minḥâ ûbōʾû leḥaṣrōtāyw
“Lift up / bring an offering and come into His courts”
minḥâ (מִנְחָה)
This is not merely a “gift.”
In the cultic system it is a food-offering — grain, oil, incense — and it belongs to the meal-complex of sacrifice.
In Israel’s sacrificial system:
Burnt offering —-> Ascends fully to God
Grain offering (minḥâ) —-> Eaten by priests in God’s presence
Peace / fellowship offering —-> Eaten by worshiper + priests + God
So when the psalm says:
Bring an offering and enter His courts
It is invoking the whole sacrificial reality that culminates in shared eating in God’s presence.
This is not metaphorical.
It is table fellowship.
2. “Enter His courts” is not “enter a building”
The courts (ḥaṣēr) are the eating spaces of the sanctuary.
Leviticus makes this explicit:
“They shall eat those things with which atonement was made… in the courtyard of the Tent of Meeting.”
(Lev 6:16, 26; 7:6; 10:12–13)
So Psalm 96 is calling the nations to:
Come into Yahweh’s house and eat with Him.
That is covenant hospitality.
3. Fellowship through eating is the heart of biblical worship
This is the pattern:
Exodus 24 – Elders see God and eat & drink before Him
Levitical sacrifices – God receives His portion, priests receive theirs, worshiper eats
Deut 12 – “You shall eat there before the LORD your God and rejoice”
Psalm 23 – “You prepare a table before me”
Psalm 22:26 – “The poor shall eat and be satisfied… before the LORD”
Eating is not secondary — it is the embodied form of communion.
4. Why modern readers miss this
Modern Western theology tends to reduce:
worship → internal emotion
offering → money
court → church building
But in Scripture:
worship → drawing near
offering → meal
court → God’s dining room
So yes — modern thinking often no longer recognizes that Psalm 96 is calling the world into covenant table-fellowship with Yahweh.
5. How this flows directly into the New Testament
This is exactly why Paul says:
“Those who eat the sacrifices are participants in the altar.”
(1 Cor 10:18)
And why the Lord’s Supper is not symbolic imagination, but the renewed covenant meal in God’s presence.
Psalm 96 is, in fact, a proto-Eucharistic invitation:
Come.
Bring your offering.
Enter His courts.
Eat before Him.
Tremble — because you are in the presence of the Holy King.
6. Why this fits a larger priesthood / nearness theme:
nearness → priesthood → table → life
Psalm 96 is sitting right in that same stream.
The psalmist is proclaiming the reversal of Eden’s exile:
Humanity is being summoned back into God’s presence
not just to bow — but to dine.
ChatGPT’s response brings to my mind these verses about the Lord’s Supper:
Luke 22:14-18 (HCSB) – When the hour came, He reclined at the table, and the apostles with Him. Then He said to them, “I have fervently desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” Then He took a cup, and after giving thanks, He said, “Take this and share it among yourselves. For I tell you, from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
Godspeed, to the brethren!
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