Psalm 98 Feb. 24 A Psalm.  1Sing to Yahweh a new song, for He has done marvellous things! His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. 2Yahweh has made known His salvation, He has openly shown His righteousness in the sight of the nations. 3He has remembered His grace and His faithfulness toward the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 4Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth! Burst out and sing for joy, yes, sing praises! 5Sing praises to Yahweh with the harp, with the harp and the voice of melody. 6With trumpets and sound of the ram’s horn make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh. 7Let the sea roar with its fullness; the world, and those who live therein. 8Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing for joy together. 9Let them sing before Yahweh, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.   

Commentary

98:3 The “salvation” spoken of in :1-3 isn’t God’s saving of Himself, but His salvation of His people through Jesus [the Hebrew form of ‘Jesus’ means ‘Yah’s salvation]. It is our personal experience of that salvation which should be the witness which persuades the Gentile world to praise Him. It was God’s intention that His salvation of His people from Egypt would have this effect; but Israel despised that salvation, in their hearts reversed it by constantly wanting to return to Egypt, and so they didn’t declare His salvation and so the Gentiles didn’t hear. We can’t keep our experience of salvation to ourselves; we will declare it to the whole world if we really grasp the wonder of it all.