After Psalms 96 and 97 summoned the nations and cast down idols, Psalm 98 lets us hear what God’s reign sounds like. It begins with a “new song,” but not because worship needs novelty to stay interesting. In Scripture, a new song rises when God has acted in a way so decisive that old language can no longer carry the weight of it. This is the music of fresh deliverance.
The psalm says God’s “right hand” and “holy arm” have won salvation. In the ancient world, kings carved their victories into stone so the nations would remember their strength. Psalm 98 answers that whole world of imperial boasting: the true King does not merely conquer territory; he reveals righteousness. His victory is moral, saving, and public. Three times the psalm insists that the nations see it. Salvation here is not private comfort. It is God setting his faithfulness in the open.
Verse 3 is the center: God “remembered” his steadfast love and faithfulness to Israel. The Hebrew pair hesed and ’emunah means covenant love and reliability. And “remembered” in the Bible does not mean God had forgotten facts; it means he moves toward his promises in action. This reaches back to the exodus, but it also leans forward to the gospel. Mary’s song in Luke 1 echoes this very pattern: God has helped his servant Israel, remembering mercy. At the cross, the holy arm of the Lord is revealed in a way no empire would have imagined—strength hidden in suffering, victory through apparent defeat.
Then the psalm widens. Harps, trumpets, and the shofar join in. Western readers often imagine polished concert music, but the shofar was a ram’s horn: raw, rough, almost wild. Biblical worship is not merely refined; it is total. Skill and shout belong together. The sea roars, rivers clap, hills sing. Creation becomes liturgy.
And then comes the line modern people often fear: the Lord comes to judge the earth. Yet in Psalm 98, judgment is the reason the world rejoices. Why? Because creation has been bruised by human sin, false rule, and crooked scales. Romans 8 says the whole creation groans. So when the Judge comes, the earth does not tremble as before a tyrant; it exhales as before a Deliverer. He will judge with righteousness and with meysharim—straightness, equity, what is level and true. This is judgment as the end of distortion.
Augustine said the new song belongs to the new person. Calvin saw in this psalm a world made glad because God’s judgment restores order. Both were right. We sing Psalm 98 most truthfully when we let Christ retune our loves, our politics, our fears, and our hope for the world.
Suggested cross-references: Isaiah 42:10; Isaiah 52:10; Luke 1:54-55; Romans 8:19-22; Revelation 15:3-4.
Hymn suggestion: Joy to the World. Isaac Watts wrote it from Psalm 98; it is less a Christmas carol than a song of the King’s present reign and final coming.
Lord Jesus, teach us the new song of your victory. Remember us in your mercy, straighten what is crooked in us, and make us glad for your judgment because your rule is righteous and good. Let our lives, not only our lips, become praise. Amen.