NOTES for Psa 97

Before us is a call to sing a new song, and one may ask: why are new songs needed? Are the old ones not enough? Have they somehow become worse?

Of course they have not. But by composing new songs, we can feel anew, as if for the first time, what we are going to sing about. By expressing our feelings in new combinations of words that have never sounded before, we not only join the confession of faith of our great predecessors, but also strive, to the best of our own powers, however modest, to affirm that we ourselves are glad to remain in unity with the Creator.

At first such a call is addressed to people, which is natural; but then we see the psalmist extend the call to rejoice to the entire natural world. Here we have something greater than a poetic image, for not only our hearts but the whole universe must be transformed and must restore its unity with the Lord. This world could have been different if we human beings had proved worthy of the purpose for which we were created, but even now much depends on us. We are accountable not only for ourselves, but for the whole world entrusted to us.

David praises God's victory, accomplished at a particular moment in history, and two characteristic aspects are important in this praise. On the one hand, this most likely concerns God's miraculous help to David in his struggle against his adversaries. But the king does not call it his own victory: it is God's victory, in which His mercy was revealed—not to David, no, but to all God's people. This means that the point is not that God helps David, but that David's royal ministry takes place according to the Creator's will, within the course of His design.

On the other hand, beyond events that are concrete, though important to him, the king sees a different historical perspective. The salvation which God has revealed before the eyes of the nations is only a sign of God's coming, complete, and final victory over evil and death. This is why David proclaims praise to the Lord, calling all nations and the whole created world to do the same. And this is why David's prayer becomes words for all time, and for more than three thousand years we have addressed God with these words.