Home     

God the Ruler of the World

Psalm 98

Good News Translation (GNT)

*************************

  1  Sing a new song to the Lord; he has done
   wonderful things! By his own power and holy
   strength he has won the victory.
  2  The Lord announced his victory; he made his
   saving power known to the nations.
  3  He kept his promise to the people of Israel
   with loyalty and constant love for them. All
   people everywhere have seen the victory of
   our God.
  4  Sing for joy to the Lord, all the earth; praise
   him with songs and shouts of joy!
  5  Sing praises to the Lord! Play music on the
   harps!
  6  Blow trumpets and horns, and shout for joy to
   the Lord, our king.
  7  Roar, sea, and every creature in you; sing,
   earth, and all who live on you!
  8  Clap your hands, you rivers; you hills, sing
   together with joy before the Lord,
  9  because he comes to rule the earth. He will
   rule the peoples of the world with justice and
   fairness.

*************************

Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union

God the Ruler of the World

     Psalm 98

Of all psalms, why sing Psalm 98 every Sunday evening?
Why this psalm?

Yet as a choir boy, I understood. After all, it always preceded the Gospel! I knew it was about Jesus long before I realised it was written before his birth.

A prophetic psalm, it is also chosen for Christmas Day.

To express the vastness of its vision, the psalmist used apocalyptic language.

The sea shouts, rivers applaud, mountains burst into praise 'Heaven and nature sing,' wrote Isaac Watts in 'Joy to the World', his jubilant paraphrase of Psalm 98.

It is the only language that copes with the immensity of this message.
God comes.

God holds salvation in his hand. God brings his kingdom of righteousness and justice

Multiple horizons
To grasp prophecy and apocalyptic language we must understand that it transcends time: the barriers between past and future are broken down.

The psalm can speak of salvation as having been accomplished already (vs 1-3) even though the birth of Jesus still lay in the future.

Prophetic vision often has such multiple horizons. The first singers may not have seen beyond its first horizon, celebrating God's acts of saving power in Israel's past.

But Christians long ago felt its second horizon, that God's saving power was present in Jesus' life, death and resurrection.

Then we glimpse a third horizon when all prophecy finds its end point, when the hope and longing of the psalms finds its fulfilment in the kingdom of our God and of his Christ.

Other versions are available here

Return to the Home Page

  Contact the Rector
  The Revd.
  Nic.Edwards
  The Rectory,
  Church Lane,
  BUGBROOKE,
  Northampton,
  NN7 3PB

  Land Line: 01604 - 815496
  (Can be accessed from the mobile device)
  Mobile: .....
  E-mail:
  thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com

  Contact the Benefice Office
  Sunday School Rooms, Church Lane,
  BUGBROOKE, Northampton, NN7 3PB
  Land Line: 01604 830373
  E-mail:
  thebeneficeofbhkandr at gmail dot com
  Mon., Tues., Wed,, Thur., Fri.
  9:00^am to 11:30^am

  For Baptism bookings  (Christenings)
  to arrange an appointment please contact
  the Benefice Office.

  For Wedding bookings:
  please contact the Benefice Office to arrange
  an appointment.

  Who Made This?
  Seeing as you asked, if you can give helpful
  advice or report factual corrections and
  'deliberate mistakes',email:-
  regparker3 at gmail dot com

  Email addresses shown using words in an
  attempt to avoid 'spam',
  Type the email address replacing 'at' with '@',
  and 'dot' with '.'