(1) Sermon Script
Introduction: Sing Us A Song!
Why do people sing? Why do people take the trouble to write new songs? Some sing just because it is there and they can. Some sing the blues because they’re sad—“since my baby left me” (Elvis Presley). Some sing because they have been hurt and are bitter. Some are simply singing for their supper. And some sing because they are happy.
Something To Sing About (v. 1)
Psalm 98 is a new song, written because there is something to sing about. Look at verse 1:
98:1A psalm. Sing to Yahweh a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and the arm of his holiness have saved for him.
God has done something. He did it all by himself. He did it with his own right hand, his own holy arm, and without any help, without any go-between, or any intermediary. He did it himself. [1]
The psalm has a military salvation in mind. God’s salvation for Israel meant victory over her enemies. Salvation was good news for Israel, but bad news for her enemies.[2] Yahweh is Israel’s mighty champion.
The commentators don’t agree as to what specific victory the song writer has in mind.[3] Perhaps it is the exodus from Egypt. The same thing kickstarted Moses singing career (Exod 15:1-18). So it might be an allusion to the plagues, the path through the Red Sea, and the drowning of horse and rider. There and then God revealed himself a mighty warrior.
And perhaps now at the time of writing, hundreds of years after the exodus, this marvelous rescue still calls for new songs. Maybe the psalm reflects on an old work of salvation which calls for a new song.
Or perhaps the psalmist has in mind the return from exile. God’s people have been brought back to God’s land after a wretched history of sin, covenant breaking, and failure. Isaiah saw this as calling for a new song from earth and sea (Isa 42:10). This was the work of God’s arm in the sight of the nations (Isa 52:10).[4] This then would be a new work of salvation calling for a new song.
Or perhaps, and probably most likely, it doesn’t refer to any particular historical event of salvation. Rather, it refers to them all, past or present. And is to be sung when God again defeats his enemies. God continues as the God who saves his people from the nations around them. And his continuing salvation of Israel proves this. Through Joshua and Judge, Samuel, Saul and David, despite sin within and enemy without, God saved his people who called to him. And new works of salvation, in continuity with the old, call for a new song.
God’s Righteous Salvation (vv. 2-3)
So what is the nature of God’s salvation? Only God saves, we know this much. But why does he save? In what way does he save? Verses 2-3:
98:2Yahweh has made his salvation known in the sight of the nations. He has revealed his righteousness. 98:3He has remembered his covenant love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
We have already seen in verse 1 that salvation springs from Yahweh’s “holy arm”. God, the warrior, saves his people because he is holy. Now, in verse 2, ‘salvation’ means that God “reveals his righteousness”. God the mighty warrior saves Israel in a way that shows his holiness and his righteousness.
But the astonishing thing is that his righteousness is revealed to the nations. Even before the nations, the gentiles, God reveals his righteousness.
What does the psalmist mean by this ‘revealed righteousness’? Is God revealing his righteousness by destroying the nations?
I don’t think so. For in verse 3, the ends of the earth see the salvation of God. And in verse 4 all the earth sings songs of joy. I don’t think they are rejoicing in their own destruction. The nations are not going to be destroyed: rather, they are benefitting from God’s saving righteousness. The nations are drawn into God’s victory and are blessed (cf. Gen 12:3).
The nations are also to enjoy God’s salvation. But the salvation springs from God’s special covenant relationship with Israel. The first bit of verse 3 again:
98:3He has remembered his love and his covenant faithfulness to the house of Israel.
His love, ‘hesed’ is his special, electing, covenant love toward Abraham’s descendants. God is looking back and remembering his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the patriarchs, and with the nation Israel at Sinai. He is faithful to her. He loves her on account of the fathers (Rom 11:28).
And the nations, the gentiles, are piggy-backing on God’s love for Israel. The nations ‘get in’ on Israel’s ticket. It’s like with all my wife’s relatives and friends. I’m accepted into their intimate circle because of her. They love her and so have me, and I bask in her reflected glory. So the nations bask in God’s glorying in saving his people.
Power Up And Play Loud: All The Earth (vv. 4-5)
The nations, the ends of the earth, enjoy this reflected glory. So they join Israel in this new song. All the earth is called to power up and play loud, and with Israel, they shout for joy (v. 4). With Israel, they join the jubilant song. They strike up their band: the brass, the strings, the melody. With Israel, they sing before Israel’s king, Yahweh. For Yahweh is Israel’s King and he fights Israel’s battles for her (1 Sam 8:20). That is just what kings do. Kings save their people. That’s why God was so offended when Israel asked Samuel for a king (1 Sam 8:7). Yahweh is Israel’s king. And here even the nations recognize that.
Backing Vocal Credits: All Creation (vv. 7-8)
But it is not just the nations that sing before Yahweh. All creation will sing. They provide backing vocals—the sea, and its teeming multitudes, the world and its inhabitants (v. 7). The rivers keep rhythm (v. 8). The mountains sing in chorus. And why not? For creation too has been groaning with the pains of childbirth (Rom 8:20, 22). Creation has an interest in king Yahweh’s victory. For only Yahweh will end creation’s frustration and futility. And so the psalm closes with the eager expectation of coming judgement.
The Coming Righteous Judgement (v. 9, cf. vv. 2-3)
Verses 8 and 9:
98:8The floods will clap their hands together. The mountains will sing for joy 98:9before Yahweh, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
Now, this is unusual, isn’t it? Normally, we are afraid of God’s judgement. We know our sin and God’s holiness. We know that no-one living is righteous before God (Ps 143:2). So why does Israel, the nations, and indeed all creation eagerly await judgement?
Well, it’s the nature of God’s judgment. It is righteous (v. 9). Remember verses 2-3. Yahweh made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. God’s salvation and God’s righteousness are closely related.[5] Where his righteousness is, there is his salvation. Salvation springs from his love and faithfulness (v. 3). But God’s salvation always means God’s judgement—it is good news for some, not for all.
Conclusion
And the psalmist looks forward to the day of God’s coming, where God’s love and faithfulness, and his salvation and righteousness, meets his holiness and judgement—in the person of Jesus. When Jesus first came, God remembered his mercy to Israel (Luke 1:54). In the person of Jesus, God’s righteousness and salvation meets his holiness and judgment on the cross.
But now a righteousness of God apart from law has been made known, to which the law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness of God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice (or righteousness), because he left the sins committed beforehand unpunished. He did this to demonstrate his justice (or righteousness)at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus Christ. (Romans 3:21-26 NIV modified)
God’s righteousness has been made known and demonstrated in the presentation of Jesus as our sacrifice of atonement. Jesus takes the punishment for the sins of Old Testament believers, and for our sins. Jesus is our King who fights our battles for us. Jesus is our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30).
The one judged for sin in his first coming will be the judge of sin in his second coming. For Jesus is the coming one who will judge the world. Acts 17:31:
For he has set a day when he [God] will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him [Jesus] from the dead. (Acts 17:31 NIV)
The judged one will be the judge. This is something to sing a new song about. For this will be the topic of new songs sung into eternity. Revelation 5:9:
And they sang a new song: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seal, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev 5:9 NIV)
Let’s pray.
[1] Calvin’s, Commentary upon Psalm XCVIII, 70, citing Isaiah 59:16-17: “The LORD looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no-one, he was appalled that there was no-one to intercede, so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him. He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet os salvation on his head. He put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.”
[2] T Longman III, ‘Psalm 98: A divine warrior victory song’, JETS 27 (1984), 267-74 at 272.
[3] The views are noted in Longman (1984), 267-74
[4] Longman, 269
[5] Calvin, Comm, 70.
(2) English Translation
98:1A psalm. Sing to Yahweh a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and the arm of his holiness have saved for him.
98:2Yahweh has made his salvation known in the sight of the nations. He has revealed his righteousness.
98:3He has remembered his covenant love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
98:4Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth. Break forth and give a ringing cry and sing praises.
98:5Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, 98:6with trumpets and the sound of a horn. Shout joyfully before the king, Yahweh.
98:7The sea will roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it.
98:8The floods will clap their hands together. The mountains will sing for joy 98:9before Yahweh, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.