Context & Key Themes
Psalm 98 is another new song — and like Psalm 96 it is addressed not just to Israel but to the whole earth and to creation itself. The marvelous things God has done, the salvation his right hand has worked, his righteousness revealed before all nations — these call for a response that reaches beyond any single voice or instrument. The lyre, the trumpet, the horn, the sea, the floods, the hills — all of creation is summoned to make joyful noise before the Lord who comes to judge the earth with righteousness and equity. The scope of the praise matches the scope of what is being praised.
Key Verse
“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! For he has done marvelous things!”
— Psalm 98:4–1
Summary
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, sing praises, sing with the lyre. 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 — for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
Reflection
The rivers clapping their hands and the hills singing for joy is not whimsy. It is the psalm’s insistence that when God’s judgment comes in righteousness and equity, the whole created order will respond with relief. Creation has been groaning — Paul says this in Romans 8 — under the weight of the curse and the injustice that has run through human history. The coming of God in righteousness to judge is not a threat to creation. It is its long-awaited liberation. The rivers know this in a way the poem trusts us to understand. When the one who made them finally sets everything right, they will applaud.
The marvelous things God has done are the foundation of the new song. He did not simply declare his salvation in the abstract; he worked it with his right hand and his holy arm. He remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness. The salvation is specific, historical, covenant-grounded. And it is also global — the ends of the earth have seen it. The new song is the appropriate response to a work this large, and it requires more than any single instrument or voice to contain it.