College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
Psalms 98:1-9
Psalms 98, 99
DESCRIPTIVE TITLE
A Shorter Service of Song (for a Sabbath Day).
ANALYSIS
Psalms 98: An Invitation to Sing the New Song of Jehovah's Victory in behalf of the House of Israel.
Psalms 99: Jehovah's Assumption of Kingship Proclaimed: with a Renewed Call to Worship.
(Lm.) Psalm.
1
Sing ye to Jehovah a song that is new,
for wondrous things hath he done,
his own right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory![350]
[350] Or: salvation.
2
Jehovah hath made known his victory,
to the eyes of the nations hath he unveiled his righteousness:
3
He hath remembered his kindness and his faithfulness to the house of Israel,
all the ends of the earth have seen the victory[350] of our God.
4
Shout ye to Jehovah all the earth,
break forth and ring out your joy and make ye melody:
5
Make ye melody to Jehovah with the lyre,
with the lyre and the voice of psalmody;
6
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
shout ye before the KingJehovah!
7
Let the sea thunder and the fulness thereof,
the world and they who dwell therein:
8
The streamslet them clap their hands,
together the mountainslet them ring out their joy:
9
Before Jehovah for he is coming to judge the earth:
he will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
(Nm.)
(Nm.)
1
Jehovah hath become king[351]let the peoples tremble,
[351] As in Psalms 93:1, Psalms 96:10, Psalms 97:1.
enthroned on cherubimlet the earth quiver.
2
Jehovah in Zion is great,
and high is he above all the peoples.
3
Let them thank thy name great and fearful:
(4)
Holy is he.4 and strong,
a king who loveth justice.
Thou hast established equity,
justice and righteousness in Jacob hast thou thyself wrought.
5
Exalt ye Jehovah our God,
and bow down at his footstool:
Holy[352] is he!
[352]Some cod. (w. Sep., Vul.): For holyGn.
6
Moses and Aaron among his priests,
and Samuel among the callers on his name,
callers [were they] unto Jehovah and he used to answer them:
7
In a pillar of cloud used he to speak unto them:
they kept his testimonies,
and a statute he gave to them.
8
Jehovah our God! thou thyself didst answer them,
a forgiving GOD becamest thou unto them;
but one taking vengeance on the evil deeds of them.
9
Exalt ye Jehovah our God,
and bow down at his holy mountain;
For holy is Jehovah our God.
(Nm.)
PARAPHRASE
Sing a new song to the Lord telling about His mighty deeds! For He has won a mighty victory by His power and holiness.
2, 3 He has announced this victory and revealed it to every nation by fulfilling His promise to be kind to Israel. The whole earth has seen God's salvation of His people.
4 That is why the earth breaks out in praise to God, and sings for utter joy!
5 Sing your praise accompanied by music from the harp.
6 Let the cornets and trumpets shout! Make a joyful symphony before the Lord, the King!
7 Let the sea in all its vastness roar with praise! Let the earth and all those living on it shout, Glory to the Lord.
8, 9 Let the waves clap their hands in glee, and the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the world with perfect justice.
Jehovah is King! Let the nations tremble! He is enthroned upon the cherubim. Let the whole earth shake.
2 Jehovah sits in majesty in Zion, supreme above all rulers of the earth.
3 Let them reverence Your great and holy name.
4 This mighty King is determined to give justice. Fairness is the touchstone of everything He does. He gives justice throughout Israel.
5 Exalt the Lord our holy God! Bow low before His feet.
6 When Moses and Aaron and Samuel, His prophet, cried to Him for help, He answered them.
7 He spoke to them from the pillar of cloud and they followed his instructions.
8 O Jehovah our God! You answered them and forgave their sins, yet punished them when they went wrong.
9 Exalt the Lord our God, and worship at His holy mountain in Jerusalem, for He is holy.
EXPOSITION
The warrant for regarding Psalms 98, 99 as a Shorter Service of Song for Sabbath Worship is informal, but probably sufficient. The comparative brevity of this Service is obvious. Its distinctness from what has gone before is marked by the superscribed word Psalm over 98. Its substantial identity of theme with Psalms 92-97 is easily perceived; and chiefly appears in the recurrence of the Proclamation of Jehovah's Kingship, sustained by similar invitations to worship, and a repetition, in Psalms 98:9, of the hearld note of Psalms 96:13.
Psalms 98 opens like 96, only with a clearer statement of the precise nature of Jehovah's victory: that it amounts to an unveiling of his righteousness, by fulfilling his promises to the house of Israel.
Psalms 99 contains a considerable amount of new matter: as, for example, Jehovah's occupancy of his cherubic throne; Zion being the especial place where his greatness is displayed; with a tolerable clear reminder of the trisagion or thrice holy cry of the Seraphim in Isaiah 6. Again, it is very pointedly said that Jehovah himself has wrought justice and righteousness in Jacobthe use of which name, for Israel, offers a further assurance that it is to the historic nation of the Twelve Tribes that the psalm refers. It is perhaps a little difficult to determine the motive for referring by name to Moses, Aaron and Samuel: probably not so much to generalise, by intimating that even now they have among them a Moses, an Aaron, and a Samuel to intercede for them (as Kp. suggests) as to connect, in a more general way the old history with the new, and to enjoin the lesson of holy fear as not out of place in the coming glorious time.
The foregoing rapid survey of the two Sabbath Services of Song has been submitted for the purpose of preparing the reader for the following.
GENERAL REFLECTIONS
on the entire twofold series of psalms whose Keynote is Jehovah hath become King.
The first reflection is: That here we have intimated some NEW DIVINE ACTION based upon the abiding and unalterable Sovereignty of God, but in advance of it; coming into effect at a special time and place and under special circumstances; and furthermore leading to results so stupendous as naturally to raise the question how far they have even yet been fulfilled. It is satisfactory to observe with what practical unanimity Expositors agree that such New Divine Action is affirmed by the great words of proclamation four times over used in these psalms: Yahweh malak=Jehovah hath become King. Thus the Speakers-' Commentary says: The verb rendered -is (now) king-' is here used in reference to the inauguration of the Theocracy in its final and complete manifestation. Similarly Perowne: Is KING. More exactly, -hath become King,-' as if by a solemn coronation (comp. the same expression of a new monarch ascending the throne, 2 Samuel 15:10, 1 Kings 1:11, 2 Kings 9:13). He has been King from everlasting, but now His kingdom is visibly set up, His power and His majesty fully displayed and acknowledged. More fully Delitzsch: Heretofore Jahve's rule, seeing He has waived the use of His omnipotence, has been self-abasement and self-renunciation; now, however, He manifests Himself in all His majesty, which soars above everything; He has put this on as a garment; He is King and now shows himself to the world in His royal robe. In like manner Thrupp: There is in the words themselves, as Hengstenberg just remarks, an allusion to the form used at the proclamation of the commencement of the reign of an earthly sovereign; and hence it follows that the language does not apply to the constant government of God, but to a new glorious manifestation of his dominion. With equal explicitness, Briggs: Not the assertion of his everlasting royal prerogative, but the joyous celebration of the fact that He has now shown Himself to be King by a royal advent, taking His place on His throne to govern the world Himself, and no longer through inefficient or wicked servants. (Cp. Intro., Chap. III., Kingdom.)
The second reflection is: That these psalms are JEHOVISTIC RATHER THAN MESSIANIC, as a glance through them will at once shew. No Messiah, no Son of David, is once named in them. At first this is startling: ultimately it seems less strange. For, let us consider: Since No man can see God and live (Exodus 33:20), since No man hath seen God himself at any time (John 1:18), it follows that whenever men have been held to have seen him, it can only have been through a veil. It is well known that there are incidents and suggestions even in the Old. Testament looking in this direction, particularly with regard to the Messenger in whom is the name Jehovah (Genesis 16:10-13; Genesis 19:24, Exodus 23:20-21; Exodus 33:14-15). Then, too, Christians, holding Jesus of Nazareth to have been the Messiah, consistently conceive of him as the veiled manifestation of Deityveiled in self-renunciation and self-abasement; and therefore no man was compelled to see his glory; which glory, now, for the present, is hid in God (Colossians 3:3) and ready at any time to burst forth as in these Theocratic psalms.
A third reflection naturally follows: That these psalms, for their fulfilment, await THE MESSIAH'S SECOND ADVENT. The psalms are highly poetic, and even dramatic, as all sober interpreters admit. Still, it by no means follows that they have no clear burden to deliver; and therefore the dictate of sanctified common sense would appear to be to say, Will the burden of these psalms, when due allowance has been made for figures of speech, be well met when the Messiah returns, according to the plain sense of his own and his apostles-' sayings about his Second Coming?
We may here strengthen these reflections by quoting the weighty words of Delitzsch: In addition to such psalms as behold in anticipation the Messianic future, whether it be prophetically or only typically, or typically and prophetically at once, as the world-overcoming and world-blessing kingship of the Anointed of Jahve, there are others, in which the perfected theocracy as such is seen beforehand, not as the parousia of a human king, but as the parousia of Jahve himself, as the kingdom of God manifest in all its glory. These theocratic psalms form along with the Christocratic two series of prophecies, referring to the last time, which run parallel with one another. The one has for its goal the Anointed of Jahve, who from out of Zion rules over all peoples; while the other has Jahve, seated above the cherubim, to whom the whole world pays homage. Although these two series converge in the Old Testament, they do not come together; it is the historical fulfilment that first of all makes it clear that the parousia of the Anointed One and the parousia of Jahve are one and the same. It is only at a few climaxes of prophecy that this thought flashes forth in the Old TestamentIntro. to Psalms 93.
A fourth reflection is: That as soon as the ultimate blending of the Theocratic and the Christocratic prophecies is accepted, and information is accordingly sought in the New Testament regarding the Messiah's Second Coming as destined to fulfil these psalms, particularly as to the Destruction of the Lawless One by that Second Coming, according to 2 Thessalonians 2,so soon is THE POSITION OF Psalms 94 IN THIS SABBATH SERVICE OF SONG TRIUMPHANTLY VINDICATED. It cannot be denied that its position here is extraordinary; nor can it be doubted that the psalm itselfboth in its description of so gigantic a development of Lawlessness, as is portrayed therein, and in its outcries for Divine Vengeance there-uponreadily carries us beyond Hezekiah and beyond Sennacherib. It would surpass the wit of man to coin a more apt phrase for describing the COMING LAWLESS ONE, in the awful doings to be permitted him, than as the Throne of Engulfing Ruin framing Mischief by Statute. Given, then, the conclusions that this Throne of Iniquity will yet prove specially disastrous to Hezekiah's nation; and that Jehovah's overthrow of that Throne will constitute the great Victory by which the Theocracy will be visibly set up on earth, and Jehovah's final reign inaugurated,then nothing could be more appropriate than the insertion of this psalm just here in Hezekiah's larger Sabbathday's Service of Song. Indeed, only to see this, is nothing short of discovering a new, unexpected and most welcome proof of Jehovah's wondrous overruling ways; and it may be forgiven any Christian if, under such an impulse, with bowed head he here sends up to
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1.
What are the reasons for considering Psalms 98, 99 as a shorter service of song for a sabbath day?
2.
What is the purpose of referring to Moses, Aaron, and Samuel by name?
3.
Rotherham makes four reflections on these two psalmsshall we state and discuss the thought of each: (a) On the basic pre-supposition that Jehovah hath become king, What is the new divine action? Evidently the rule or kingship of God has taken on a new aspect. (b) What is meant by saying these psalms are Jehovistic rather than Messianic? What is the ultimate conclusion? (c) The fulfillment of these psalms await the return of the Messiah. Are we to believe there is to be a literal rule of God through Christ in Jerusalem? Discuss. (d) Psalms 94 is vindicatedhow? What does 2 Thessalonians 2 say about this? Is the lawless one described in Psalms 99? Discuss.