Today’s Passage: Psalm 98
This psalm opens with a command to sing, and not just any song but a new one, because the LORD has done something that deserves a fresh voice. His own right hand has won the victory, and the whole earth has seen it. So the psalm gathers up the sea and the rivers and the mountains and tells them all to join in, for He is coming to judge the earth. That He is coming, and that He will surely judge, is settled and sure. The day and the order of it He has left unmarked, and so will we.
As you read, hold this: Sing a new song. He is coming to judge.
Word study "A new song" — shir chadash (Psalm 98:1)
Hebrew: שִׁיר (shir), pronounced sheer. Strong’s H7892. Song.
Hebrew: חָדָשׁ (chadash), pronounced khah-DASH. Strong’s H2319. New. Fresh.
This phrase keeps returning all through the Psalms whenever God has done something the old words cannot quite carry. It is not that the older songs were ever wrong, but that this rescue is a fresh and particular mercy, and a fresh mercy asks for a mouth that has not gone numb to it.
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.
Context The arm that already saved
The first verse is reaching back to an older song.
"Your right hand, O LORD, is majestic in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has shattered the enemy." Exodus 15:6 (BSB)
The sea at the exodus already knew that arm, and this psalm borrows the old line for a new victory. Israel is remembered in His love, and the nations look on and see the salvation of our God. Both of these are true at once, and both of them still stand.
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.
All the earth is called to join in now, with lyre and harp, with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn. This is no quiet, folded-hands hymn. It is a full and glad noise lifted up before the King, and the King is named right out in the open.
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 He comes to judge the earth
Rivers have no hands to clap, and mountains have no voice to sing, yet the psalm hands them both anyway. All of creation has a stake in this judgment, and far from dreading the day, it is glad.
Twice over the psalm says it plainly: He comes, He will judge. On that we do not waver. He will return, and He will judge the earth, and He will do it in righteousness and in equity. That the King is coming is not something this house argues both ways or holds at arm’s length. Yet neither will we settle on a pre-tribulation chart or a millennial timetable He never drew. The psalm’s own word is enough for us, and it is more than enough to sing about.
Sing a new song. He is coming to judge.