Psalms 98
Psalm 98 carries the shortest of headings - simply A Psalm - and it is one of a small cluster of songs (alongside Psalms 96 and 99) that celebrate the LORD reigning as King over all the earth. It begins, like Psalm 96, with the call to sing unto the LORD a new song, but here the focus narrows to one bright fact: God has acted, He has won a salvation, and that salvation is on open display before the whole world. In nine verses the psalm moves from a single new song to a chorus that takes in every nation and finally the sea and the hills themselves.3
The first movement (vv. 1-3) tells us why there is a new song to sing: he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. The salvation was worked by God's own arm - not won by human strength or cleverness - and then made public: The LORD hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen (v. 2). What might have been a private mercy to one people is set out in the open where all can see, so that all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God (v. 3). Notice how the same word keeps sounding - salvation… salvation - the very heart of what the psalm has to celebrate.
The second movement (vv. 4-9) turns the song into a summons, and the circle of singers keeps widening. First all the earth - Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise (v. 4) - then the instruments of worship, the harp… trumpets and sound of cornet (vv. 5-6), and at last the creation itself: Let the sea roar… Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together (vv. 7-8). And the psalm gives the reason the whole world should rejoice in its closing line: Before the LORD; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity (v. 9). The coming of the King to set the world right is, for this psalm, not a thing to dread but the very cause of the joy. It is no accident that Isaac Watts drew his carol Joy to the World straight from these verses.2
Tap any highlighted phrase to jump to the commentary that unpacks it.
Psalm 98:1-3 · A PsalmThe Salvation God's Own Arm Has Won
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.
The psalm opens with a command that runs all through the Psalter: O sing unto the LORD a new song. Why a new song? Because something new has happened. A new song is the natural response to a fresh act of God - you do not reach for the old, worn words when something has just been done that the old words were never written to hold. And the psalm names the new thing at once: he hath done marvellous things. The Hebrew behind marvellous things points to acts that are extraordinary, beyond the ordinary run of events, the kind of thing only God can do. So the call to sing is not a call to manufacture enthusiasm out of nothing; it rests on something that has actually happened. God has acted, and the acting calls for music that has never been sung before. The whole psalm is, in effect, an answer to the question its first line raises: what has God done that deserves a brand-new song? The verses that follow give the answer - a salvation, won by His own arm, made known to the ends of the earth.1
His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory. The picture is of a warrior winning a battle - but notice carefully who does the fighting. Not Israel's army. Not a human deliverer. His right hand; his holy arm. In Scripture the right hand is the hand of strength and skill, and the outstretched arm is the standard image for God exerting His power to save - the same arm that brought Israel out of Egypt, of which it was said the LORD redeemed them with a stretched out arm (Deut. 26:8). The point the psalm presses is that the salvation it celebrates was God's own work, accomplished by His own power, owing nothing to human strength. And the arm is called holy - this is not raw force but power exercised in righteousness, set apart, undefiled. When God wins a victory, He wins it cleanly, and He wins it Himself. That is precisely why it deserves a new song and not merely applause for human achievement: the marvellous thing is something only God could have done.
He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel (v. 3). To say God remembers is not to say He had forgotten; in the language of Scripture, God remembering means God acting on what He has promised - bringing an old commitment to bear in the present moment. The two things He remembers are paired all through the Old Testament: mercy (His covenant love, His loyal kindness) and truth (His faithfulness, His reliability). The salvation of verses 1-2 is not an arbitrary rescue; it is the keeping of a word long ago given. God promised, and God remembers His promise, and so He acts. But then the verse opens outward in a way that is the surprise of the whole psalm: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. What was toward the house of Israel is now visible to the ends of the earth. The mercy kept for one people turns out to be on display for all peoples - the particular promise becomes the public salvation. This is the seam where the psalm reaches past Israel toward the whole world, the note the New Testament will pick up and carry.
Psalm 98:4-9Let the Floods Clap Their Hands
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 first half of the psalm told us what God has done; now the song turns into a summons, and the first thing to notice is how wide the invitation is from the very start: Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth (v. 4). Not all Israel - all the earth. The salvation that the ends of the earth have seen in verse 3 is the salvation all the earth is now told to sing about. And the verbs come in a rush, piling up the way joy actually behaves - make a joyful noise… make a loud noise… rejoice… sing praise. This is not restrained, careful worship; it is the unguarded, overflowing sound of people who cannot contain themselves. The Hebrew for make a joyful noise is a word for a loud shout, the kind of cry that went up when a king was crowned. Which is fitting, because that is exactly what this psalm is celebrating: the LORD reigns, and the only adequate response to the reign of so good a King is to make a great and joyful noise.
The instruments are gathered in - the harp… the voice of a psalm… trumpets and sound of cornet (vv. 5-6) - and the whole sound is directed to a single end: make a joyful noise before the LORD, the King. Here, in the middle of the psalm, the title that has been implied all along is finally spoken. The LORD is the King. The trumpets and the cornet (a ram's horn) were the very instruments sounded at a coronation and at the great festivals, the sounds that announced the presence of royalty. So the music is not background; it is the fanfare for a King taking His throne. This is what the older psalms call the LORD reigning - not a distant deity, but a King actually ruling, present among His people, worthy of the trumpet-blast. Everything the psalm has said about the victory of God's arm and the salvation seen to the ends of the earth gathers here: the One who saved is the One who reigns, and the saved respond as a kingdom responds to its King - with the loud, glad noise of a coronation.
And now the circle of singers grows wider than humanity altogether. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof… Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together (vv. 7-8). The sea, with everything that fills it; the rivers; the mountains - the psalm hands each of them a part in the chorus. The crash of the surf becomes a roar of praise; the rushing of the rivers becomes the clapping of hands; the silent hills become singers. This is not mere poetry decorating the scene. Scripture repeatedly pictures the whole creation longing for and rejoicing in the setting-right of all things - the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, the apostle writes, waiting for… the manifestation of the sons of God (Rom. 8:19-22). When God comes to put the world right, it is not only people who are glad; the world itself, long out of joint, joins the song. The psalm imagines a day when the joy of salvation is so complete that creation cannot stay silent.
The psalm ends on the word that makes its joy possible: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity. Two words carry the weight - righteousness and equity. The Judge will not be swayed, will not take a bribe, will not favour the powerful over the powerless or overlook the wrong done to the forgotten. Equity means evenness, fairness, straightness - the opposite of every crooked verdict the world has ever handed down. For anyone who has suffered injustice, or watched the guilty go free and the innocent crushed, this is news worth the roar of the sea: there is a Judge coming who will get it exactly right. The psalm does not picture judgment as something to flee but as something the whole earth has been aching for - the day the world is finally, perfectly set right. That is why the song that began with a private new song over God's victory ends with the entire creation joining in. The coming of the righteous King is the best news the world could hear, and Psalm 98 cannot imagine meeting it any other way than with music.3
Further study
- The Hebrew text of Psalm 98 with Rashi, Ibn Ezra, and other classical commentators side by side - useful for shir chadash (v. 1, the “new song”), for yeshuah (vv. 1-3, the “salvation” God's arm has won), and for the long Jewish discussion of how the LORD's reign as King reaches out to all the ends of the earth.
- Psalm 98 ↔ Luke 1-2 · Acts 17 · Revelation 5Intertextual BibleTraces the threads tying Psalm 98 to the New Testament - the salvation seen by all the ends of the earth echoed in Simeon's song (Luke 2:30-32) and the Magnificat (Luke 1:54), the God who cometh to judge the earth preached in Acts 17:31, and the new song sung to the Lamb in Revelation 5:9.
- Psalm 98 - Translators' NotesNET BibleThe NET Bible's detailed footnotes on Psalm 98 - the force of his right hand, and his holy arm as the imagery of God winning a victory unaided, the public “shewing” of His righteousness in the sight of the heathen, and the closing picture of the LORD coming to judge the world… with equity.
Where this echoes in Scripture
The Salvation God’s Own Arm Has Won
- Luke 2:30-32For mine eyes have seen thy salvation... a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.Simeon holding the salvation of verses 2-3 - made known before all people, reaching the Gentiles.
- Isaiah 52:10The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.Almost word for word with verses 1-3 - the holy arm, the salvation, the ends of the earth seeing.
- Psalm 96:1-3O sing unto the LORD a new song... declare his glory among the heathen, his wonders among all people.The companion song of the LORD’s reign - the same new song and the same reach to the nations.
- Luke 1:54He hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy.The Magnificat echoing verse 3 - God remembering His mercy toward Israel, sung over the Christ child.
Let the Floods Clap Their Hands
- Acts 17:31He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained.The coming Judge of verse 9 named - God will judge the world in righteousness by the risen Christ.
- Revelation 5:9And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy... for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood.The new song of verse 1 sung at last around the throne - the redeemed praising the Lamb who saved them.
- Romans 8:19-22For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth... the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.The creation of verses 7-8 longing for the day it can rejoice - the world itself waiting to be set right.
- Psalm 96:11-13Let the heavens rejoice... let the sea roar... for he cometh to judge the earth.The companion psalm with the same picture - a singing creation greeting the LORD who comes to judge.
- John 5:22For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son.The judgment of verse 9 entrusted to the Son - the One who comes to judge the earth with equity.