Psalm 98

Psalms 98:1-3

The new song answers a victory already won rather than one requested, his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory, language close to Isaiah 52:10, the Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God, the same arm and the same ends of the earth. The Lord hath made known his salvation openly, in the sight of the heathen, not hidden within Israel alone. He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel echoes in Mary's song at Luke 1:54, he hath holpen his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, a covenant kept rather than a debt newly created.

Psalms 98:4-6

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth issues a command rather than an invitation, praise as a duty owed and not merely a mood offered when it arrives. The instruments named, the harp, trumpets and the cornet, move the psalm from the previous stanza's report of what God has done to the congregation's own noise in answer, sound piled on sound. Before the Lord, the King names the object of every note, the same king announced at 96:10 and 97:1, so the music is addressed rather than merely performed.

Psalms 98:7-9

The closing three verses stand almost word for word as 96:11-13, the sea and its fulness, the floods and the hills, called to join the noise commanded of the worshiper, and he cometh to judge the earth closing both psalms on the same note. The repetition is the form doing its own work, the same announcement sounded twice in three psalms because it bears repeating rather than because a new argument is needed. With righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity keeps judgment framed as the good news it was at 96:13, the standard by which the king everyone has just been commanded to praise will in fact rule.