The Global Anthem Text: Psalm 98:1-3
Introduction: A Faith That Sings Out Loud
We live in an age that wants its religion to be quiet, private, and above all, polite. The prevailing spirit of our time is that if you must have a god, then for goodness sake, keep him to yourself. Let your faith be a personal hobby, something you do in the privacy of your own home, like building model ships in a bottle. But whatever you do, do not bring it out in public. Do not sing about it. And certainly do not suggest that your god has accomplished something that has ramifications for everyone, everywhere.
This psalm is a direct and glorious repudiation of that entire timid mindset. Psalm 98 is not a private devotional mumbled in a corner. It is a global press release. It is a victory announcement shouted from the mountaintops. It is the coronation anthem for the King of the universe. This is a loud faith, a public faith, a missionary faith. This is a faith that demands trumpets and harps and the roaring of the sea. Why? Because the salvation of God is not a secret. It is not a provincial affair for one particular tribe. It is a public spectacle, a cosmic triumph that God Himself has deliberately put on display for all the nations to see.
The world wants us to be embarrassed by the exclusive claims of Christ. It wants us to be ashamed of a gospel that speaks of salvation and judgment. But this psalm will have none of it. It instructs us to praise God precisely because He has won the victory, and because He is not ashamed to be associated with His people. God is not embarrassed by the salvation He has accomplished, so why on earth should we be? This psalm is a summons to leave the cramped catacombs of private piety and to join the universal, creation-wide chorus that sings of the wondrous deeds of our God. It is a command to learn the new song, the song of redemption, and to sing it with gusto before a watching world.
The Text
Sing to Yahweh a new song, For He has done wondrous deeds, His right hand and His holy arm have worked out His salvation.
Yahweh has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the eyes of the nations.
He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
(Psalm 98:1-3 LSB)
The New Song of Victory (v. 1)
We begin with the summons to a new kind of worship, based on a new act of God.
"Sing to Yahweh a new song, For He has done wondrous deeds, His right hand and His holy arm have worked out His salvation." (Psalm 98:1)
The command is to sing a "new song." This does not primarily mean a song that was composed last Tuesday. A song can be contemporary and still be an old, tired song. And a song can be ancient and yet be startlingly new. A "new song" in Scripture is a song that erupts in response to a fresh and mighty act of God's redemption. It is the anthem of the redeemed. It is the song you sing when God has done something so decisive, so earth-shattering, that the old songs simply will not do. The exodus was one such event. The return from exile was another. But the ultimate "wondrous deed" that demands this new song is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
And notice how this salvation is accomplished. It is "His right hand and His holy arm" that have worked it out. This is military language. This is the language of a warrior king who rolls up his sleeves and wins the battle single-handedly. Salvation is not a group project. It is not a cooperative effort between God and man. God's holy arm got Him the victory. He did it alone. This demolishes all pride, all boasting. We did not assist God in our salvation; we were the objective. We were the spoils of a war He fought and won. The one place you might think God was defeated, the cross, was in fact the place of His greatest triumph, where by His death He threw down the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil.
This is crucial. If you believe your salvation is contingent upon your continued faithfulness, you have misunderstood the gospel at its root. God's arm is not frail. His right hand is not weak. He did not almost save us, leaving the final, decisive bit to us. He has "worked out His salvation." It is a finished work, an accomplished fact. And because He has done it, we have something to sing about.
The Public Unveiling (v. 2)
In the second verse, the psalmist emphasizes that this great salvation is not a hidden secret.
"Yahweh has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the eyes of the nations." (Psalm 98:2)
God is not shy about what He has done. He has not tucked His salvation away in a corner of the world. He has put it on a billboard for all to see. He has "made it known." He has "revealed" it. And where did He do this? "In the eyes of the nations." This is not a parochial, tribal deity doing a little something for His favorite people. This is the God of all the earth, executing a plan of salvation with the entire world as His audience.
His salvation and His righteousness are linked. In revealing His salvation, God is revealing His character. His righteousness here is not just about moral purity; it is about His covenant faithfulness, His justice, His rightness in all His dealings. When God saves His people, He is vindicating His own name. He is showing the world that He is a God who makes promises and a God who keeps promises. The cross is the ultimate display of this. At the cross, God demonstrated His perfect righteousness by pouring out His wrath against sin, and He demonstrated His salvation by pouring out that wrath on His own Son in our place. It was a public act, before the eyes of the nations, a declaration that God is both just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Covenant Faithfulness, Global Reach (v. 3)
The final verse of our text ties God's specific promises to Israel with the universal scope of His salvation.
"He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God." (Psalm 98:3)
God's salvation does not come out of a vacuum. It is rooted in His covenant history with His people. He "remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness." The word for lovingkindness is that great covenant word, hesed. It is steadfast love, loyal love, never-giving-up love. God made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and He does not forget them. The coming of Christ was not Plan B. It was the ultimate fulfillment of the promises God had made centuries before. As Mary sang in her own new song, the Magnificat, which echoes this psalm, God has "helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy." (Luke 1:54).
But here is the glorious paradox. The very act by which God remembers His specific covenant with Israel is the act that throws the doors of salvation open to the entire world. His faithfulness to Israel results in a salvation that is seen by "all the ends of the earth." The promises made to Abraham were always intended to bless all the families of the earth (Genesis 12:3). The new covenant is not the abrogation of God's promises; it is their fulfillment and expansion. The gospel goes out from Jerusalem, but it does not stop there. It goes to Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.
This is the engine of Christian missions. We go to the nations not with a new and disconnected message, but with the news that the God of Israel has kept His promises in the person of Jesus Christ, and that this salvation is for them as well. All the ends of the earth have seen it. The light has dawned. The news is out. Our job is to go and explain what it is that they have seen.
Conclusion: Join the Chorus
These three verses are a dense, power-packed summary of the gospel. God, by His own mighty power, has accomplished a decisive, victorious salvation in Jesus Christ. This salvation was not done in a corner; it was a public demonstration of His righteousness, put on display for all the nations to see. And this global salvation is the fulfillment of His ancient covenant promises to His people Israel.
What is the only proper response to such a reality? "Sing to Yahweh a new song." This is not a suggestion; it is a command. It is a command to be loud. It is a command to be joyful. It is a command to be public. A quiet, private, timid Christianity is a contradiction in terms. It is an insult to the God who has won such a public and glorious victory.
Therefore, we must learn to sing this new song. We must steep ourselves in the psalms, the prayer book and songbook that God Himself has given us. We must declare these truths without embarrassment and without apology. God has acted. He has won. He has made it known. And all the ends of the earth are being summoned to see it, to hear it, and to join the song.