Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Psalm 98 | Date: May 11, 2025 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

Sing to the Lord a New Song

Psalm 98 today. This is entitled, A Psalm.

Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord. He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.

This is a praise hymn we have come to anticipate. As very often in a praise psalm, we have a form that is often followed in them, and that is there’ll be a call to praise, and then the cause for praise, or the reason for praise is stated after that. We have that here three times. Verse one: the call to praise, “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.” And then the end of verse one through verse three, we have the reason for praise, “for he has done marvelous things.”

Then again in verse four, we have another call to praise. “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.” And here there’s no reason stated. Presumably, it’s the same as the reason in verses one to three and verses seven to nine. Then verse seven, we have another call to praise. “Let the sea roar, let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing.” And then the reason: “for he comes to judge the earth.”

So we have a praise psalm with three stanzas. Stanza one is addressed to Israel: sing to the Lord a new song for what he has done for them. And then stanza two evidently is addressed to the nations: sing to the Lord all the earth with singing and with musical instruments. And then stanza three is addressed evidently to the entire created order. The sea and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Verse 8: the rivers and the hills, all addressed to sing God’s praise.

As usual in praise psalms, the dominant tone here is one of exuberant praise. Not just praise, but a joyful kind of praise. Verse 1: singing. Verse 4: a joyful noise, joyous song, singing praises. Verse 5 again: singing praises. Verses 5 and following calls the musical instruments into service for praising God. Verse 5: the lyre, and then it repeats it, the lyre with the sound of melody. Verse 6: the trumpets, the sound of the horn. Verses 7 and 8 then: all creation is called to join in. The sea and all that fills it is to roar God’s praise. The world, those who dwell in it, the rivers, the hills—they clap their hands and sing for joy together.

So the psalm then expands its praise and expands in space, expands in volume, and expands in time. From Israel (verse one) to the nations (verse four) to the created order itself (in verse seven); and from singing to musical instruments, and then to the roars of the ocean as well. All praising the Lord for his works, both past and, as we’ll see, in the future as well.

Now, I don’t know what music in ancient Israel sounded like, but it does not seem that this was a psalm written to be sung in the minor key. This is a psalm, a happy psalm, happy music. All the world called to rejoice in God, Israel’s God, who is the Lord, the King of all the earth.

I mentioned that I don’t know what the ancient music was like. Bruce Waltke said one time that he had a student, a woman student in the seminary classroom, who had done a lot of research on reconstructing the music of ancient Israel. I don’t know how you would go about that; I don’t know anything about that. But she had done a lot of work on that. And one day he said he and his wife invited this lady and her husband and some others as dinner guests at their house. They sat down for dinner and Bruce said that he had the stack of records on the phonograph—this is years ago. He had a stack of records on the phonograph and they are sitting at dinner eating, and suddenly one record dropped and Bruce’s wife says, “Bruce, turn off that horrible music.” And here it was a record that this lady sitting at the table with her had made, reconstructing the music of ancient Israel. They had a good laugh over that. I don’t know what it was like, but this Psalm at least, at least in the ears of the ancient Israelites, this would have been happy music, a joyful tune sung to praise the Lord.

The Lord Is King

Now we’ve seen that in Psalms 93 to 99, we have a grouping of psalms that gather around this concept of “the Lord is king.” And in fact, there’s that repeated expression in most of these psalms: “the Lord reigns,” or you could translate “the Lord is king.” That exact expression is not found in Psalm 98. We saw that it was not found in Psalm 95 either, but we do have the equivalent kind of thing, like in verse six: “make a joyful noise before the king, the Lord.” And then we add the same theme of his rule and reign over the entire earth. So obviously, this has similarity and fits into this grouping.

In fact, there’s striking similarity to Psalm 98 with Psalm 96. If you want to look back at Psalm 96, let’s go back and forth there for just a moment. In Psalm 96, the beginning and the end of the psalm are nearly identical to the beginning and the end of Psalm 98. So in Psalm 96 verses 1 to 3: “O sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord all the earth, sing to the Lord, bless his name, tell of his salvation from day to day, declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all peoples.” And then if you’ll flip over again to Psalm 98, you find almost the same thing: “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.” So ideas of the new song being sung, the marvelous things that God has done, the salvation that he has worked, and that in the sight of the nations—these are repeated themes.

And then back at Psalm 96, you’ll see at the end of the Psalm, he concludes with an anticipation of God’s universal reign, climactically realized in the earth. Verse 10 of Psalm 96: “say among the nations, the Lord reigns. Yes, the world is established. It shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity. Let the nations be glad. Let the earth rejoice. Let the sea roar and all that fills it. Let the field exult and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy before the Lord, for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his faithfulness.”

And then back at Psalm 98, you’ll see that he concludes in a similar way. Verses 7 and 8: the whole created order called to sing God’s praise, the seas and the rivers, called to roar God’s praise. Verse 9: “he comes to judge the earth and he’ll judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in equity.” So the place of Psalm 98 in this grouping of Psalms, “the Lord is King” Psalms, is obvious. The coming of God as king to judge over the earth.

The Conquering Warrior

Now, the dominant theme in these “The Lord is King” Psalms is the Lord as a conquering warrior. The warrior theme comes through. He’s a god of war. He goes to war, as it were, on behalf of his people. He rules over the enemies. He rules over the nations. He rules over the false gods. He rules over the seas and the hills and everything else. And now, in this psalm, he comes as judge, to bring judgment upon all that is his.

In verses one to three—well actually, more specifically here, Psalm 98 is not only a psalm of God as a conquering warrior, but it’s something of a victory psalm: the divine warrior who has come back from victory, from triumph over the enemies. Now he comes back and leading the Israelite armies back to their home after waging this, what we could call a holy war against his enemies. God is the commander of the heavenly hosts, bringing back his army in triumph and in victory. And that’s the celebration then of Psalm 98.

Verses 1 to 3 then sing of that kind of deliverance. “Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” Expressions in every part of this verse echo warrior themes. This “new song” idea that occurs seven times in the Old Testament, twice in the New Testament—consistently, it has the idea of the context of God going to war against his enemies, going to battle on behalf of his people. The “old song,” by the way, was Exodus 15, where there was the song of deliverance after Israel crossed the Red Sea and God defeated Pharaoh’s army for them. So we have the idea of a new song, a context of war.

The “marvelous things” that we find in verse 1—the marvelous things that God has done—that’s the decisive victory that he has brought for his people. And then we have the imagery of “his right hand and his holy arm.” Again, that’s warfare imagery. We find something similar in the prophets, where God rolls up his sleeves, as it were. He’s laid bare his mighty arm, going to war and to battle on behalf of his people to the accomplishing of his purpose. And then it says, “his right hand and holy arm have worked salvation for him.” Well, the salvation in view particularly here is his deliverance from the enemies, the enemies of his people.

And then verse two: “he has revealed his righteousness.” The particular aspect of God’s righteousness that he has revealed is his righteous judgment. He’s brought judgment against his enemies in the sight of the nations who oppose him. And he’s rescued his people. In this broad-scale perspective, God has come on behalf of his people and he’s worked in a mighty way against the enemies of his people and he’s revealed his righteousness in doing it, particularly his righteous judgment. And all of that, verse three, because “he has remembered his steadfast love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.” He promised his loyal love and protection to them, and he has come in a grand display of it in working on their behalf.

And then verses four to six, we have envisioned here the people rejoicing at the sight of the military commander’s return, the Lord’s return. He’s a conquering king. And so, verses 4 and 5, the people are making a joyful noise, a joyous song, and singing. Verse six, with every kind of musical instrument employed. Verse six again: “make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.” He’s returning from battle.

This is an ancient custom at wartime. You’ve seen it before in the Old Testament. You might remember probably the most famous example of this is 1 Samuel chapter 18. David, the new hero in Saul’s army, has gone out to battle against Israel’s enemies. He’s conquered them in a decisive kind of way. He comes back, and you remember, the people are singing. And all the ladies of the kingdom are singing. “Saul has killed his thousands, David has killed his ten thousands.” Find it again in Judges chapter 11 with Jephthah after he had defeated the Ammonites. The people singing upon his return. That’s the idea here: you have a conquering warrior who has come back now home after victory over his enemies.

You find something like this in the prophets as well. When God makes war in the prophets, speaking of the day of the Lord, when God makes war, the music stops. But when he’s proven triumphant, the music starts up again. That’s the idea here as well.

And then verses seven to nine, the third stanza of the psalm, the whole created order joins in the singing. “Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together.” So God makes war, he triumphs over evil, triumphs over sin, and in response now, his people and all creation with him celebrate the occasion.

The Coming of God to Judge the Earth

All right, well, there’s a brief overview of the psalm. Let’s stop and ask the question: what is in view here specifically? When does all of this rejoicing take place? Now on one level, this psalm may reflect some recent victory, some deliverance that God has done in a battle that Israel and Israel’s army had. We don’t know anything about specifics here. We’re not told that.

But you’ll notice the past tense. Verse 1: “O sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand, His holy arm have worked salvation for Him.” Verse 3: “He has remembered His steadfast love.” So it seems here on one level that there’s some historical occasion in view that God has worked on behalf of His people—some military victory of Israel’s army.

Or—past tense here—what we find may be what we find very often in the prophets. In the Hebrew tense, it’s a perfect tense. It’s often referred to as a “prophetic perfect.” That is, a future event is described in the past tense with the idea that it is so certain that it might as well have already been done. It will happen. Maybe that’s what’s going on here.

Whatever the historical background here—and again, we’re not told it—what is clear is that something here is prospective. Some recent victory, perhaps, but a larger perspective is in view. We see this often in the Psalms: that what God has done for his people is a pledge and a promise of what he will do on a grand scale for his people. We know that that’s the case here because verse three, for example: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” And that’s why, in verse 4, all the earth, all the nations, are called to praise. And that’s why, verses 7 and following, the entire created order joins in praise. The rivers clap their hands. The hills sing together for joy.

And if that’s not enough, then verse 9 pinpoints the time frame explicitly. It is the time of the coming of God. “Before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.” So as we’ve seen elsewhere, like most recently in Psalm 95, creation is said to owe its praise to God. And all of created order, human beings and all the created order, owes God its praise because he is creator. But here, He is deserving of praise specifically because he comes to judge.

In other words then, as often in the Psalter, God’s past deliverances are prospective. They’re previews of something that he will do on a grand scale later on. These others that we’ve seen in the past, these are just sort of dress rehearsals. They’re looking ahead to what he will do prospectively. They’re looking ahead to the climax of history, the in-breaking of the kingdom of God.

We find this kind of thing in the prophets very often. They speak with regard, as I mentioned, to the day of the Lord. When God comes in judgment, creation withers and droops. We find that, for example, in Isaiah 24, an apocalyptic passage with regard to the incoming, the in-breaking of the kingdom of God. When God comes in judgment, creation withers and it droops. But then when he proves triumphant, then all of creation joins together in praise with language like we have here.

Now all of that, of course, is poetic imagery. The hills don’t clap their hands; the rivers don’t either. There’s poetic imagery involved here, but there’s more than that. And what more is involved in that is that all of the created order is caught up in the consequences of human sin. And as a result, it has fallen under a curse. That’s Genesis chapter three. As a result of Adam’s sin, God curses the ground “for your sake.” Thorns and thistles it’ll bring forth for you. And all of the created order in the scriptures is pictured as in a fallen state. Paul speaks of it as groaning and waiting.

So all the upheavals of nature that we see—the tsunamis and the hurricanes and the tornadoes—all of the upheavals of nature are reflective of the curse. It’s in a fallen state. That’s why we find in the prophets the theme of the new creation. When God comes, he’ll set it all right. He’ll remove the curse. And the hills will flow with new wine, and you find language like that. It’ll all be brought back to its pristine condition. In Romans chapter eight, the apostle Paul personifies creation. Creation is groaning, waiting. Creation itself is longing for a better day: the day of resurrection. And that is because creation is caught up in the consequences of human sin. When God comes finally to deal with human sin and put away the curse, then creation itself will be rejoining in praise. So just as creation is in disorder because of human sin, so also when God deals decisively with sin and judgment, creation is restored and the whole created order rejoices. For instance, back in Psalm 96, verses 11 and following: the heavens are glad, the earth rejoices, the sea roars with singing, and so on.

The Hope of the Coming King

So again, there in broad view is what’s going on here in Psalm 98. Let me back up for just a moment and explain how we go about making theology, doing theology. How do we do that? What do we gather from this?

One of the major branches of biblical studies is the branch of systematic theology. In systematic theology, what that means simply is that we gather together all that the Bible teaches on a particular subject and put it together. We gather together all the pieces of the puzzle and then lay out the picture, the puzzle itself, in display. It’s a complex task because what you have to do in systematic theology is pull from here and here and here and here and take all that the Bible has to say anywhere in any way about a particular subject and then lay it out so you see it in whole. It’s an important task. It’s a necessary task. That’s why it’s called the “queen of the sciences.” And so you have to take from this passage and that passage and another, take them all together and get a whole picture of what the Bible teaches on this subject or the other. It’s a complex task, particularly with regard to eschatology, the doctrine of the end times. Because the Bible has a little to say here, a lot to say there, a little more over here—you’ve got to pull it all together. And because there’s so many details to it, we’re often left with some disagreements with regard to some of the details about it. But again, it’s a necessary work.

Often in the individual passages, what they do is, on the one hand, they contribute to the whole picture, of course, each piece. But often what the individual passages will do is just look ahead in broad brush to what God will do in the end. And they look with broad strokes to the end: the climactic day of God’s fulfilling of his purposes and all of his purposes fulfilled. And so the exhortation often associated with those kinds of passages is, like we have here: sing. Sing with this hope that we have. Sometimes, particularly in the New Testament, those kinds of passages are accompanied by an exhortation to be patient, and its fuel—the hope that is stirred up in these passages—is used as fuel for perseverance and faithfulness.

In all of that, Psalm 98 is a good case in point. It clearly looks to the end, to the return of Christ when God’s purposes for creation and history are all climactically fulfilled. And this is cause for exuberant praise. You may not know this, but you have sung this psalm in very paraphrased words in what is likely Isaac Watts’ most famous hymn. We sing it at Christmastime: “Joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king.” Ironically, we sing that at Christmastime, when Jesus is born. The psalm itself looks primarily to the end time, when Christ in his return comes to bring about the fulfillment of all of God’s purposes. And so Isaac Watts will pull from here and he’ll say things like, “he makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.” All of that’s from here. He’s done this in righteousness to fulfill his steadfast love to his people. “He makes blessings flow as far as the curse is found.” All of that’s here. He’s come to reverse the curse. He’s come to judge sin.

Now in Old Testament prophecy, particularly Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah, the prophets of the Old Testament and the psalmists themselves did not always see all of the details that are revealed to us in the New Testament. When we get to the New Testament, all of this spells out in a particular way. We have the first coming of Christ, his birth in Bethlehem. And we have his life and his miracles. We have his suffering and his death. And the Old Testament prophets didn’t always see all of that. And then his resurrection, then his ascension into heaven, where he dispenses his spirit to advance his kingdom through the gospel throughout this age. And then finally, he returns and brings God’s purposes to full climax in his glorious return.

And not often is it recognized in the Old Testament, looking in broad strokes to the end—not often is it recognized that what was necessary in order for God to bring about his kingdom in the whole earth, what was necessary first was to establish his kingdom by dealing with the problem of human sin. And he did that through his cross work and his resurrection. And then his ascension into heaven, and we have what is called in this age, the kingdom of God has been inaugurated. It’s not yet in its fullness. It’s like D-Day. Not quite V-E Day, but in D-Day, it’s done. And the end is in view.

And so often in the New Testament, when we find the New Testament writers citing the Old Testament writers, often they will interpret it: “Yeah, that refers to now.” Or, “Wait a minute, it refers to when he comes again.” And there’s a “now” and a “not yet,” and there’s a “both and,” and sometimes more relevance to now and the kingdom in its inaugurated form, or sometimes—and most often—looking forward to the consummate kingdom when Jesus returns.

And in fact, when we come to the New Testament, we have echoes of Psalm 98, and those echoes refer this psalm and the thoughts of this psalm both to the “now,” the kingdom in its inaugurated form, and its “not yet.” For example, Psalm 98 here, verse 3: “he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.” That is echoed in Luke chapter 1, verse 54, where we have Mary’s Magnificat, where she’s singing in reference to the Christ who will be born: “He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy.”

And then, for example, verses 2 and 3 here. You can’t read these verses without thinking in terms of the cross. Verse two: “The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in sight of the nations.” That’s the theology of the cross. There his salvation is revealed. And there God’s righteousness is satisfied to the salvation of his people. And that because, verse three, “he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness,” just as he’s promised. You can’t read those verses without thinking in terms of the cross.

Verse one: “sing to the Lord a new song.” That’s echoed again in Revelation chapter five. We have an ascension scene where Christ has ascended to heaven, triumphant in his mediatorial work, and he takes the scroll from the sovereign’s hand to carry out his purposes in salvation and judgment for history, and they sing a new song. The new song is: “you are worthy because you have bought us by your blood out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue.”

And then again, verse three: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” All the ends of the earth have seen it. The Apostle Paul cites this verse in Acts chapter 28 to refer to the Gentile mission that God has given him. The salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles. The Christian message, the Christian mission.

So all of that can refer to—Isaac Watts to sing his hymn at Christmas is perfectly right. And yet, when you look at verses 2 and 3 again, he’s revealed his salvation, his righteousness, his steadfast love to the nations. Has he done that in the most comprehensive way yet? How about verse 9? “He will judge the world in righteousness.” Clearly, this is pointing ahead to the return of Christ. In fact, Paul echoes this in Acts chapter 17, where he says, “God has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he’s appointed.”

So the Old Testament then is looking forward in broad sweep and in broad strokes. And when we read this through our New Testament glasses, we find the birth of our Lord. The king has come. God’s fulfilled his promise. The Davidic son is here. And in his death, we see him establishing the kingdom of God by dealing decisively with human sin and dethroning Satan, rising from the dead, conquering death, ascending to the throne. And yet we see in it also the climax that will come in his return when there’s this grand, unmistakable in-breaking of the kingdom of God which all of the nations will see. By the way, Isaac Watts’ Joy to the World captures all of that well. And it’s very right to sing it both at Christmas time and any other time for that matter.

I go through all of that to say this is the outlook then that God’s people are to maintain. When we read this psalm or when we’re not reading this psalm, we are to recall this psalm and what it teaches us. When, as this psalm implies, we see the nations, the people of the world, in opposition to God’s king; culture in its open revolt against God and his law—we recall the kingdom of God is today only in its inaugurated form. There’s coming a day, verse nine, when he will come to judge the earth. He’ll judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity. That is to say, God will at last break into history in a climactic way. And the wicked of this world who seem to drive us from every cultural center that we have—education, media, government—the wicked who drive this culture in so many ways will not have their destructive influence forever.

You’ve heard me say this through the series on the Psalms probably a hundred times or more. This is the theme of the Psalter: the coming of the kingdom of God. This is the theme proclaimed in loud noise up at the very front of the psalter. Psalm 1: it’s the righteous man who will be blessed; the wicked will perish. Psalm 2: the world may be in a rage against God, but God has set his king on Zion, on his holy hill. And his king will have the nations as his inheritance. Right now he offers terms of peace: “Come, kiss the son… or perish.”

This is the theme of the entire Bible. From Genesis 1 onward, God’s king will rule over this world. He’ll subdue the nations, every knee will bow before him, and his kingdom will prevail over the entire earth, and it’ll be a kingdom of righteousness. The world’s in rebellion against God, there’s no question about that, but we may be assured that the world’s rebellion will never frustrate God’s purpose. And this, in turn, is the stuff of a Christian hope.

A glorious day awaits us, a day in which all of the utopian ideals that this fallen world has ever dreamed of just pales in view of what scripture holds out before us. That when the king comes, it’ll be a different world. We pray, we work to elect political officials who will lead us responsibly. It’s an interest of mine; I hope it’s an interest of yours. What we want each election day, what we’re trying to do, is bring in leaders who will enact and hopefully enforce laws that are fair, just, to promote human freedom, individual freedom, laws that will punish the criminal, keep criminals in check, laws that will not oppress the righteous. As important as all of that is—I don’t mean to demean it at all—as important as all of that is as a matter of Christian faithfulness, Christian responsibility, our experience leads us to suspect that all of that is just one stopgap measure after another.

What we want, and what this world needs, is a king. A king who will come and take all three branches of government on his own shoulders. Executive, legislative, judicial—all of it’s his. And he will rule, and he will judge, and then this world will be made right again. We see our world, our culture rushing with what is just a suicidal madness to all that is evil. When we see, as we see today more than—well, more than ever in my lifetime—evil touted as good and good sneered at and demeaned, we recall: that’s just for now.

A king is coming, a king who will rule with truth and grace, to use Isaac Watts’ words. A king who will make the nations prove the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love. A king who will make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found. And when he does, all heaven and earth—or as Watts says, “all heaven and nature”—will sing. Sing of the glories of our great king. We’ll sing of the glories of his wonderful kingdom. This is why we come to the New Testament, we find that the New Testament believers had a greeting. A common greeting that they would use when they come instead of, “Hey Joe, how you been?” or when you leave, you say, “See you later.” Theirs would be, “Maranatha.” He’s coming. He’s coming. That’s the hope of Psalm 98. A great king, a great kingdom is coming, and this is cause for great joy. Amen. Let’s pray.

Our Father, we pray that you will encourage the hearts of your people with this great hope. And Lord, we pray that you would make that day soon. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen.