NOTES for Psa 98

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¹O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

²The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

³He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

⁵Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

⁶With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

⁷Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

⁸Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

⁹Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

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.

Other notes

For Psa 98:1-9

¹O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

²The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

³He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

⁵Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

⁶With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

⁷Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

⁸Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

⁹Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

The Lord is called the One who reigns, and this means that however many kingdoms there may be on earth, and however highly their rulers may exalt themselves... Read more

The Lord is called the One who reigns, and this means that however many kingdoms there may be on earth, and however highly their rulers may exalt themselves, He alone is the One who truly reigns over the world. But He is above earthly kings not only in power and majesty. The most important quality of His Kingdom, one that is difficult to achieve in human societies, is justice, and this alone places it above earthly kingdoms. Yet His justice surpasses our customary ideas about what justice should be: supreme justice is inseparable from mercy. The psalmist calls the Lord both forgiving and punishing, and we should note that forgiveness is mentioned first.

Although the Lord revealed Himself to prophets called from among one particular people, He is not only their God: through the Jewish people the Lord revealed Himself to all humanity. Moses and Aaron, prophet and priest, are not mentioned side by side here by chance. The ministry of each is important and necessary; each, in his own place, served the One who called them and guarded the truth entrusted to them. They did not guard it as esotericists guard "secret knowledge," fearing that someone might penetrate mysteries hidden from the uninitiated. No, Moses and Aaron, and their successors, kept the truth pure so that it might become the possession of the whole people and, in time, of other nations as well, so that they too might in due course acknowledge who their true King is.

For Psa 98:1-9

¹O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

²The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

³He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

⁴Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

⁵Sing unto the LORD with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

⁶With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King.

⁷Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

⁸Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

⁹Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.

In the prayer of praise that makes up Psalm 99, the psalmist glorifies a great gift of God. He speaks of how God... Read more

In the prayer of praise that makes up Psalm 99, the psalmist glorifies a great gift of God. He speaks of how God has established justice and righteousness on earth among His people. We may be imperfect, to put it mildly. Neither righteousness nor justice may be familiar to us. Nevertheless, God's righteousness does not remain confined to an unattainable heaven. Because God comes down to us, His righteousness is realised, at least in part, in the world. The complete triumph of God's truth and mercy belongs to the future; it will come only at the end of time. Yet even today, glimmers of light reach us. This matters, first, because God's righteousness is not a utopia but a reality of life. But something else matters even more: we usually suffer and reproach God because there is so much unrighteousness and injustice in the world. Why does the Almighty allow this, people ask. Yet, says the psalmist, unrighteousness and injustice in the human world are not surprising: we have been endowed with the freedom to choose good and evil. What is surprising, on the contrary, is that goodness, righteousness and mercy still exist in the world. And if we glorify God for this, hope is born in our hearts and we find strength to resist evil.

Then the psalmist praises God for hearing us, forgiving us and punishing us for our deeds. How much more terrible life would be if God left us to pay for our crimes against life on our own! But God has not abandoned us. We do not stand alone against the evil and suffering of the world: God is with us.

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