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This is the First Mustang Pulpit Podcast, a podcast of the weekly preaching and teaching at First Mustang.! Thank you for joining us. But as we're studying Psalm 98 today, I pray it will increase our love for Jesus and I pray it will increase our love for Jesus.
And I pray it will enlarge our hearts to embrace our God and Savior as we've read about and sung about this morning. So in order to set our minds towards the theme of Psalm 98, I want to start by asking just a couple of questions.
What first comes to your mind when you think of Judgment Day? What thoughts and images flood your mind when you think about God's wrath?
Maybe you think of the sorrow involved in God's judgment separating families for all eternity. Maybe you think about the terror of standing before the Almighty and all-knowing God Himself and being examined by Him.
Or maybe you think of the regret-filled hearts of those who repeatedly heard the gospel but refused to repent and are now standing before the God whose gospel it is.
All of these thoughts of Judgment Day are legitimate. All of these feelings are real. It will be a horrible day. Judgment Day. Judgment Day. But it's an incomplete view of Judgment Day.
The way the Bible describes Judgment Day may shock us at first. It describes it as a day of joy and worship for God's people. And Psalm 98 teaches us to view Judgment Day from this counterintuitive perspective of joy and worship.
From this angle which may not seem to be correct to us at first go, but I hope that through studying Psalm 98 this morning it will help us and spur us on towards looking to the Judgment Day with eager anticipation.
I pray it will orient our hearts towards the Lord's coming and help us to be joyful. And Psalm 98, while it is a distinct unit, it is in a context in the Psalter.
And so these Psalms were not only written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but they were also arranged and organized under his inspiration as well. And Psalms 93 through 99 are what we call enthronement Psalms.
These are Psalms that celebrate Yahweh's reign. These are Psalms that celebrate God as king. And so a number of these Psalms in this section will simply begin like Psalm 97 does. Yahweh reigns.
Yahweh reigns. And Psalm 98 is also an enthronement Psalm that celebrates our God as king. And as we'll read in a moment, this Psalm ends with a heavy eschatological emphasis, a heavy focus on the end times.
And when God returns to make all things right, everyone on earth will praise him, and even creation itself will respond to him in a way that reflects his beauty and majesty.
In Psalm 98, though it speaks of judgment, is the most joyous Psalm in our Bible. Though it talks of the Lord's return and judging the earth, every line is filled with joy and celebration and worship.
Psalm 98 is the inspiration behind Isaac Watts' well-loved hymn, Joy to the World, which celebrates our Lord's coming to save the earth.
Joy fills every line of this Psalm. And so I want to read Psalm 98 in its totality to set it before us before we work through it. So Psalm 98 is simply titled, A Psalm.
Oh, sing to Yahweh a new song. For he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
Yahweh has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, Yahweh. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before Yahweh. For he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
This is the very word of the living God in Psalm 98. And I've entitled this message, Happy Judgment Day. This psalm looks towards the coming of our Lord with joy and celebration.
And we'll take this text in three chunks as it appears in the ESV, verses 1 through 3, then verses 4 through 6, and then verses 7 through 9. And a guy by the name of John Stott has outlined this passage helpfully, and I've borrowed heavily from his points of the outline.
And so in verses 1 through 3, we'll see God is the Savior. Verses 4 through 6, God is the King. Verses 7 through 9, God will be the Judge.
And as we progress through each section of this psalm, we are moving from past to present to future. And as we do, there's a swelling expanse of praise given to God as it expands from Israel to the nations and into all of creation itself.
This psalm is exploding outward in praise and celebration of our God. It's our first section of text, verses 1 through 3. God is the Savior.
And this psalm is simply titled, A Psalm. No explanation of who wrote it, no explanation of the background. This psalm has been called by rabbis, the Orphan Psalm.
Not claimed by anyone, and we don't know much background about it. But it's a model of praise to our God. And this psalm starts out, Oh, sing to Yahweh a new psalm.
Not new because Israel was bored with the old, but new because God had acted in new ways of saving his people, giving them new reasons to sing his praises. And the motivation for this new song is in line two, For he has done marvelous things.
This is the reason for the call to worship. And these marvelous things are described here, but they still remain somewhat veiled. The psalmist explains some of what God has done in generic terms, but we don't know exactly what historical events he's referring to.
But what's instructive for us here as worshipers is that our praise for God is a response to what he has done.
Our praise for God is a response to what he has said. And so if you have struggled to worship lately, if you have struggled to pour your heart into the singing of our church, perhaps the diagnosis is you failed to meditate on the marvelous things that God has done.
He has saved us through Christ. He has provided for our families in any number of ways. Let us meditate on the marvelous things that he has done, and it will make us thankful.
So what are these marvelous things that he's done? Well, he lists out four of them. He says in verse one, he's worked salvation. Verse two, he's made known that salvation. Also verse two, he's revealed his righteousness.
And verse three, he's remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness. And salvation is the refrain of this first paragraph.
Salvation is mentioned in every verse. And so the psalmist is praising God for the salvation that he has worked on behalf of Israel. And in the Old Testament, the Psalms in particular, when we read about salvation, we need to also think in physical terms.
When they talk about salvation, they're thinking military victory. They're thinking physical safety from their surrounding enemies. And so when you read the book of Joshua, Joshua's name means Yahweh saves, or Yahweh gives salvation.
And what is it that Joshua does? He conquers Israel's enemies. So the psalmist is praising God for the salvation that he's given, for the physical safety he's provided for Israel.
And in the perspective of the psalmist, this salvation and deliverance is not the result of men or horses or weapons. It's the result of God's direct activity.
He truly believes, like Psalm 3.8 says, salvation belongs to the Lord. And in an act of faith, as he's describing this act of salvation, he completely disregards all historical realities surrounding this event.
There are any number of providential things that he could have pointed to, saying this person was in power, that was an advantage to us, but he disregards these historical factors and gives thanks to God, who is sovereign.
He gives thanks to the God who has worked salvation, and he is solely focused on God and giving thanks to him alone. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
The right hand is viewed as the hand of strength and military success, and so God is viewed as the divine warrior in this psalm. His right hand and holy arm represent his strength and power in saving his people.
And after the Israelites were brought out of Egypt, in Exodus 15, Moses writes a psalm. And in Exodus 15.6, he says, your right hand, O Yahweh, glorious in power, your right hand, O Yahweh, shatters the enemy.
The Lord has worked salvation by himself. His people benefit from it. His people receive it, but this is from God alone. He alone gets the glory and the praise for working this salvation.
And in verse two, he's not only saved them, but he's manifested that salvation. The Lord has, Yahweh has made known his salvation. He's revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He's not only delivered Israel, he has manifested his power among all nations. He is internationally known as a savior. And if you look, the psalmist is speaking in the past tense in verse two.
The Lord has made known his salvation. The psalmist is looking back on this deliverance. He's looking back to this event and praising God for it.
But when did this happen? What particular event is in his mind as he's pinning these words? Well, there are two main thoughts.
Some think he's looking back to the Exodus and praising God for Israel's deliverance from Egypt. And people will point to the borrowed language from Exodus 15 like I just pointed out to you.
But others think he's talking about the salvation from Babylon. The return from exile into the land.
And I think this is the correct view. He's explaining it and describing it in terms of similar to the Exodus, but he's talking about when they got to come back home from Babylonian captivity.
And a couple of reasons we should think this because many of the lines and phrases in Psalm 98 are borrowed from the prophet Isaiah. And so I want you to keep your eyes on verses 1 through 3, particularly the end of verse 3 while I read for you a verse from Isaiah 52.
In Isaiah, he's writing about this captivity that's coming, but he's also talking about the deliverance of God from that captivity.
And when Isaiah's looking forward to this exile, he says, the salvation of our God will be seen among the nations. And as the psalmist is borrowing from this language, he says, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
And so in the psalmist's mind here, he's, Israel's back in the land from their captivity, and he's describing it in terms of the Exodus. And he's praising God for the salvation that he has delivered to his people.
And it's because of this new act of deliverance that he calls his readers to sing a new song. God's new and most recent act of salvation calls for fresh worship.
And he says, he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. The goal or the intent of this salvation was to make our God's name known among the nations of the world.
And that's exactly what happened, both in the Exodus from Egypt and in the return from Babylonian captivity. God's name was feared among the nations because of his salvation.
And what is it that he revealed about himself in saving his people? He revealed or uncovered his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
And it's striking that the attribute of God most on display in salvation is righteousness. If we were to assign an attribute to God when we think about salvation we'd say mercy, grace, love.
The Bible says righteousness. And many today will look back on God's favor of Israel and they'll say that his saving Israel alone was prejudiced or they're showing favoritism or it was racism towards the other nations.
The Bible calls it righteousness. God is righteous to display his saving nature. And the salvation God accomplished by bringing his people back from exile was revealed in the eyes of the nations.
It was an international display of his righteousness, his mercy, his grace to his people and the nations themselves had a front row seat to it. In verse 3 he has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
And the fact that he remembers here doesn't imply that he had forgotten at some point. The Bible will often use this word remembered to refer to God keeping his promises.
And when it says God remembered it, it indicates that there was a long period of time from the promise to the actual fulfillment of that promise. And so if you were living in that time having received the promise but waiting for the fulfillment to come and God suddenly keeps his word you'd say God remembered his covenant.
He remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness. These two words often appear side by side in the Old Testament. His steadfast love is his loyal love. It's his steadfast devotion to the recipients of his covenant and his faithfulness or literally his truth is his unwavering commitment to the promises that he has made.
The Lord has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. And so the upshot of this is he can be trusted.
His commitment to love his people is eternal and unchanging and Israel received the benefits of this through their many trials. End of verse 3 all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
Yahweh's mighty act of salvation testified to the nations that only he can save like this. And this is a warning to everyone. If you are apart from this God you cannot be saved.
He's the only one who can work salvation like this and it's an invitation for all to trust in him. If you want to be saved put your trust in the God of the Bible.
Only he can save like this and it's been manifested to the ends of the earth. And given the way this psalm ends the complete fulfillment of the end of verse 3 is coming in the future.
And while it was true of the exodus that God was made known among the nations and true from the return from exile that God's name was proclaimed to the ends of the earth there's a day coming in the future when every single person on earth will see the salvation of God.
Everyone will see the manifestation of his righteousness in saving his people. So our first section is God is the Savior. Secondly in verses 4 through 6 God is the King.
God is the King. King. And this paragraph is noisy. The psalmist calls for loud and lively worship.
The psalms aren't only concerned that our worship would be filled with joy but that our worship would be loud. And if you've ever been in a setting where there's loud worship going on, where there's loud singing, it's both stirring and freeing.
You can sit there and listen to the multitude of voices praising the God that you worship and it stirs your soul. But you're also free to sing as loud as you can.
It's both stirring and freeing. And on the other hand, if you're in a setting where worship is quiet, it's a little awkward. There was a time when I was in elementary school, my parents and my sister and I went and visited a church of a family member that was charismatic.
And I went to children's church. Not Sunday school, but children's church. And they were singing all these songs I'd never heard of once in my life. I grew up in church, but I was not familiar with any of these songs.
And there's an adult man on stage yelling at us to sing louder, but I didn't know any of the words. And I was sitting on the front row. I don't know what I was doing. I'm a Baptist. And so I'm trying to raise the level of my mumble and it's just not working.
And so I kind of sway, act like I'm really into it, so maybe he won't call me out. But no one else was singing. It was super awkward and uncomfortable. And if we obey God's commands, our church will never be like that.
Our church will be a place where God's worship is sung loudly and it stirs people who visit us and it frees them up to sing loudly. God wants his worship to be loud.
And if that was true in the Old Testament, how much more true should that be of us who have received his full revelation in Christ? How much louder should our worship be than what took place in the synagogues and in the temple?
Not all of us have good voices. Exhibit A. That's why I said up front so no one hears me. But God is not offended if our voices are bad, if there is joy in our hearts.
God loves to hear his people sing with joy even if it's off key. I don't even know what that means, but you can sing loudly to God and if there is joy in your heart, he is glorified and honored and magnified.
The only kind of worship that God is offended by is hypocritical worship from an empty heart. No matter how loud or how well you sing, if it's from a dead heart, that is offensive to God.
But if there is joy in your heart, if you have a reason to praise God, sing loudly. God, it glorifies and pleases the Lord. And verse 4 says, make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth.
Forsake your false gods. All the earth is liable to worship the only true and living God, and that's true of every individual in this room. You are liable to worship God, and you're to do so joyfully.
Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. This idea of breaking forth is an explosion of praise that can't be contained.
It's a spontaneous yell. This is what you do at your kids' soccer games. You can't keep it in. That's how God commands himself to be worshiped. Break forth in joyous song.
Verse 5, sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody. The lyre was a U-shaped harp, basically. It was a stringed instrument.
Verse 6, with trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the king, Yahweh. Trumpets would have been metal instruments much like we have today.
The horn was a shofar, what it's called, and it's literally made from the horn of an animal, and so these would include wind instruments. I think the Psalms here provide sufficient ground for us to use instruments in worship today.
The Lord is pleased by the making of music from his people. And it concludes verse 6, make a joyful noise before the king, Yahweh. Yahweh is not just king over Israel, he is sovereign over all.
He's the international king. There's only one God and all the ends of the earth are obligated to worship him and him alone. He is the king now. He is the king in heaven. One day he will be enthroned on the earth and will receive the glory that is due his name.
And just as earthly kings and presidents are lauded and praised when they take office or assume power, so the entire world will salute and praise God when he enthrones himself in Israel forever.
And the pace and rhythm of verses 4 through 6 help us feel the enthusiasm and joy of the psalmist. The psalmist is presently praising God for what he's done in the past and with an eye towards what he's going to do in the future.
God has not yet enthroned himself on the earth, but the psalmist is worshiping him as if it's a present reality. He's looking toward the future with hope of what will one day be true.
He's viewing the past salvation of his God in tandem with his future appearing. So we've seen God as the savior, God as the king in verses 7 through 9, God will be the judge.
God will be the judge. And as we enter the last paragraph of this psalm, the scope of it opens up still wider as we look to the future.
The creation itself has been affected by our sin. The creation all around us is affected by our sin, but one day it will be set free from its bondage and it will glorify and honor the Lord.
And what the psalmist says in verses 7 and 8 is not suggesting that nature will be animated by a divine spirit as some false religions claim. He's saying that one day all of nature will be keeping time with the glory of God.
And every sight and sound of creation will be a beautiful harmony that echoes and reverberates to the glory of the king. When he appears, he will lift the curse.
And this is what Paul is talking about in Romans 8, 19 through 21. He says all of creation groans as it awaits the revealing of the sons of God. And Paul is not saying that creation has feelings or thoughts or emotions like us.
What he's saying is that creation is not yet what it was destined to be. It will one day be altogether glorious and it's not going to evolve there. Creation will one day be set free from the curse by the creator himself.
So verse 7 he says, let the sea roar in all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. This is every living creature on the earth.
Let the sea roar, let its waves, sounds to the glory and praise of God and everything that fills it. Every animal in the sea will bring glory to God.
The world and those who dwell in it. This is a phrase borrowed from Psalm 24. Everyone on earth when he appears will glorify him either in judgment or in salvation.
But everyone on earth will be to the praise of God. He says, let the rivers clap their hands. This is again metaphorical language. The rivers will be splashing and rushing to the glory and praise of God and as the rivers celebrate Yahweh they are carrying his praises across the continents.
Creation will be liberated from its bondage as a result of sin. Let the mountains or the hills sing for joy together. Every height and every depth will be to the praise of the king who made them.
He says that all of creation should sing and praise before Yahweh for he comes to judge the earth. before Yahweh is in his presence before his face and it says he comes to judge the earth as if he's at the door about to walk through.
And it's at this point that the psalm takes a surprising turn. The summit of our motivation to praise is God's judgment. This is shocking language.
If we were to finish this psalm ourselves we'd say before the Lord for he is good for his steadfast love endures forever or we'd return to the theme of salvation that he began this psalm with but the psalmist's final motivation for praising God is that he is coming to judge the world and he will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
And so the psalm of joy and praise concludes by looking forward to the coming of God in judgment. And when he judges the people of the world no one will be able to find fault with his judgment.
Every mouth will be stopped. There will be no more boasters. There will be no more accusers of God being unjust. God will have the last word on every single matter and in every single life.
He'll judge the world with righteousness. And we've already seen that word in this psalm. In verse 2, Yahweh has made known his salvation.
He's revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. God is every bit as righteous to judge the world as he is to save his people.
His righteousness is put on display in both salvation and judgment. judgment. He is worthy of praise any time his righteousness is displayed even on judgment day.
But how is it that the psalmist can rejoice at the idea of judgment day and not recoil from it? He has hope in the Messiah.
Why will this be a day of rejoicing for God's people? There's going to be mass bloodshed. God's wrath will be poured out on his enemies like it never has been before. How can this possibly be viewed through the lens of joy?
Is this a godly response? Is this a Christian response to God pouring out his wrath? How is it that we can rejoice at the idea of judgment day and not recoil from it?
We have hope in our Messiah too. We have hope in Christ. And this psalm, by its very nature, our nature is about Jesus. And let me show you.
In verse 1, O sing to Yahweh a new song. In Revelation 14, there is a new song being sung to the Lamb of God, to the Son who bore our sin.
At the end of verse 1, his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. This language of right hand and holy arm are titles for the Messiah in the book of Isaiah.
And so Isaiah 53, that prophecy about Christ's death on behalf of his people starts out, who has believed what he's heard from us? And to whom has the arm of Yahweh been revealed?
And it goes on to describe the ministry of Christ. Jesus is the one who has worked salvation in its fullness. He has laid down his life on the cross for his people, setting them free spiritually and one day physically as well.
Jesus is the one who has purchased our redemption, our salvation. And the end of verse 3, all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
I noted earlier that this awaits complete fulfillment until Christ returns in power. forever. But when Jesus is about to ascend back to his father, he says to his apostles before he sends them out, you'll be my witnesses in Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
Where did he get that phrase from, the ends of the earth? The book of Psalms. Jesus is commissioning his apostles to carry his salvation to the ends of the earth.
And it will one day be fulfilled as Christ returns in power. And all of us are commanded to praise and sing verse 6 before the king, Yahweh, who is the king of kings, who is the ruler of our kingdom.
It is Christ. And when he is enthroned in Israel, the whole world will give him glory. And verse 9, before Yahweh, for he comes to judge the earth. Which member of the Trinity is going to return to judge the earth?
It is none other than Jesus, the Son of God. This psalm looks forward to the second coming of Jesus Christ. The call to praise Yahweh here is really a call to praise the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who is Yahweh in the flesh.
And so like we read earlier, Titus 2, we're waiting for the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is our God.
He is our Savior. When Jesus returns pouring out his wrath on his enemies, why and how will we rejoice at such an atrocity?
Because the king himself has paid the debt of his bride. Yahweh himself has absorbed our wrath. Jesus suffered our punishment.
Making us sons and daughters instead of objects of his wrath when he returns. Praise God. We will be rejoicing on the day of judgment because God's righteousness will be manifested through the judgment that Jesus pours out.
And so we will rejoice in judgment day because we're safe in his righteousness. Not in his righteousness to judge, but his righteousness to save. And Charles Spurgeon said that Christ bore the divine wrath that we might never bear it.
He drank the cup even to its dregs so that we might never drink a drop of it. He suffered hell's torments for us so that we might never enter its gates.
We will rejoice in our Savior because he has absorbed all of the wrath that would have been ours through his death on the cross.
We'll have a new song to sing because of a new manifestation of his saving work for us. But we'll rejoice not just because we're safe or we're spared from the judgment because God himself will be glorified in the judgment of the wicked.
And so in Revelation, when God is pouring out his wrath, the angels respond in Revelation 16 saying, just are you, O holy one, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments.
It is what they deserve. And the word he uses for deserve there is the word worthy. And in Revelation 4 and 5, God the Father is praised and Jesus Christ is praised because they are worthy.
But the wicked are judged because that's what they are worthy of. And when that happens, God's people, including the angels, will praise God. Revelation 19 says his judgments are true and just.
Hallelujah, for the Lord our God reigns. And so we'll be rejoicing because the judgment itself is righteous. And we'll be rejoicing because the world will then be everything it was intended to be.
That is without evil and without sin. The world will be free from the wicked rulers who strut around the earth and even weeds in your yard.
All of the curse will be gone. All evil, all wickedness will be done away with. And if you are outside of Christ, judgment day will be the beginning of an eternal nightmare that's full of guilt and wrath and death.
And God's people will be glorifying and worshiping your judge because his judgments are righteous and it will be what you deserve. The only way to be saved from this wrath is by God himself.
So repent and believe in Jesus. Call out to him for mercy. For those who are in Christ, Psalm 98 is a song we will sing in Christ's kingdom.
These are the words that we will sing afresh when his kingdom is ushered in through judgment. We'll be singing not because we are righteous or worthy to receive his salvation, but because Jesus is worthy and righteous to have given us salvation.
It's not as though we didn't deserve judgment, but that God in Christ has made us righteous, has made us partakers of his nature. And so as we think about judgment day and we rejoice, it's a test of our faith.
Do we long for Christ's coming? Do we today celebrate his judgment day? How much do we trust that Jesus has atoned for our sins? And the celebration isn't glib as if God's judgment were a light thing, but celebrating God's judgment is the summit of faith because it expresses ultimate trust in his forgiveness through Christ.
Psalm 98 tunes our hearts to the consummation of all things. when Yahweh in the flesh, Jesus takes his throne, when he judges his enemies.
This was on the apostle Paul's heart when he was about to die. In 2 Timothy 4.8, he says, There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.
And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing. His appearing referring to his coming in judgment. And so today, as we rejoice in what God has already done through Christ, let us also look with anticipation towards the future of what glory will be his when he returns in power.
And my prayer is that every heart here will participate in this worship of our sovereign Savior and King and Judge. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the blood of Jesus that has atoned for all of our sins. It allows you to declare us righteous now and one day will make us righteous.
It even allows us to pray before you right now. Father, help us to cherish the gospel in Christ laying down his life and absorbing your wrath that should have been ours.
And help us also to long for his appearing. Help us to look forward to his return in power and glory to set all things right and that we would fully see our salvation manifested in the kingdom of your Son.
So Father, give us faith to look to the day of judgment and rejoice because of the glory that will be yours. And it's in Christ's name we pray.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.