Psalm XCVIII
A Psalm.
1 O SING unto the Lord a new song! for he hath done marvellous things: His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.
2 The Lord hath made known his salvation:
His righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.
3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: Make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
6 Sing unto Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.
6 With trumpets and sound of comet, make a joyful noise before the Lord,
the King.
7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell
therein.
8 Let the floods clap their hands:
Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord;
9 For he cometh to judge the earth:
With righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
Ryland (in “Psalms restored to Messiah,”) thinks that as the Jews held that Moses wrote Psalm xc. and onward to the xcviii., it may be to this Psalm that Rev. xv. alludes, as “The Song of Moses and the Lamb.” This is improbable; but the Psalm suits that time. The kingdom and the King have arrived; the blessedness of that happy day has been celebrated. But the harp cannot be silent yet! Another song on the same key! Another sweet and solemn melody on the same theme; but with this special addition, the Lord’s faithfulness to Israel. Hengstenberg remarks that this Psalm is full of allusion to Isaiah. At any rate, this Psalm and Isaiah, whichever was the earlier, answer to one another, as serapli to seraph, celebrating “wonders,” “salvation with his right hand,” “his holy arm,” “his righteousness revealed.” And may not the clause in verse 2,
“He hath remembered his mercy and truth,”
be considered as equivalent to “full of grace and truth” in John i. 1 7? That grace and truth is now to be revealed to Israel in particular, for he who is the fountain of it is to dwell among them — his throne stretched over Jerusalem as a rainbow spans the plain beneath, and his sceptre swayed over earth to its utmost ends.
“Sing to Jehovah loith the harp!
With the harp and voice of psaltery!
With cornets and sound oflrumpet (as at the bringing up of the ark to Zion, and as in 1 Kings i. 34, when Solomon was crowned). Raise the peal of melody Before the king, Jehovah!”
And as at the commencement of a reign in Israel, we read of the shout, “Let the king live!” (2 Kings xi. 12, and ix. 3 3,) “Jehu is king!” and as they clapped the hand (2 Kings xi. ] 2), as well as shouted and blew the trumpet (2 Kings ix. 1 3), so we find all these recognitions of The King in this Psalm — “The rivers clap their hands,” and “the hills shout for joy,” for the king foretold in David’s last words has at length come (2 Sam. xxiii. 3), to rule over men in the fear of the Lord.
It is the only Psalm called simply “iblD, “Psalm,” without Thetit:e addition. Some say that the reason is, there are so many verses ^’^’^” ““^ that have some form of the root “IDT, verses 1-8, &c. Hensf-
- T ‘O
stenberg accounts for it by supposing it the lyrical accompaniment of the more directly prophetical preceding Psalm, and the lyrical echo of the second part of Isaiah. It is at least interesting to notice, that a song of Zion which so exults in the king’s arrival should be called pre-eminently, “)bTD; as if the Psalm of Psalms were that which celebrates
Israeh and Earth at large, blessed in Messiah’s Advent.
29-i PSALM XCIX. — MESSIAH RULING IN HOLINESS.