Third Sunday of Easter
Micah 4:1-5
Psalm 98
1 John 1:1-2:2
Luke 24:36-49
98 Sing to God a brand-new song.
He’s made a world of wonders!
He rolled up his sleeves,
He set things right.
2 God made history with salvation,
He showed the world what he could do.
3 He remembered to love us, a bonus
To his dear family, Israel—unrelenting love.
The whole earth comes to attention.
Look—God’s work of salvation!
4 Shout your praises to God, everybody!
Let loose and sing! Strike up the band!
5 Round up an orchestra to play for God,
Add on a hundred-voice choir.
6 Feature trumpets and big trombones,
Fill the air with praises to King God.
7 Let the sea and its fish give a round of applause,
With everything living on earth joining in.
8 Let ocean breakers call out, “Encore!”
And mountains harmonize the finale—
9 A tribute to God when he comes,
When he comes to set the earth right.
He’ll straighten out the whole world,
He’ll put the world right, and everyone in it.
That was today’s psalm from The Message.
Eugene Peterson, of blessed memory, set out to produce a Bible translation most Americans could easily understand. The result was The Message, a highly idiomatic translation completed in 2002. While I’m not keen on Peterson’s rendering of the Gospels, his translation of Paul’s epistles helped me read them as letters to real people and not just as scripture to be dissected word-by-word. His renderings of the Psalms may make some cringe, but you can’t deny the vibrancy of the everyday language that summons cinematic imagery in our minds.
In verse 9, The Message calls Psalm 98 “a tribute to God when he comes, when he comes to set the earth right.” That’s exactly how the Jewish sages have read this psalm for centuries, perhaps millennia.
Psalm 98 is part of the liturgy of the Sabbath. Every Friday night, this psalm is read to welcome God’s day of rest. Sabbath observance speaks of several things at once.
- It recalls the creation of the universe and how God rested on the seventh day.
- It celebrates God’s redemption and victory in the Exodus as he freed the children of Abraham from slavery in Egypt.
- Sabbath also looks forward to the day when God himself comes down to earth to complete the creation, to dwell among humanity, and make all things right.
There is a teaching that 10 songs of faith tell the complete story of the children of Israel. The songs listed are 10 biblical passages related to key moments in Israel’s biblical history. The tenth and final song is Psalm 98. (Midrash Tanchuma, Beshalach 10:3, 11)
Psalm 98 is the song that Israel and the nations will sing when the LORD God himself comes to judge the earth. It anticipates the joy and bliss of God making all things right on earth. “Sing a new song” is shorthand for the coming of the messianic kingdom. So this psalm is prayed every week in anticipation of the final salvation.
What is the expectation of the coming kingdom? Even in Jesus’ time, the expectation was that God would remember Israel; that God would judge the whole world; and that the nations – those old enemies of Israel – would finally submit to the rulership of God and worship him. We see these expectations in Psalm 98. The good news is that the long-awaited day of salvation is underway, as the New Testament writers testify.
Verse 3: “He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.”
None other than Mary of Nazareth, the humble mother of the long-awaited Messiah, sings a new song when she learns that God has chosen her for that precious, difficult duty of being mother to the Lord’s Anointed. In the Magnificat, she alludes to Psalm 98:
My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
He has helped his servant Israel ...
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
(Luke 1:46-47, 54-55)
At the Annunciation of the son she will name Salvation, Mary declares that God has remembered all the promises to Israel. At long last, the long-deferred hopes of Israel are being realized as she carries this child for nine months, as she gives birth, when she finds him teaching in the temple as a mere boy, as she asks him to make water into wine, as she watches him heal, as she watches him die. Finally, she sees God’s covenant-faithfulness as she embraces her resurrected Son alive once again. The resurrection of the dead has begun! Yes! God has remembered Israel!
God has also remembered the nations.
Verse 9: The Lord “comes to judge the earth.”
Saul, a zealous rabbi, thought all this talk about Jesus was preposterous. He thought it was blasphemy, until the risen Messiah himself stopped him, talked to him, commissioned him. Jesus tapped Saul, also known by his Greek name Paul, to announce the declaration of the “new song” to the nations.
In Athens, he sees an altar “to an unknown god.” He invites the Greeks to know the creator God who made heaven and earth, who created every nation, every people group. In this invitation, he alludes to Psalm 98. From The Message:
I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with. The God who made the world and everything in it, … he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. … The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead. (Acts 17:33-42 MSG)
The God of Israel is the God of all, Paul tells us. All have sinned and fall short of being good, but God calls us to repent because he wants to show us mercy. God has appointed our judge, Jesus of Nazareth. We know he is the judge because God raised him from the dead. This same judge, though, has made the way for mercy by his sacrificial death. Paul calls us to respond to this mercy by repenting and loving God.
Back to Psalm 98…
Verse 1: “Oh 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.”
In Revelation 5, John is weeping because God holds a scroll but no one qualifies to open and read the scroll. John’s tour guide to the heavenly throne room says, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll.”
John looks up to see a slaughtered Lamb standing at the throne. The Lamb, that is Jesus Son of David, conqueror of sin and death, takes the scroll. Then the angels and elders bow in worship and sing a “new song”:
Worthy are you … for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. (Rev 5:9)
Then more angels chime in:
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!” (Rev 5:12)
And finally, John hears “every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, saying,
‘To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!’ (Rev 5:13)
Friends, we are already singing the “new song” of the Messiah, especially now in the Easter season. We here, probably all Gentiles, are proof that the last days have begun. We who hail mostly from the families of Europe and the Americas are here today to worship the God of Israel in spirit and in truth. We are among the ones Micah spoke about, flowing to the God of Jacob so “that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” We are living, breathing examples of fulfilled prophecy.
Yes, it’s been 2,000 years since Jesus, the First Fruits of the Resurrection, rose and ascended to sit at God’s right hand. Why are we still waiting for the completion of God’s peace on earth, when war machines will be turned into farming tractors? It is not that the LORD is slow to fulfill his promises, but he is patient toward each and every one of us on this planet, not wishing that any should perish, but that all would receive God’s mercy (2 Pet 3:9).
While we wait, our job is to sing the new song loudly and boldly so that every person – Jew and Gentile – will hear and heed the call of God. With the angels let us sing, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain!” and let us proclaim the good news of the “new song” until he returns.
Let us pray.
O God our King, by the resurrection of your Son Jesus Christ on the first day of the week, you conquered sin, put death to flight, and gave us the hope of everlasting life: Redeem all our days by this victory; forgive our sins, banish our fears, make us bold to praise you and to do your will; and steel us to wait for the consummation of your kingdom on the last great day; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Cover photo: A facsimile of the original autograph score of Handel’s “Messiah.”
Photo by Adrian Pallant via Flickr (cc).