The Noise of Allegiance Text: Psalm 98:4-6
Introduction: The Muted Rebellion
We live in an age that prizes respectable religion. Our modern sensibilities, even within the church, have been shaped more by the librarian's shush than by the coronation shout of the saints. We have come to believe that reverence is quiet, that piety is subdued, and that worship is, above all, an internal, personal, and well-mannered affair. When the world wants to celebrate something, they throw a parade with marching bands and fireworks. When the church wants to celebrate the resurrection of the Son of God from the dead and His subsequent coronation over all creation, we often do it with all the boisterous energy of a golf tournament.
This is not a matter of mere stylistic preference. This is a matter of theological conviction. A muted worship service is the product of a muted theology. A church that is embarrassed by its own King will naturally mumble its allegiance. A people who have forgotten that their God has won a cosmic victory will not be much inclined to sing victory songs. They will prefer songs that are therapeutic, introspective, and sentimental, songs that are more about their own meandering feelings than about the objective, rock-solid reality of Christ's throne.
But the Psalms will not have it. The Psalms are God's inspired prayer book, and they are also God's inspired songbook. And God is very clear about the kind of singing He requires. It is not timid. It is not hesitant. It is not ashamed. The worship described in Scripture is robust, loud, joyful, and public. It is a declaration, a proclamation, a summons. It is the sound of a kingdom that is not retreating into a private spiritual corner, but is rather advancing to fill the whole earth.
Psalm 98 is a summons to this kind of worship. It is a command to make a certain kind of noise. And we must understand that in a world full of noise, in a world where every idol and every ideology is clamoring for our attention and our allegiance, the noise that we make in worship is a political act. It is a declaration of war on the quiet rebellion of secularism and the hushed tones of pietism. It is the joyful noise of allegiance to the one true King.
The Text
Make a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth;
Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises.
Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre,
With the lyre and the sound of singing.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
Make a loud shout before King Yahweh.
(Psalm 98:4-6 LSB)
The Global Summons (v. 4)
We begin with the scope and the nature of this command.
"Make a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises." (Psalm 98:4)
The first thing to notice is the sheer scope of this command. Who is being addressed? "All the earth." This is not a memo circulated just within the camp of Israel. This is a global summons. This is a command issued to every nation, every tribe, every tongue, every square inch of the planet. This is profoundly postmillennial. The psalmist, inspired by the Holy Spirit, sees a day when the knowledge of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea, and this is the sound that will accompany that reality. This is a missionary command. Our task is not to build a holy huddle but to disciple the nations, teaching them to do what? To obey all that Christ has commanded, which includes this: making a loud shout to Yahweh.
And what is the nature of this response? It is a "loud shout." The Hebrew word here is rua. This is not a polite "hallelujah." This is the kind of shout you hear at a decisive military victory. It is the shout the Israelites gave when the walls of Jericho came down. It is the shout of a people who know their enemies have been defeated and their king is triumphant. It is a war cry. Worship is warfare, and our singing is one of our primary weapons. It is how we announce to the principalities and powers that their lease is up and their eviction notices have been served.
This shout then "breaks forth" into joyful song. The image is one of a dam bursting. This joy is not something you have to work up with four soft chords and dim lighting. It is the irrepressible, explosive consequence of recognizing the truth of the previous verses, that God's right hand and holy arm have "worked out His salvation" and that "all the ends of the earth have seen" it (vv. 1, 3). The joy is not the goal; it is the fruit. The goal is to see the King. The joy is what happens when you do.
The Instruments of Praise (v. 5)
Next, the psalmist specifies the means by which this praise is to be offered.
"Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of singing." (Psalm 98:5 LSB)
Here we have the explicit command to use musical instruments in our worship. God is not a gnostic. He does not despise the material world; He made it and called it good. And He is not a stoic philosopher who is only interested in bare, abstract propositions. He is the author of beauty, harmony, and melody. He invented music. Therefore, to bring instruments into His worship is not a concession to our weakness, but an offering of the good things He has made back to Him in praise.
The lyre, or harp, was an instrument of skill. This tells us that our worship should be thoughtful, prepared, and excellent. We are to offer God our very best, not just our spontaneous and sloppy leftovers. This runs contrary to a certain kind of pietism that suspects any kind of excellence or professionalism in worship as being "a performance." But the Bible commands us to play skillfully unto the Lord (Psalm 33:3). The issue is not the skill, but the object of the skill. Is the skill used to draw attention to itself, or is it used to adorn the praises of King Yahweh?
Notice the balance: "With the lyre and the sound of singing." The instruments are not there to replace the voices of the congregation, but to support them, to accompany them, to lift them up. The primary instrument in worship is the human voice, the voices of the redeemed singing God's praise. The other instruments are the rhythm section, the harmony, the foundation upon which the voices of the saints are built.
The Royal Fanfare (v. 6)
The crescendo of this summons comes in the final verse of our text.
"With trumpets and the sound of the horn Make a loud shout before King Yahweh." (Psalm 98:6 LSB)
If the lyre was an instrument of the court and the home, the trumpets and the horn were instruments of the state and the army. These are public, official instruments. Trumpets announced the coronation of a king. They announced the beginning of a battle. They announced the arrival of a great dignitary. Their sound is piercing, unmistakable, and authoritative.
This is what our worship is meant to be. It is a royal fanfare. It is the official announcement that the King is in His court and is holding an audience with His people. This is why the psalmist concludes by saying we are to make this loud shout "before King Yahweh." The direction of our worship is everything. It is not directed inward, to stir up our own emotions. It is not directed outward, to impress the unbeliever in the back row. It is directed upward, "before King Yahweh."
This is the great cure for all man-centered worship. When we understand that we are gathered in the throne room of the universe, before the face of the sovereign King of all creation, it reorients everything. We are not there to be entertained. We are there to declare our allegiance. We are not consumers of a religious product. We are subjects and children, joyfully and loudly proclaiming the goodness and the greatness of our King.
Conclusion: Your Coronation Duty
This passage is not simply a description of what worship was like in ancient Israel. Because Yahweh is King, and because that King is our Lord Jesus Christ, this is a command for us today. Jesus has accomplished the marvelous victory the psalm anticipates. He has made known His salvation to the nations. He is King. The question is whether our worship reflects that reality.
Is our singing a "loud shout" or a timid whisper? Is our joy "breaking forth" or is it bottled up? Are we bringing the skill of the lyre and the blast of the trumpet to honor our King, or are we offering Him the musical equivalent of pocket lint?
The world is making a very loud noise for its legion of false gods. The noise of politics, the noise of entertainment, the noise of rebellion, the noise of despair, it is all around us. The calling of the church is not to find a quiet corner and wait for it all to blow over. The calling of the church is to make a louder, more joyful, more beautiful, and more truthful noise. We are to out-sing the world.
This begins when we gather for corporate worship, and it spills out into our homes, our work, and our public witness. We are citizens of a kingdom, subjects of a great King. Let our praise befit that reality. Let us stop mumbling our allegiance. It is our coronation duty to make a loud and joyful noise before our enthroned Lord. Let us therefore come before Him with lyres and trumpets, with voices and with hearts, and let us make a loud shout before King Yahweh.