The Right Man for the Job (Psalm 98)

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Morning, church. You can go ahead and open up to Psalm 98 with me. And as you do that, let me tell you a story. A few years ago, I lived in Estes Park, Colorado. And if you’ve ever been to Estes, you know that it’s a pretty small town, right? If you need to run errands, you have to you have to leave Estes and go to one of the bigger cities nearby, and the the only way out of Estes is through a narrow, winding canyon road through the mountains. Well, one winter morning, I needed to run an errand. It had been snowing a little bit, not a lot, but enough to stick to the road. And I looked at my car, which had never handled snow well, and I thought, you know what? This is the morning. This is the time to go. And so I set off down the canyon, down the mountain road, and and sure enough, about halfway there, I felt my tires go out from under me, and I realized that I was spinning out. Now, if you’ve ever driven on a mountain road, you know you can crash in in one of two ways: you can crash this way and you can hit the mountain, right? Or you can crash this way and you can plummet into the gorge. When I was crashing that morning, I had no idea which way I was going to crash. I just knew it was going to happen. Fortunately, I crashed this way and I hit the mountain, which is the better of two bad options. And I wasn’t hurt. I didn’t hit any other cars, and I and I got out. I inspected the damage. I made sure I was fine, and then I realized that I had no idea what to do. I had never really been in a serious car accident before, so I sat down in the snow on the side of the road, and I called my dad. A dad is just a good person to call in this type of situation, but my dad was actually uniquely qualified to help that morning. You see, my whole life, my dad has been an insurance agent. He he knows these things, right? He he knows the ins and outs of what to do if you get into a car accident. And and he was uniquely qualified to help. He had the expertise to help me that morning. He was the right man for the job. Maybe you haven’t been in a car accident like that, right? But I think we all recognize that it often feels like our world is just spinning out of control, right? Or situations in life are. Maybe there’s an unexpected loss of a loved one. Maybe there’s an illness. Maybe you lost a job unexpectedly. It oftentimes feels like life is headed for either the mountain or the gorge, and neither one is looking good. In life, we need someone that that loves us and also has the expertise to care for us, that has the expertise to take care of us in our situation. So, as we move into the text this morning, that’s what we’re going to be looking at. We’re going to look at three different qualifications that God has that make Him uniquely qualified to be our King. We’re also going to look at how we should respond to those qualifications. So first, we’re going to look at verses one through three. This is Psalm 98, one through three, and these verses teach us to sing to the Savior, sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. So Psalm 98 begins with a command: Sing to the Lord a new song. And if you’ve been here for any any of the previous weeks in this series, you’ve you’ve heard that phrase before, but here it comes with a reason. For he has done marvelous things. Of course, that begs the question: What marvelous things are in view here? Well, we don’t have an explicit answer. We don’t have an author listed for this psalm.
We don’t have any specific events that are mentioned. But most interpreters agree that one of two things is in view. If this psalm was written early, the psalm is probably referencing the Exodus. Right, that’s the main thing in view. If it was written later, it’s probably referencing the return of the Jews from their exile in Babylon. So probably one of those two things mainly. But either way, the Israelites are really worshiping God for the same reason, aren’t they? They’re really singing for the same reason. In in both Egypt and in Babylon, the the Israelites were were slaves and outcasts, exiles in a land that wasn’t theirs, forced to serve kings that did not care about them. In both places, they were scared and lost and totally, completely helpless. In both cases, God, in His faithfulness, brought them back from those foreign powers. He freed them from slavery. He brought them out from under the heel of foreign tyrants and reestablished them in His own kingdom. God did not abandon His people, even when it was their own sin that had led them astray, and so this psalm is is starting us with that. That’s the Savior that we’re talking about, the one who is far more powerful than any king or emperor, and is willing to save his people. Verse one continues. His right hand and his mighty right arm have worked salvation for him. I don’t want to offend any left-handers out there, but for most of us, the the right arm is the stronger and the more capable, right? And what the psalmist is saying here is that the Lord is not standing at a distance. He’s not waiting for a convenient opportunity to save his people. He is actively working salvation for them. He is actively saving. God is like a father here, and holding his child’s hand as they cross the street together. Right, the traffic might look scary to the child; it often does, but the father is leading firmly and confidently, with his hand on his child’s shoulder. We’ll continue in verses two and three. The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. If you had been a neighbor of Egypt at the time of the Exodus, or if you had been a neighbor of Israel at the time of the return from the captivity, it would have been impossible not to notice the salvation that God was working for the Israelites. Think about this: When God led the Israelites out of Egypt, He led them through a sea. When He brought them through the wilderness, He led them with a pillar of smoke and a pillar of fire. When He brought them into the Promised Land, He vanquished giants for them. These are these are the marvelous works of God that are being talked about here, and they’re meant to be seen, not only by the Israelites but by the people around them. The same is true for for the return from exile. When they when the Israelites returned from exile, they were instructed to rebuild the temple that had been laid low before the exile. And God tells them that. And then in Ezra we’re told that no one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise, and the sound was heard far away. When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and said, “Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God. Again, salvation is a work that’s meant to be seen, and the point that the psalmist is making is this: God does not play His salvation close to the vest; He doesn’t hide it from the nations. When God works in Israel, that’s an invitation for the nations around to stop and say, “Wait, who is their God? Who is it that’s able to to bring them out from under the heels of these foreign tyrants? Who’s able to rescue them from the most powerful enemies in the world?
People around are asking questions, and and by the way, God’s attitude towards salvation hasn’t changed. Just like during the Exodus, just like during the exile, God wants salvation to go out to the people, and so as as believers, we should live lives that demonstrate salvation, have those conversations right, and live lives that show that you have been saved and you have been changed by God the Savior. Make the people around you ask, “Who is His God? Who is Her God? Who is able to provide comfort and hope, even though they’re dealing with the loss of a loved one, or an illness, or losing their job? The same God that was qualified to save back then is qualified to save now. And once we’ve received salvation. God also becomes our king. Verse four says, “Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth burst into jubilant song, with music. I don’t know if if anybody out here is a soccer fan. I’ll admit that I’m not. Sorry, but Yeah, but a couple of weeks ago, I had I had just the awesome opportunity to go and watch a World Cup game with some of my church family here. It was really fun, and and the whole game I was sitting next to Reeve Sam. Some of you know where I’m going. I don’t know if you know Reeve, but if you do, you know he’s a huge soccer fan. And the reason I know that he’s a huge soccer fan is because every time the U.S. scored a goal in that game, I felt him leave the couch next to me. Right? Every time they scored, he would jump to his feet and he would throw his hands in the air, and he would Shout! That’s the kind of shout that’s being talked about here, that idea of bursting with joy, and that’s why church. Our our second point this morning is shout to the King. Shout to the King. As we talk about the kingship of God, I think it’s important first that we take a step back and look at Israel’s relationship with their earthly monarch. This psalm is definitely about God. It’s definitely about the divine King, the King of Heaven. But it helps to have some context here. It’s in the book of Judges where we first see the Israelites’ need for a king become painfully apparent. If you remember Judges, you know that it’s a time of absolute chaos in the land of Israel. It’s it’s after the conquest, but before the monarchy, and there’s just these cycles of of repetitive, endless, bloody violence. And the final verse in the book of Judges is this: In those days, Israel had no king. Everyone did as they saw fit. Because there was no king, everyone did as they saw fit. And because everyone did as they saw fit, there was chaos and violence and bloodshed in Israel. That’s the problem that the psalm is addressing, but it’s not addressing it from the perspective of someone who is living during that time. Instead, the psalm is is addressing the problem from the perspective of someone who is standing in the temple, watching the king be crowned. This psalm, Psalm 98, is not a cry for help. It’s a recognition that help has already come. The king is being crowned in front of the people. The Israelites don’t have to worry about the corrupt cycles of judges and violence anymore. The king is here, right? But even in Israel’s history, they only had a few good kings. Most of their kings were awful, right? Didn’t serve God, only served their own interest, and dragged the Israelites down with them. So, so with that framework of kingship, how can the psalmist rejoice? How can he sing to the Savior? How can he shout to the King? It’s because he’s looking backwards. He’s not looking around him at the corrupt kings of his day. He’s looking backwards at the king who did the marvelous works, who led the people out of Egypt, who brought them back from the exile. He’s not looking at these kings who are inept and powerless. He’s looking at a king who can save and does save, a king who rules righteously. He’s qualified to be the king because the psalmist recognizes these truths, he’s able to continue in verses four and five.
Make music to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of ram’s horn. Shout for joy before the Lord, the king. Okay, we don’t play the harp here on Sunday mornings, but actually for us, the acoustic guitar serves a really similar purpose. the The harp for the Israelites would have been really familiar, really accessible, right? They would have all known what a harp was. They probably would have been in contact with one. So they’re to worship God with the harp and the sound of singing. This also would have called to mind pictures of the temple worship. In the temple period, that there were a group of Levites that were instructed to praise the Lord with harps in the morning and in the evening. So we have pictures of daily worship. We have pictures of temple worship. And the Israelites are also told to worship with the trumpet and with the sound of ram’s horn. Now these are not familiar instruments; these are these are instruments of war. Think about Jericho. When the Israelites conquer the city of Jericho, they march around it and they blow horns. And when the walls fell, they rushed in, and it was a huge military victory for the Israelites. That’s more the picture that the the horns and the trumpets are painting. We’ve got the daily worship, we’ve got the temple worship, and then we have the the military victory worship. These these trumpets and ram swords are supposed to point us towards the picture of a king. Okay, so you know a little bit more about Israelite worship. I’m sure that’s going to come up at lunch, right? But why does it matter to us today? Well, these verses, which which can seem to be just about Israelite worship, actually show us how we should worship, also right? Just as the Israelites did, we should worship daily. Just as they worshiped the king, we also need to remember that we’re worshiping a king. Hebrew thought is often focused in the middle of a passage, and that’s the that’s the case here in Psalm 98, the focal point of the passage is here. And Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th-century preacher, says, “The present psalm, Psalm 98, is a sort of coronation hymn, officially proclaiming the conquering Messiah as monarch over the nations, with blast of trumpets, clapping of hands, and celebration of triumphs, it is a singularly bold and lively song. That’s the point here. That’s the highest theme in this song, is that we are singing a coronation hymn to the King. And when we do that, we need to remember to do it daily, and to do it as if we’re worshiping a King because we are, and what good news it is that we are worshiping a king who is on the throne and who is qualified to be there. What is Spurgeon doing with that word coronation? I think that can stick out to us, because I think I think the word coronation can sometimes make it seem like there’s a there’s a point in time when the king becomes the king, and of course, as believers, we know that God has been the king for eternity, and will continue to be the king into eternity, right? So why that word coronation? Well, Spurgeon, I think, like this psalm, is comfortable sitting in the tension that when he looks out at the world, he knows the king is on the throne, and he also sees sin and death. He sees the loss of loved ones. He sees those illnesses. The psalm is comfortable with that tension because it knows that the final victory is coming. Take heart, church. Final victory is coming, and we read it this morning. But I’ll reread it. Revelation 19 says, “I saw heaven standing open, and and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called faithful and true. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. That’s the king we serve, and He’s the right man for the job, and He is coming back to finish the work that He started. Okay, so we recognize that that God is our Savior and He’s our King, but why should we submit to the King.
That’s the argument that this next section is making: that we should submit to the King, and it’s it’s because not only is he qualified to be our Savior and our King, but he’s qualified also to be our Judge. Therefore, Church, we should submit to the Judge. Verses seven through nine say, “Let the sea resound and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy. Let them sing before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples With equity. Okay, it’s it’s easy to look at at verses seven and eight and ask, how are those about God as judge? Right, they seem to just be about creation praising the Creator, and that is in there, and we’ll get to it. But the key word here is that little word “for” in verse nine. the The seas are resounding, the rivers are clapping, and the mountains are singing together. For the Lord is coming to judge. They are praising the qualified judge. In Scripture, the ideas of creator, or rather the roles of creator and judge, are often very tightly knit together. The reason for that is this: a creator has the right to do whatever he wants with the things that he’s created. He has the right to look at his creations and make a judgment call. Is this what I wanted from this creation? Think of of the flood, right? God creates a perfect, beautiful world, which is stained by human sin, and so He looks at this thing that He’s created, and He makes a judgment call, and that judgment call is to start again. Creator and judge are tied together. There’s a helpful illustration in Jeremiah. This is from Jeremiah. So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel, but the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands, so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him. Then the word of the Lord came to me. He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does? declares the Lord, “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. Israel was made by God to serve the purposes that God had set for it. That’s true of the church this morning, and it’s also true of creation itself. The difference is is that creation always recognizes that it is clay in the hands of the potter, and that he alone is qualified to judge it. That’s why it rejoices. Creation rejoices in judgment, because for creation, judgment is just another of God’s marvelous works. This passage also shows us that humanity is just one voice in the choir. All of creation is singing together. I think of Job when it says that at the beginning of creation, the morning stars sang together for joy. I think of Psalm 19 that says, “The heavens declare the glory of God. Or Luke, Luke’s account of the triumphal entry. He says, or Jesus says, if these people didn’t praise me as I enter into Jerusalem, then the rocks themselves would cry out. Right? All of creation is singing a song to the judge. Humanity is the only creature that sometimes shuts its mouth. after the message this morning the worship team got back up here, and and one of our leaders didn’t open their mouth, didn’t sing, right? We would probably have some questions about that. I think I think Robert or Julie would probably talk to them after after the service. Might have some words with them. And if it happened a couple of times, maybe they wouldn’t be asked to be on the team as much, right? They’ve been commissioned to be up here for a reason, and that is to lead us in song. And that’s the idea here: we worship not only because we’re made to worship, but to fail to do so would actually be an invitation For judgment, the Hebrew itself in this passage attests to the idea of of worshiping with all creation. Verse nine says, “He comes to judge the earth; he will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.
And there’s a narrowing movement that’s kind of present here in the Hebrew, that word that’s translated as earth is is creation itself. It’s the mountains and the rivers, right? That word that’s translated as world is talking about human civilization. The word peoples is peoples, and there’s this narrowing movement from a cosmic scale to a civilization, to people groups and individuals, right? The psalm is saying, follow the pattern that creation has set. Creation is worshiping. You should too. But it’s often difficult for us to praise God as a judge. Judgment is is difficult for unjust people. There’s a story from a theologian and poet named G.K. Chesterton, and he talks about going to see a play with his children, and his children leave this play kind of dissatisfied, because in the play the villain did not get their comeuppance. I’ll read a I’ll read a quote that he wrote about it. The children were partly dissatisfied with it because it did not end with a day of judgment, because it was never revealed to the hero and the heroine that the dog had been faithful and the cat faithless. For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked. And naturally prefer mercy. The children knew that judgment was right. They wanted judgment, right? For those of us that know God, for those of us that are our children in God’s house, we too should love judgment, and we should desire it. We should take comfort in the fact that we know that the judge is also our father, and we are safe in his house. For us, judgment can be a joyous thing. When I was seven years old, I sat in a Muscatine County courtroom, and I listened as a judge pronounced a sentence that would that would change my family forever. You see, we had been we had been fostering two young children, a three-year-old named Bella and a one-year-old named Zane, and although we’d been fostering them, although we’d been feeding them and housing them and loving them, we had no power, no authority, no qualification to officially make them members of our family. And so we we went to court, and and and we sought the person who did have the authority to make them burkampers So on that day that we were sitting in court, the judge looked out at these two young children who had been born into a bad situation that was getting worse, and and he knew that they needed deliverance, they needed help, and and he looked at them. He knew he had the power to act, and then he acted. He made a judgment that resulted in joy. After after he made that that ruling, we went to a a local pizza place and we we celebrated. We invited friends and family, and we just rejoiced together. And it was a such a joyous day, and I still I still remember that feeling. But more than that, the joy of that day was not confined to that day alone. The joy of that day became a reality, a day-to-day reality as we moved forward. Every day that we got to spend together with Bella and Zane was joyful because of that righteous judgment that the judge had made. I remember the joy of that day. I want you to think about whatever your most joyous day is. Maybe it’s a wedding. Maybe it’s a birth. Maybe it’s a graduation. The joy that is promised to us through Jesus Christ, who is the fulfillment of Psalm 98, eclipses any joy that we could possibly imagine. We talk today about Jesus, excuse me, as about God as a Savior, about someone who is the standard of righteousness and faithfulness, who sends salvation out to all the world, who who sends that salvation out with His mighty right hand. Church, who is seated right now at the right hand of God the Father, interceding for us always with His perfect life, death, and resurrection? Jesus is. We talked about God as as King, as the conquering King who defeats his enemies and returns his people to their homeland. Church, who came and established the kingdom of heaven here on earth, and is coming back again to fulfill that kingdom and to put sin and death under his heel, Jesus is. We talked about God as as judge, right?
As as the maker of all things, and He’s earned the right to judge them. Church, who were all things made through and for and to, and who is coming back one day to judge the living and the dead. Jesus is. The Israelites only saw a glimmer of the glory of God, and that inspired enough joy in them to write Psalm 98 and to sing it together. As Christians, we’ve seen much more than a glimmer of the glory of God. Colossians tells us in Christ all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. Church, there is no quality or qualification that God the Father possesses that Jesus doesn’t also possess. When we worship God as our Savior, our King, and our Judge. We can say those exact same things about Jesus, and we can take joy in those things. The only difference between the Israelites and us is closeness. They saw a glimmer of the glory of God. We get to look the. Fullness of the glory in the face. If you’re not a believer this morning, I’d encourage you to consider: Do you feel like the world is just spinning out of control? Without a guide, this world is is hopeless and lawless and uncertain, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Jesus Christ is qualified to be the perfect Savior, the perfect King, and the perfect Judge. He alone is qualified to be those things. He doesn’t promise his followers a life free from pain or free from struggle, but he is the only king that can redeem those things for joy. It is worth becoming a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. In light of all these things, in light of the qualifications of God, our big idea this morning is this: Praise the ruler who’s fit to rule. Praise the ruler who’s fit to rule, and he is fit to rule. Amen. Amen. The coronation song of the King includes all three of those roles. If he wasn’t savior, he would have no power to deliver us from the sorry state that we’re in. If he wasn’t king, he wouldn’t be able to crush our enemies and demand our allegiance. If he wasn’t judge, he wouldn’t he wouldn’t be able to make holy judgments every time. But praise God that He is those things, and He is all of those things for all of eternity. Praise the ruler who’s fit to rule. We’re going to close in song in just a minute, and as we do, I just want to be-I just want to encourage you guys to be really thinking about why you’re singing today? Are you singing to the Savior because he he is the at the mighty right hand of God the Father? Are you shouting to the King because he has the right to rule? Are you submitting to the Judge who always makes the right judgment? I’m going to pray, and then we’ll join with all of creation in worshiping the ruler who is fit to rule. You can bow your heads. Father God, thank you for your goodness this morning. Thank you for the fact that you are not only our Savior, not only our King, and not only our Judge, but you are all three for all eternity. That is a joyous reality. And and as we as we observe those things, help us respond with the joy that is appropriate, Father. I ask that as as we go from this place, that you would just establish us wherever we are, and that you would lead us daily to you. Father, we love you. It’s in your name we pray. Amen.