A psalm.
98:1 Sing to the Lord a new song, 2
for he performs 3 amazing deeds!
His right hand and his mighty arm
accomplish deliverance. 4
98:2 The Lord demonstrates his power to deliver; 5
in the sight of the nations he reveals his justice.
98:3 He remains loyal and faithful to the family of Israel. 6
All the ends of the earth see our God deliver us. 7
98:4 Shout out praises to the Lord, all the earth!
Break out in a joyful shout and sing!
98:5 Sing to the Lord accompanied by a harp,
accompanied by a harp and the sound of music!
98:6 With trumpets and the blaring of the ram’s horn,
shout out praises before the king, the Lord!
98:7 Let the sea and everything in it shout,
along with the world and those who live in it!
98:8 Let the rivers clap their hands!
Let the mountains sing in unison
98:9 before the Lord!
For he comes to judge the earth!
He judges the world fairly, 8
and the nations in a just manner.
1 sn Psalm 98. The psalmist summons the whole earth to praise God because he reveals his justice and delivers Israel.
2 sn A new song is appropriate because the Lord is constantly intervening in the world as its just king. See Ps 96:1.
3 tn The perfect verbal forms in vv. 1-3 are understood here as describing characteristic divine activities. Another option is to translate them as present perfects, “has performed…has accomplished deliverance, etc.” referring to completed actions that have continuing results.
4 tn Heb “his right hand delivers for him and his holy arm.” The right hand and arm symbolize his power as a warrior-king (see Isa 52:10). His arm is “holy” in the sense that it is in a category of its own; God’s power is incomparable.
5 tn Heb “makes known his deliverance.”
6 tn Heb “he remembers his loyal love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel.”
7 tn Heb “the deliverance of our God,” with “God” being a subjective genitive (= God delivers).
8 tn The verbal forms in v. 9 probably describe God’s typical, characteristic behavior, though they may depict in dramatic fashion the outworking of divine judgment or anticipate a future judgment of worldwide proportions (“will judge…”).