A New Song

Introduction The trouble with many of us, perhaps most of us, is that we have small views of God and large views of man. That's what we would expect from nominal believers. That vast majority of people who say they believe in God but stop there. It's not surprising if people like that have an undemanding idea of God. God isn't in their lives on a day to day basis. God isn't the subject of their thoughts in the morning, the day, and the night. God isn't the focus of their past, their present or their future. We could only expect them to think that the most important things in life are to do either with themselves as individuals or with mankind as a whole. But there is something wrong when Christians have small views of God. Small views of God lead to small achievements, small hopes and small change. We are unsure what things God might have under his control, and so pray either for the least demanding things or only when we are at our wit's end. We have some idea of God from the past, perhaps, but little sense of God in the present or the future. We can't put our hands on our hearts and say 'I have grown in faith', I am more a believer now than I was last year, or last week If our view of God is too small, our view of man is too big. We would more likely say, 'Sing to man a new song, for he has done marvellous things'. After all, he has sent shuttles into space, discovered the secrets of the gene, and provided us with a comfortable existence in a free country. How does Psalm 98 correct us? How does it makes us see God and ourselves accurately? We're going to find out as we look at the Psalm in three sections: First, WE REMEMBER PAST SALVATION; secondly, WE HAVE PRESENT JOY; thirdly, WE ANTICIPATE FUTURE JUDGMENT. First, WE REMEMBER PAST SALVATION (vv 1-3) A good place to start with God is what he has already done. The first part of the psalm looks back on the actions of God. These are things in the public arena. These are things that have happened. Verses 1-3:

Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. [2] The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations. [3] He has remembered his love and his faithfulness to the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

The things that God has done are full of importance for the psalm-writer. God has done acts of salvation. These "marvellous things" stem from centuries before, when God chose Abraham, and put his love on him, and promised him that he would be a means of blessing to all the peoples on earth. God preserved Abraham's descendants and fulfilled his promise to them of a land. In preserving his people and saving them from slavery in Egypt, God did many marvellous acts. We may remember that God parted the Red Sea so they could cross on dry land, while their pursuers were drowned in the sea. We may remember the crashing down of walls of Jericho by the power of God. God saved them in marvellous acts. When Christians use the word 'salvation' they tend to mean something specifically religious, that we are 'saved from our sins' and 'born again'. The Old Testament usually uses the word more widely, to mean being delivered or freed from distress. In the Old Testament there are different kinds of distress, both national and individual. There are literal enemies and natural catastrophes. In these things God is the God of deliverance. God's people were in distress and God delivered them. He saved them. He gave them victory in the situation. Salvation did not come from a mighty army, but solely from the power of God. The new song is about these marvellous actions in the past. The psalm-writer keeps them fresh. How can he keep them fresh? He is probably writing centuries after those initial most amazing things that God did for the people of Israel. He keeps them fresh because he learns from them principles about how God acts, and so he is able to see God working in the present. What the psalm-writer has learned from God's marvellous acts is that God needs no help. God works single-handedly. Verse 1 "His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him". God needed no human help to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. He did it with his own power. Note that his arm worked salvation not "for us", but "for him". God's acts fulfilled his own purpose. He was in control of history, unaided, achieving what he intended. God did these things in the public arena. Verse 2, "The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations". Saving the people of Israel could not be kept a secret from the other nations, because it involved the death and subjugation of others. God's salvation of Israel, bloody as it proved for many, revealed God's righteousness. The nations he put out were justly judged. He revealed himself as a God who will not stand for sin. God's salvation could not be hidden or escaped. Then in verse three the psalm-writer takes heart from the continued existence of God's people. The "house of Israel" is not a literal building but a word for 'family', or 'people'. God is continuing to remember them and be faithful to them, even though there is nothing in themselves that deserves it. In God's people will all the nations of the earth be blessed. Everyone knows that God is a God who saves and delivers, because God's people continue. So these are the things that the Psalm writer has learned from the past and takes into the present: God needs no help, God's activity is open and inescapable, and God's people continue. They give confidence for singing a new song. They give confidence that God will continue to help and save. From a New Testament perspective, we look back on even greater marvellous acts of salvation than the writer of the psalm knew about. God in his grace has sent his Son to die for our sins. We weren't worth it. There was nothing we had done to deserve it. We couldn't have been good enough. But Jesus died for us knowing that we were not worth it, knowing what we were really like. In the same way as for the people of God in the Old Testament, God needed no help to save us. He did not need our armies, our money, our powers. Whether we look back to the cross, or back to the moment when it became real for us, God did it single-handedly. His right hand and his holy arm are responsible for our salvation. And if we are saved, saving us is not something that we can easily hide. God makes it known by the changes that he brings about in the way we live. Already the people at your work place are wondering what has happened to you. Already the people where you live are wondering why you've changed, and why you're changing. God makes your salvation known by the desires he gives you. You want to spend your holidays helping others become Christians perhaps. Or you want to spend time in ministry to overseas students, or in the Sunday schools. Or you want to stay single to have more time available for other people. Even more disturbing, God is revealing his righteousness to others through you. There is a feeling of guilt in them sometimes. Perhaps a crossness at God's standards. "The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations." In a way the psalm-writer could never have imagined, the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God, because of his saving acts in Jesus. God has been faithful to his promise to Abraham, so that the descendants of Abraham's promise are as numerous the stars. So that all round the world people are coming to know God's salvation for the first time. All round the world people are singing the new song for the first time, even tonight. We will always have a small view of God if we do not remember the saving things that he has done. Secondly, WE HAVE PRESENT JOY (vv 4-6) The next part of the psalm moves from God's people in particular to all the earth. What the psalm writer knows about God is something that he can't keep in, and is of importance for everyone, verses 4-6:

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; [5] make music to the LORD with the harp, with the harp and the sound of singing, [6] with trumpets and the blast of the ram's horn-- shout for joy before the LORD, the King.

The musical instruments are those of the Temple. In their meetings in the Temple they could sing for joy because they knew God with them. He was the King amongst them. Some years ago, when the British Royal Family was more popular, I was attending some play or other at the Barbican in London. I happened to be near the foyer at one point, when the Queen's out-size taxi drew up. Spontaneously people clapped, one person called out "God bless you ma'am", and it seemed there were smiles all around, and even some tears. Clapping and calling out would be altogether tame in comparison with what the psalm writer has in mind. He wants shouting and jubilation, blasting and fanfare. Because God is present with his people. When our idea of God is too small we cut ourselves off from God. We do not connect with him. We never expect to meet with him, and so we rarely do. This psalm reminds us that God is present with his people, and that meeting with God will be life-changing and affect our emotions. Music is culturally conditioned. In the West our ears are attuned to certain sorts of scales and timbres and so we find Arabic music, for instance, unmusical. I dare say if we were transported back into the Temple in David's day we would not find the music very 'releasing of our emotions'. What feels right as an expression of joy and celebration is not the same for each person. Sometimes people privilege their particular musical taste as being more spiritual than somebody else's, or seek to put a ban on all other types. Over the centuries there have been many groups who thought they knew the only biblical way to worship God. People used to tut and shudder when the Methodists started singing hymns two centuries ago, but how strange and perhaps unpleasant those Methodists might find some of our contemporary Christian music today. John Wesley said to his people,

Sing lustily, and with good courage. Beware of singing as if you were half dead or half asleep; but lift up your voice with strength. Be no more afraid of your voice now, nor more ashamed of its being heard, than when you sung the songs of Satan. (quoted in Spurgeons' Treasury of David, Psalm 98)

There will never be any joy in shouting to the LORD until we know him with us, that he can hear, and that he wants to hear. Joy in Christian faith is a consequence of a large view of God. If we don't know God is with us, if we don't know that God is for us, if we don't know that God is nearer than breathing and closer than dying, we will be lacking in joy. Thirdly, WE ANTICIPATE FUTURE JUDGMENT (vv 7-9) In the final part of the psalm we turn even further out, to the elements of nature. Nature will come into its own when God rules all in righteousness and equity, verses 7-9:

Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. [8] Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy; [9] 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.

It is as though God is present with his people, but there is another future coming when he is present for everyone and everything to see. God is now with his people, but then he is coming to take up executive control. He will right all wrongs, redress all imbalances, show himself publicly to be the Sovereign King. The effect of this will be to bring nature into her true balance and position. Paul speaks about this in Romans chapter 8, verses 19-22:

The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. [20] For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope [21] that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. [22] We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.

The God who meets us, who lives with us, is the God who is going to return in judgment. We can make that a small article of faith, something we rattle off in the creed; or we can make it a large article of faith, something that affects how we live our life, how we orient ourselves in God's world. If future judgment is not certain why be worried about God's standards and our own actions? If future judgment is not secure why bother telling other people about Jesus? If future judgment is not for the world's good, why be a Christian at all? The Bible insists that God is glorified in judgment. All of heaven praises God for his just punishments. There can be no world of peace and justice if unrighteousness is left unpunished, there can be no rejoicing for the rivers and mountains and trees and clouds until evil is conquered and eternally destroyed. Our view of God is too small if future judgment is not part, and our view of man is too big when we leave out the fact of judgment. Conclusion As we conclude and look back on the psalm, I ask myself these questions:

How conscious am I of the marvellous things that God has done in the past for my salvation? How conscious am I of his love and faithfulness to me in holding out the cross of Jesus for the forgiveness of my sins, past, present and future? How grateful am I for the presence of the King? How ready and willing am I for the judgment of God on my own life, and the lives of my non-christian friends and relatives?

If we have a small view of God and a large view of man, nothing in this psalm need change us or speak to us or threaten us in any way. But if we will allow God's word to rebuke us, correct us, and train us then our view of God and ourselves must change.