THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

Psalms: God's Nurture Of The Inner Man In The Life Of Faith

XCVIII: Encouragement For God's Future World Deliverance

(Psalm 98:1-9)

I. Introduction

A. Amid what may seem to be overwhelming oppression in today's world, God often helps us at the personal or local level, what He intends to use in encouraging us toward building our faith in His future world deliverance.

B. Psalm 98:1-9 provides edifying instruction on this truth, so we view it for our edification (as follows):

II. Encouragement For God's Future World Deliverance, Psalm 98:1-9.

A. The introductory remark, "A Psalm" appears in the Hebrew text as part of the first verse (Kittel, Bib. Heb., p. 1060), so we stay with the English Bible numbering system which is the same as that of the Hebrew text.

B. Accordingly, we translate Psalm 98:1-9 (as follows):

1. "Sing to Jahweh a new song, because He has performed wondrous things; His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him," Psalm 98:1.

2. "Jahweh has made known His salvation and uncovered His righteousness before the eyes of the nations," Psalm 98:2.

3. "He has remembered His loyal love and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our Elohim," Psalm 98:3.

4. "Shout for joy to Jahweh, all of the earth, burst into jubilant song with music;" (Psalm 98:4)

5. "make music to Jahweh with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing," (Psalm 98:5)

6. "with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn -- shout for joy before Jahweh, the King," Psalm 98:6.

7. "Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it," Psalm 98:7.

8. "Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy;" (Psalm 98:8)

9. "let them sing before Jahweh, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity," Psalm 98:9.

C. We note important observations about this psalm (as follows):

1. The palmist's call to sing a new song to Jahweh came because of a recent divine deliverance for Israel, v. 1a, 3a; Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 864, 819. That deliverance that is not itself identified in the psalm made known God's salvation and exposed His righteousness to Gentile nations that surrounded Israel, v. 2.

2. God's righteousness is embedded in His loyal love and faithfulness to Israel because His blessing of her is based on His Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12:1-3 that was confirmed and enlarged in the Palestinian, the Davidic and the New Covenants! (J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, 1972, p. 65-128) These covenants are all ultimately literally fulfilled in the outworking of the Revelation 4:1-22:21 prophecies, that is, in all future prophetic events in Scripture that relate to the whole world! (Ibid., p. 128-583)

3. In consequence of these truths, the psalmist draws encouragement from this recent divine deliverance for Israel to call for great rejoicing throughout the world for Jahweh's coming judgement of the world, v. 4-9. God will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples of the world, Gentiles and Jews alike, with equity, what is described throughout the prophecies of Revelation 4:1-22:21!

4. This message also has application for our Church era even before the Revelation 4:1-2a pretribulation rapture: as we have learned in past studies, Revelation 2-3 constitute God's instructions to the Church all through Church History beginning with the Apostle John's era and going to the rapture, including our Laodicean Church era in Revelation 3:14-22! Thus, we Christians in our era should anticipate God's fulfillment of His Revelation 3:20-21 promises to us based on what personal or local deliverances Christ has wrought in our lives to date that enhance our hope in God's final Revelation 4:1-22:21 deliverances.

Lesson: Based on a recent divine deliverance of Israel that in turn was based on God's Abrahamic Covenant and His additional covenants that expand on that original covenant, a deliverance seen by surrounding Gentiles who saw God's loyal love and faithfulness, the psalmist called for the world to rejoice and to praise God for His future fulfillment of all of His covenant promises in His future, final world judgment of righteousness and equity.

Application: (1) If we have seen God help us in some local or personal way, He wants us to expand our hope and trust that He will in time fulfill all of His promises of deliverance not only to us, but to the whole world. (2) In so doing, we become encouraged and optimistic even amid the oppressive wickedness we face in today's world.