Psalm 98:7

Psalm 98 is one of the psalms that celebrate the LORD as King, and the Psalms as a whole were Israel’s hymnbook and prayer book. It opens with a call to “sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things” (Psalm 98:1). It goes on to tell how the LORD has made his salvation known and has “remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel” (Psalm 98:2–3). Then the call widens to “all the earth”, which is to make a joyful noise unto the LORD with voices and instruments (Psalm 98:4–6).

Verses 7 and 8 widen it once more, past people and their music to the sea, the world, the rivers and the hills. Verse 9 then gives the reason for all of it. So the psalm moves from what God has done for Israel to his reign over the whole earth, and it ends with the whole creation waiting for its King. Psalms like this one may have been sung at Israel’s feasts that celebrated the LORD’s kingship and his faithfulness to his covenant, such as the Feast of Tabernacles.

Psalm 98 belongs with psalms such as Psalm 93 and Psalm 96, which celebrate the LORD’s kingship and his coming reign. Psalm 96 opens with the same call to sing a new song (Psalm 96:1).

“Before the LORD” finishes the sentence that verse 8 began. The sea, the world, the rivers and the hills all rejoice in his presence, and the whole creation stands in his sight. “For he cometh to judge the earth” then gives the reason for their joy. The coming of the LORD is a theme that runs through the prophets, the time when he steps into history to act decisively, and here he comes in order to judge.

The name behind “the LORD” is Yᵉhôvâh, God’s own name, which speaks of him as the self-existent and eternal one, the God who keeps his covenant. The one who comes to judge in verse 9 is the same LORD who remembered his mercy and his truth toward Israel in verse 3. His judging comes from the same faithful character his people already know.

“Let the sea roar” uses the verb râʻam, to tumble or be violently agitated, and in particular to crash like thunder. The sea’s deep, crashing sound becomes its praise of the God who made it. “And the fulness thereof” uses mᵉlôʼ, that which fills something, so the call reaches every creature in the sea and everything in its depths and currents.

“The world” is têbêl, the inhabited earth, the fruitful land where people live. Hebrew also has eretz, which can mean land or earth in general, while têbêl points to the world as the home of mankind. “And they that dwell therein” then brings in every living thing on the earth, people above all.

The verse pairs each place with what fills it, the sea with its fullness and the world with its inhabitants, so that nothing in creation is left out of the call. “Let the sea roar” is also a command, given to things that answer to their Creator. The Psalms speak of creation praising God in the same way: “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork” (Psalm 19:1–4), and “The voice of the LORD is upon the waters” (Psalm 29:3–4).

The floods are the rivers and mighty waters. They are called to clap their hands, and the verb māḥā means to clap the hands. Its sense stays the same wherever it stands, and the occasion here is joy, the applause of a crowd welcoming its King. The rushing and crashing of the water is pictured as that applause. Waters often stand in Scripture for a wild and threatening power, and here that power is brought into glad praise of the one who rules it. Isaiah uses the same verb when he says that “the trees of the field shall clap their hands” (Isaiah 55:12).

“Let the hills be joyful together” turns to the land. The word for hills, har, means a mountain or a range of hills. Mountains often stand for permanence and steadiness, and sometimes for God’s presence, so the call reaches even the most lasting and silent parts of the earth. “Be joyful” is rânan, to give a ringing cry or shout, usually for joy, or to sing. The hills are called to it in the same way that God’s people say “let us sing”, because this joy is the right answer to the LORD. “Together” is yaḥad, which means unitedly, together or alike. The hills shout as one, and they join the waters in a single song.

The same picture of the whole creation praising God comes in Psalm 148:7–10, where creatures of the sea, fire and hail, mountains and hills, beasts and birds are all called to praise the LORD.

The New Testament shows who the coming Judge is. The LORD who comes in this psalm is revealed as the Son, and Jesus showed his authority over the very waters called to roar here when he spoke to the wind and the sea in the storm and they obeyed him (Mark 4:39). He is the Word through whom all things were made (John 1:3), the one by whom all things were created and in whom they hold together (Colossians 1:16–17). When the floods clap and the hills rejoice, they are celebrating the one who made them and keeps them.

Jesus said that the Father has committed all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). He came first as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), and through his cross and resurrection God reconciles all things to himself (Colossians 1:20). He is also the one God has appointed to judge the living and the dead (Acts 10:42), and God has fixed a day when he will judge the world in righteousness by him (Acts 17:31). When the Son of Man comes in his glory, all nations will be gathered before him (Matthew 25:31–32). Paul calls him “the righteous judge” (2 Timothy 4:8), and John sees him come from heaven as the one who judges in righteousness (Revelation 19:11). Then every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:10–11).

Creation’s joy in verse 8 also answers Paul’s words that the whole creation now groans and waits eagerly for the day of its redemption (Romans 8:19–22). When Christ comes, that groaning ends, and the chorus of this psalm is heard in full: “every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever” (Revelation 5:13). Even the sea has its place in that song.

These verses turn the thought of God’s judgment into a reason to sing. The sea, the rivers and the hills rejoice at his coming because the Judge is righteous and fair, and his judging will put his world right at last. For his people, that day is the hope of vindication, and for a world full of wrongs it is the promise that injustice will not have the last word.

The psalm also shows us where our own praise belongs. Every crashing wave, every flowing river and every steady hill speaks of the God who made it, and the worship of God’s people joins a song that the whole creation has been called to sing. Our praise now is a foretaste of that day, when the LORD comes and the whole earth rejoices before him.