Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 98
The xcviii. PSALM.
This Psalm is as if it had been made by Iohn Baptist himself, pointing out Christ and his Kingdom already come through the propinquity and certainty of it, shewing sorth the prais-worthy deliverance and universall benefit that to Iew and Gentile shall accrue thereby, yea, to the very irrationall and unsensible creatures, whereupon be excites all, rationall and irrationall, to praise the Lord proportionably.
A Psalm to be sung.Psalm xcviii. A Psalm.
1 O what wonderfull occasions from time to time hath God given his people Israel,1O sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm hath gotten himself the victory. of frequent and fresh praises by deliverance upon deliverance, and all of them so strange and miraculous, that we could not have the face to ascribe them to any but to him, to whom we have endited and sung many a new Psalm for new mercies, all which temporall salvations, and our thanksgivings for them were but prefigurations of that one onelyonly salvation of his Church by Christ God incarnate, whose powerfull triumphant death and holy life, active and passive obedience, hath gotten so glorious a victory to his everlasting praise, over all the spirituall enemies of his elect and faithfull people; which as it is the deliverance whereof all others were but adumbrations, so ought it to have the praise above them all joyntly or severally. A Quire of Angels are but fit to celebrate this great and Gospel salvation, the good news whereof ought much more to set the spirituall Preists and people of God on work to praise him for it, that are saved by it.
2The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.2 The heathen people have admired our salvations, and wondrous deliverances many a time, which the Lord hath wrought for us in their sight and hearing; But they shall have much more cause to admire their own, when God shall proclaim the year of Jubilee to the Gentiles, and bring them by the redemption of the Messiah (which is at hand) out of the power of Hell, sin, death, and darkness; setting wide open to them the doore of life that were shut out, and Preaching salvation of free-grace to all the world according to his promise.
3He hath remembred his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.3 The promised Messiah which was to come of the seed of Israel our Father, and in whom is to be accomplished all those covenanted engagements, and Gospel promises made with Abraham of grace and mercy, pardon and atonement, God in faithfulness and fulness of time hath sent him (in whom all the nations of the earth are to be blessed) for the benefit both of Jews and Gentiles; whose all-sufficient merit, and common salvation, shall in the fame and promulgation of it, extend it self by a gracious and free tender to all people, in all places of the world without exception; our God is their God, in and through Christ, and his salvation both ours and theirs, they being through grace adopted and ingrafted into one stock with us, the faithfull seed of faithfull Abraham, every where sharers in the blessing.
4Make a joyfull noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoyce, and sing praise.4, 5, 6 We a corner of the world, a few in comparison of the whole, O how were we wont to resound, and eccho out the Honour and praises of the Lord in that onelyonly Temple,5Sing unto the Lord with the harp: with the harp, and the voice of a Psalm. with all manner of musicall Instruments and Voices, for our temporall and comparatively petty deliverances from earthly enemies,6With trumpets & sound of corner▪ make a joyfull noise before the Lord, the King. and humane captivities and imbondagements. O with what ineffable rejoycings in the superlativest manner we could devise, did we magnifie the Lord, and set the Crown of all glory upon his head. How much more now are his praises to exceed, when as all the earth is his Church, Christ himself the Saviour, and the termes to and from which we are saved are heaven and hell; the subject of his salvation, our pretious souls as well as mortall bodies both redeemed, not onelyonly into a capacity but certainty of spirituall and eternall life, and freed from death of both sorts. What praises are enough for this? how can the redeemed of the Lord, each whereof is a Temple, and each Temple a Quire, sufficiently extoll the Lord the King Christ Jesus, dead and risen, yea, ascended into glory. Go not less in the praises of such a Saviour for his salvation in the universall Catholick Church, than we did for ours, in our particular nationall Sinagogue, But let your faith praise him in full assurance, your joy in heart-ravishment, your love by being such as many waters cannot quench, your hope anchored within the vail. Let all these graces by a joynt harmony, like the voices and instruments of the Temple be sublimated to their highest sphear of activity, in the celebration of joyfull praises of his coming from heaven to earth to redeem his Church. Yea, all that is within you praise his holy name for so great salvation, wrought not onelyonly by the power (as all the rest were) but also by the person of God himself, whom you ought therefore with studied thankfulness and elaborate expressions of joy and honour, entertain and usher into the world, worthy his greatness, and best expressing your high esteem of such unvaluable grace.
7Let the sea roar, & the fulness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein.7, 8, 9 These three last verses being the same in sence and almost in letter with the 11, 12, 13 (being also the three last) verses of the 96 Psalm,8Let the flouds clap their hands: let the hils be joyful together. see the Paraphrase upon them for the explanation of these. Saving that those words in the eighth verse of this Psalm let the hills be joyfull together, 9Before the Lord, for he cometh to judge the earth, with righteousness, shall he judge the world, and the people with equitie.signifie, that as all people are admitted into the same priviledge with the Jews by Christ, so all places have the same fellowship in propriety and title to God and his worship, as hath the hill of Sion once his peculiar. Iohn 4.21.