Today’s Passage: Psalm 98
This psalm opens with a specific kind of command: not just sing, but sing something new.
Word study A new song — shir chadash (Psalm 98:1)
“New song” translates two Hebrew words, שִׁיר (shir, sheer) — Strong's H7891, “song,” and חָדָשׁ (chadash, khah-DASH) — Strong's H2319, “new, fresh.” This exact phrase appears several times across the Psalms, always tied to some fresh act of God’s deliverance rather than routine worship. The old songs were not wrong, but a new and specific rescue, this psalm insists, deserves words that have never been sung before.
As you read, hold this: the psalm keeps widening its guest list, from Israel, to all the earth, to the sea and rivers and mountains themselves, as if creation cannot help but join in.
Psalm 98:1-3 (BSB)
A Psalm.
¹ Sing to the LORD a new song, for He has done wonders; His right hand and holy arm have gained Him the victory. ² The LORD has proclaimed His salvation and revealed His righteousness to the nations. ³ He has remembered His love and faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
The victory in verse 1 stays specific to Israel in verse 3, but its visibility does not: “all the ends of the earth” have seen it, whether or not they were the ones rescued.
Context Borrowed language from the sea
Verse 1’s picture of God’s “right hand and holy arm” gaining the victory echoes older language, most famously the song Moses and Israel sang after crossing the Red Sea: “Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy” (Exodus 15:6). This psalm reaches for that same battle-tested phrase, deliberately recalling Israel’s founding rescue to describe whatever fresh deliverance has just prompted this “new song.”
Psalm 98:4-6 (BSB)
⁴ Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth—let your cry ring out, and sing praises! ⁵ Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, in melodious song with the harp. ⁶ With trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn shout for joy before the LORD, the King.
Three different instruments get named in two verses. This is not a quiet hymn. It is an orchestra being assembled in real time.
Psalm 98:7-9 (BSB)
⁷ Let the sea resound, and all that fills it, the world, and all who dwell in it. ⁸ Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy ⁹ before the LORD, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
Study notes An unexpected source for a familiar carol
In 1719, the hymn writer Isaac Watts published a paraphrase of this psalm titled “Joy to the World,” now sung every Christmas around the globe. Watts’s original was never about a manger. It followed Psalm 98’s own subject: the LORD coming to judge the earth “with righteousness” and “with equity,” language this psalm applies to God’s rule, not to His birth. The familiar carol borrowed this psalm’s joy, and much of its language, for a purpose the psalm itself never had in view.
The rivers “clap their hands” and the mountains “sing,” images no literal river or mountain can actually perform. The psalm reaches for personification because ordinary praise language was not enough to carry what it wanted to say: creation itself has a stake in this King’s coming judgment, and it is glad, not afraid.
Personal Application
- Verse 1 calls for a “new song” tied to a specific, fresh act of God’s deliverance, not routine repetition. Is there a recent, specific thing God has done in your life that deserves fresh praise, rather than the same old words?
- The psalm pictures rivers and mountains themselves rejoicing at the thought of God’s coming judgment, not fearing it. Does the idea of God judging the world with righteousness feel more like good news or bad news to you right now, and why?
Decision of the day: Write or speak one specific, fresh sentence of praise today naming something recent God has done, rather than repeating a familiar phrase out of habit.
Pray to Close
The truth to carry from this psalm: the coming judgment of a righteous King is not a threat creation shrinks from, it is the very thing rivers and mountains are pictured rejoicing over.
Praise: for the LORD whose salvation is visible to the ends of the earth, worth a genuinely new song.
Confess: any praise that has gone stale, repeated out of habit rather than fresh gratitude.
Ask: for the same instinct this psalm pictures in creation itself, genuine gladness at the thought of God’s righteous rule.
Worship for Today
Joy to the World · The Worship Initiative
This carol is, in its own words, a direct descendant of this psalm: Isaac Watts wrote it as a paraphrase of Psalm 98, carrying forward the same picture of a King whose coming rule gives the whole earth, fields, floods, and all, genuine reason to rejoice.
Listen: