Psalm 98

1 Sing to the Lord a new song; for the Lord has wrought wonderful works, his right hand, and his holy arm, have wrought salvation for him.

2 The Lord has made known his salvation, he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.

3 He has remembered his mercy to Jacob, and his truth to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4 Shout to God, all the earth; sing, and exult, and sing psalms.

5 Sing to the Lord with a harp, with a harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6 With trumpets of metal, and the sound of a trumpet of horn make a joyful noise to the Lord before the king.

7 Let the sea be moved, and the fullness of it; the world, and they that dwell in it.

8 The rivers shall clap their hands together; the mountains shall exult.

9 For he is come to judge the earth; he shall judge the world in righteousness, and the nations in uprightness.

Psalm 98 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PSALM 98

\\<>\\. This is the only psalm throughout the whole book which is so called, without any other additional word, epithet, or inscription. The Targum calls it a psalm of prophecy, or a prophetic psalm, as indeed it is; for it respects time to come, as Jarchi observes, even the Gospel dispensation. Aben Ezra says, perhaps this psalm is concerning the coming of the Redeemer; a doubt need not be made of it, it certainly is. Abendana, a later writer among the Jews, says of the latter part of the psalm, that it figuratively expresses the greatness of the joy that shall be in the days of the Messiah. The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, ascribe it unto David; but it was not penned by him on account of any victory obtained by him, but as a prophecy of the victories and salvation of the Messiah; nor is it of the same argument with, or a compendium of, the song of Moses at the Red sea, as Grotius thinks; though the inscription of the Syriac version begins thus, ``a Psalm of David, concerning the redemption of the people out of Egypt, when they conquered and triumphed;'' yet it more rightly adds, ``but spiritually a prophecy concerning the coming of Christ, and the calling of the Gentiles unto the faith.''