PSALM 98
Sing to the LORD regarding victory verse 1- 3
O sing unto the LORD a new song
for HE has done marvelous things – HIS right hand
and HIS holy arm – has gotten HIM the victory
The LORD has made known HIS salvation
HIS righteousness has HE openly shown in the sight of the heathen
HE has remembered HIS mercy and HIS truth toward the
house of Israel – all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God
Sing to the LORD with great joy verse 4- 6
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD – all the earth – make a loud noise
and rejoice – and sing praise
Sing unto the LORD with the harp – with the harp – and the voice of a psalm
with trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise
before the LORD – the King
Sing to the LORD all creation and righteous judgment verse 7- 9
Let the sea roar – and the fullness thereof
the world – and they that dwell therein
Let the floods clap their hands
let the hills be joyful together before the LORD
For HE comes to judge the earth – with righteousness shall HE judge the world
and the people with equity
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 1 “Oh, sing to the LORD a new song! For He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.” The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982). Victory – 3467 יָשַׁע, יׄשַׁע, מֹושִׁיעַ [yashaʿ /yaw·shah/] v. A primitive root; TWOT 929; GK 3828 and 3830 and 4635; 205 occurrences; AV translates as “save” 149 times, “saviour” 15 times, “deliver” 13 times, “help” 12 times, “ preserved” five times, “salvation” three times, “avenging” twice, “at all” once, “avenged” once, “defend” once, “rescue” once, “safe” once, and “victory” once. 1 to save, be saved, be delivered. 1A (Niphal). 1A1 to be liberated, be saved, be delivered. 1A2 to be saved (in battle), be victorious. 1B (Hiphil). 1B1 to save, deliver. 1B2 to save from moral troubles. 1B3 to give victory to. James Strong, Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2001).
DEVOTION: In Psalm 98 God’s marvelous works prompt the call for a new song. The author of this psalm is unknown and perhaps that is intentional as he proclaims the victory that the Lord has accomplished. Regardless of the time people rejoice and celebrate when victories are won. The greatest victory was when Christ rose victorious from the grave and settled once and for all the mystery of the grave. He conquered death and established a clear route to eternal life through Christ’s resurrection!
CHALLENGE: Sing a song of joy for the victory that is available to you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave! (Dr. Brian Miller – board member)
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 2 The LORD has made known HIS salvation: HIS righteousness has HE openly showed in the sight of the heathen. (1540 “openly showed” [galah] means uncover, revealed, expose, disclose, or to make known.
DEVOTION: Those who are outside of Christ have no excuse when they stand
before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. Here we have the Psalmist stating that God has revealed HIMSELF in the sight of those who have rejected HIM.
They know the right acts of God throughout history and yet still do not honor HIM as God. HE has provided salvation or deliverance throughout history for those who chose to worship HIM. The testimony written in the Word of God is plain for all to see if they are willing to read it. The problem is that most are not even willing to try to understand all the LORD has revealed throughout history. They would rather just reject it without even considering it as truth.
Most of us know that today many believe that there is no truth only one persons opinion. Even people who see a changed life because an individual makes a decision to follow Jesus Christ will not believe. So they are without excuse on the day of judgment.
Those of us who are genuine believers need to manifest or give testimony of the changes the LORD has caused in our lives. We have to give a testimony to all those who will listen. What we know has to be shared even if there is no change in those who hear our witness.
CHALLENGE: Those who are heathen are without excuse when they stand in the presence of the LORD. We need to make sure we witness to them even though they can see the witness of God in our world.
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: 4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, rejoice, and sing praise. (2167 “praise” [zamar] means to offer praise to God using one’s voice as an instrument, play and instrument, make music, to express a song divided according to rhythmical numbers, praise as an act. of worship to God in a chanting or melody, with the voice as the instrument.)
DEVOTION: Anyone who has heard me sing knows that I DO make a joyful noise to the LORD there is no singing on key but there is singing. I have had three churches where I lead the singing most of the time. It was not because of my voice but because I wanted the service to be active and not dead.
We have had others volunteer to lead the singing but they just didn’t seem to have the emotional strength to show the people that we are praising the LORD with out WHOLE heart and not just making a noise.
God wants us to praise HIM all the time. I loved to sing and would do it while I was walking from class to class or on my way to the dining hall. Many people didn’t understand the joy I had in worshiping the LORD whenever I could.
Our desire should be to use our gifts in our service to HIM. There are many people who have good voices but don’t sing from their heart. They are on key but their emotions are not involved like they should be.
There are other worship services where most of the signing was emotional but I was not sure if they were doing it for the LORD or themselves. Our worship needs to be directed to the LORD at all times. HE is the one who gives us all the blessings and one of the way we show HIM our appreciation is by singing praise to HIM.
Our worship service should be exciting and our singing should be heart felt. God wants us to worship HIM in spirit and in truth and that meets our whole body is involved in our Sunday Morning worship service.
Our time of worship should be lively and not dead. It is sad that we can look over the congregation and see people whose faces are not excited about praising HIM>
CHALLENGE: Each time we go to a service where we are going to honor the LORD out hearts have to be involved along with our voices!
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together. (4222 “clap” [macha] means to strike, to clap one’s hands together, a motion of striking the hands together in a manner that makes a sound, or in these contexts a motion as a non-verbal communication of joy.
DEVOTION: The LORD wants our whole body to be involved in our worship of HIM. HE doesn’t want us to look like we have sucked sour lemons while we are worshiping HIM.
HE wants to see the “the joy of the LORD” on our faces. It is hard to worship with a group that looks like it is a chore to sing praises to HIM. HE wants us to enjoy what we are doing. HE wants us to even get the world around us to get involved in our worship of HIM.
God created the world to worship HIM. HE wants us to lead the rest of the world in worship. HE wants us to be so involved in worship that it seems like the world around us is excited about what is happening in our worship services.
Too often those who claim Christ are not excited about all the blessing they have from the LORD. Some think that all they have is “fire insurance” instead of a daily joyful blessing coming to us from the LORD.
It is sad that believers are not good witnesses to the LORD especially in the worship services. There are some worship services that are all about the people leading the worship instead of the LORD. Who is going to get the glory in those service? It will be no one.
CHALLENGE: God wants our worship service to be all about giving glory TO HIM and not to the ones leading the singing or those doing the singing. It has to be about HIM alone. That is WORSHIP!
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: 9 Before the LORD; for HE cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall HE judge the world, and the people with equity. (4339 “equity” [meyshar] means evenness, prosperity, straightness, agreement, aright, that are equal, sweetly, fairness, conforms to a standard or uprightness.)
DEVOTION: The Psalms were sung by the children of Israel on different occasions. There were even private psalms that were sung by individuals as they faced different circumstances. Singing is a way we can communicate with the LORD. HE wants us to sing on a regular basis on all occasions.
Our singing doesn’t have to be on key to please the LORD. HE made each of us different. HE wants us to praise HIM with the voice that HE has given us. Joyful noise pleases HIM. HE doesn’t want us to be silent. HE gives us every reason to sing.
Even creation is to sing praises to the LORD. The movement of the sea sings praises to the LORD. The wonders of creation sing to the LORD. The floods clap their hands to the LORD. It is amazing that we don’t really understand that it is not only the birds that sing but all of creation honors the LORD with its noise.
What are singing praises regarding? It is the fact that the LORD is in control of our world. HE is going to come to this world in judgment in a time appointed by HIM.
There will only be one standard when the LORD judges the world. That standard will be their relationship to Jesus Christ. There is no sliding scale with the LORD. People will either follow Christ as their personal Savior or they won’t. There is no middle ground.
Some people might go to church, pray, give money to church, or allow a pastor to pray with them but that doesn’t mean that they have become a follower of Christ as their Savior. It is a personal commitment. The only one who can answer the question is the individual before the LORD. No preacher can preach someone into heaven. No preacher can pray someone into heaven. No preacher can baptize someone into heaven.
The LORD is going to straight forward on judgment day. Sheep or goats! Those who are followers of the LORD should be singing about HIS wonderful works. Those who are followers of the LORD should make a joyful noise. HE is our coming King. All the earth will praise HIM at HIS coming.
Are we going to greet HIM with singing or with indifference? The decision to follow Christ is made by the individual alone before God. God knows. Preachers should not give false hope to families of loved ones who have died at funerals. If someone is not living for the LORD in his daily life, he needs to examine himself to see if he is really a believer. God knows our hearts!!!
CHALLENGE: This Psalm challenges us to sing praises to the LORD. If we are not singing praises while we are here – what will we be doing in heaven? Raise your voice in praise each day!!!)
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
Sing verse 1, 4, 5
New song verse 1
Joyful noise verse 4, 6
Loud noise1 verse 4
Rejoice verse 4
Sing praise verse 4
Harp verse 5
Voice of a psalm verse 5
Trumpets verse 6
Cornets verse 6
Floods clap their hands verse 8
Hills be joyful together verse 8
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 2, 4- 6, 9
Marvelous things verse 1
Victory verse 1
HIS salvation verse 2, 3
Righteousness verse 2, 9
Remembered HIS mercy verse 3
HIS truth verse 3
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign) verse 3
King verse 6
Let the sea roar verse 7
Judge verse 9
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Heathen verse2
All the ends of the earth verse 3
World verse 7, 9
People judged with equity verse 9
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Heathen verse 2
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Victory verse 1
Salvation verse 2, 3
Righteousness verse 2
Mercy verse 3
Truth verse 3
Judge verse 9
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
House of Israel verse 3
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
2, 3. The meaning of victory (see on verse 1) now leans towards the ‘salvation’ side of its content in both these verses, for the nations and the whole earth see it with joy, as the remainder of the psalm makes clear. Likewise vindication should be rendered ‘righteousness’ (neb, jb), which is its primary meaning; and this is righteousness in its positive sense of putting right what is wrong (Kidner, D. (1975). Psalms 73–150: An Introduction and Commentary (Vol. 16, p. 385). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
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The focus in this section is on the Jewish people and the wonderful new demonstration of God’s power they had seen. It was so great it demanded a new song from His people (see 33:3; 96:1). The picture of God as warrior disturbs those who seem to forget that a holy God cannot compromise with sin. (See 68:1–10; 77:16–19; and Ex. 15:1–2.) The cross declares not only that God loves sinners (Rom. 5:8), but also that God hates and opposes sin (Matt. 12:22–30; Col. 2:15). Since God is a spirit (John 4:24), He does not have a body, so the references to His hand and arm are metaphorical (17:7; 18:35; 20:6; 44:3; 60:5; 77:10; Ex. 15:6, 11–12; Isa. 52:10; 59:16; 63:5). What God did for Israel was a witness to the Gentile nations and a vivid demonstration of His faithfulness to His covenant and His love for His chosen people. But surely the writer was looking beyond a mere local victory, for he wrote about the witness of this event to the nations (v. 2), the earth (vv. 3, 4, 9), and the world (vv. 7, 9). It appears that the psalm points ahead to the return of Jesus Christ. (See Isa. 52:1–10.) (Wiersbe, W. W. (2004). Be exultant (1st ed., pp. 35–36). Colorado Springs, CO: Cook Communications Ministries.)
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98:3 His lovingkindness and His faithfulness. See notes on Pss 85:7 and 89:5. salvation. These words are a metaphor for the Lord’s establishment of His righteous kingdom on earth (cf. Is 46:13; 51:5–8). (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ps 98:3). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
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Ver. 3. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel, &c.] His mercy promised them, in raising up a Saviour to them, one that should be the glory of them; and his truth, in fulfilling that and every other promise concerning him; see Luke 1:72, 73, 74 and 2:32; Rom. 15:8 all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God; either Christ himself, who is the salvation or Saviour of God’s appointing, providing, and sending; or the salvation which he has wrought out, the Gospel declaring it; which has been sent throughout the world; and many in all parts of it, even in the most distant parts of if, in the very ends of it, have been made to see the nature, want, worth, and value of it; not every individual person in the world, but some in the several parts, and in the remote corners of it, whither the Gospel has been or will be sent; see Isa. 52:10. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 4, p. 119). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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3. “He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel.” To them Jesus came in the flesh, and to them was the gospel first preached; and though they counted themselves unworthy of eternal life, yet the covenant was not broken, for the true Israel were called into fellowship and still remain so. The mercy which endureth for ever, and the fidelity which cannot forget a promise, secure to the chosen seed the salvation long ago guaranteed by the covenant of grace. “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.” Not to Abraham’s seed alone after the flesh, but to the elect among all nations, has grace been given; therefore, let the whole church of God sing unto him a new song. It was no small blessing, or little miracle, that throughout all lands the gospel should be published in so short a time, with such singular success and such abiding results. Pentecost deserves a new song as well as the Passion and the Resurrection; let our hearts exult as we remember it. Our God, our own for ever blessed God, has been honoured by those who once bowed down before dumb idols; his salvation has not only been heard of but seen among all people, it has been experienced as well as explained; his Son is the actual Redeemer of a multitude out of all nations.
4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a Psalm.
6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.
In these three verses we are taught how to praise the Lord. (Spurgeon, C. H. (n.d.). The treasury of David: Psalms 88-110 (Vol. 4, pp. 211–212). London; Edinburgh; New York: Marshall Brothers.)
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FROM MY READING:
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
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First, covetousness is wanting the wrong things. …. Second, covetousness is also wanting right things for wrong reasons. …. Covetousness is also wanting right things at the wrong time. … the final aspect of covetousness is wanting right things but wanting them in the wrong amount. …. So, to summarize: Coveteousness is wanting wrong things, or wanting right things for the wrong reasons, or at the wrong time, or in the wrong amount. (p. 67-8)
Actually, the word bdellium is a common Hebrew word that meant the manna was pearl-like in appearance. Exodus 16:4 indicates that God had given the manna as a test. He wanted to know if they would walk in obedience and be thankful for His provision or if they would covet something more, or better, or different. Every day they went out to gather the manna, and every day God was inspecting their attitudes. (p. 72)
What will it take for us to come to that settled plalce where the central passion of our lives is, “God, I just want You. All Your joy and peace and fullness and friendship, and that’s enough for me.” …. The hard truth is that at the root of my covetous attitude I am rejecting the sufficiency of God in my life. (p. 73)
By world standards, the church of Jesus Christ in North America is incredibly wealthy in financial things but weak and malnourished in the “joy of the Lord.” (p. 75)
Coveteousness will take you to the place in life where you hate the very thing that you had to have. (p. 77)
One of the consequences of covetousness is that it destroys the capacity to discern sufficiency. (p. 78) (LORD, CHANGE My Attitude (Before It’s Too Late, James MacDonald)
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As the lamp helps us in our search, so does our spiritual lamp, the Holy Spirit himself, He does not search the mind of God for his benefit; He searches the mind of God for our benefit. (p. 86)
To have Christ’s mind is to think like Christ, to see things from his perspective, to love what Christ loves and to hate what Christ hates, and to be united to his system of values. (p. 88) (The Soul’s Quest for God by R. C. Sproul)
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It Is Enough
“And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.” (Genesis 45:28)
When someone exclaims, “It is enough,” either a requirement has been satisfied, a need has been fulfilled, or a limit has been reached. This phrase occurs seven times in the Old Testament (two different Hebrew words) and three times in the New (each a different Greek word).
In its first occurrence (our text), Jacob is overcome with thankful emotion at the news his beloved son, long thought dead, is still alive. For a very different reason, Pharaoh later cried: “Entreat the LORD (for it is enough) that there be no more mighty thunderings and hail” (Exodus 9:28).
“It is enough: stay now thine hand” (2 Samuel 24:16; 1 Chronicles 21:15). God’s command to the death angel stopped the destruction of Israel following David’s sin of numbering his people. Later, when Elijah thought he could bear no more, “he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough” (1 Kings 19:4).
On the other hand, “there are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough” (Proverbs 30:15-16).
In the New Testament, Jesus said: “It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord” (Matthew 10:25). As His arrest drew near, He told His disciples: “It is enough, the hour is come” (Mark 14:41). When they produced two swords, “he said unto them, It is enough” (Luke 22:38).
There are many types of circumstances that can lead one to cry: “Enough!” But “in the ages to come,” there will never be an end to “the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7). We can never get enough of God! (HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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