Our scripture reading tonight is from Psalm 98. I happened to see Pastor Gordon earlier this week and he asked what I was going to preach on and when I said Psalm 98, he said, I preached on Psalm 98. And then he thought a minute and he said, well, that was about a year and a half ago. And so I assured him you had completely forgotten what he had to say and it would be fine. for me to preach on Psalm 98 tonight. Psalm 98, let us hear God's Word. 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. The Lord has made known His salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn, make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing together for joy before the Lord, for He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. So far the reading of God's Word. Well, this is a wonderful psalm of praise. It's a psalm of confidence, a psalm of celebration. It lifts up the praise of God's people to God with a great jubilant spirit. And we come to it with that sort of expectation. This psalm inspired Isaac Watts to write the Christmas hymn, Joy to the World. And this psalm has been used at times at Christmas to think of the Lord's coming and to praise him for his marvelous works and for the revelation of his strong arm to save. This is such a confident psalm, such a joy-filled psalm. And yet, curiously, we find it in the middle, in the very middle of the fourth book of the Psalter, which is a book in which there are many troubled psalms. The fourth book of the Psalter is largely a book of waiting, a book of anticipating God to do something in the future for his people who are in some trouble. And so it may strike us as a bit of a surprise if we come to it in that context to think that in the midst of trouble, in the midst of waiting, in the midst of frustrations, the people of God are called to praise their God confidently and joyfully. And I think part of what we need to learn from this psalm is that hard times should not keep us from praise. That maybe hard times are the times when we particularly need to praise. When we need to look beyond just the hard times to a confidence in our God that transcends the hard times. Hard times will not last, but our God will. And that's part of what this psalm wants to say to us tonight. It encourages us to sing a new song. Maybe that's what inspired Jordan to choose the songs he did, new songs. But here in Psalm 98, the phrase new song doesn't really mean an unfamiliar song. It doesn't mean a recently written song. In the Bible, the new song always refers to the song of salvation. There really, in a certain sense, are only two songs in the Bible. The old song and the new song. That's good for us who are getting older and have a little trouble remembering. We only have to remember two songs. The old song and the new song. The old song is the song of creation. The song that praises God is the creator. And the new song is the song of redemption, the song of salvation, that praises God as a Savior. That's clear in verse 1 of our psalm tonight, Psalm 98. 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. The new song is the song of salvation. It's the song of praise for what God has done to redeem us. It's good to praise Him for creation. But in a sense, there's even more joy that the God who created us and showered so many blessings on us in creation was willing to come again to us when we had rebelled against Him to save us. And so the joy of the new song should fill us and should fill us particularly in hard times. You know, Israel was in hard times when Jesus was born. Israel had been waiting and waiting and waiting. It had been nearly 400 years since a prophet had spoken and many were wondering when would Messiah come? They had been hard years of much loss and much struggle and much difficulty. And then God came in His Son. And the psalm of praise that they had been singing through all those hard times was fulfilled among them. And that's what I hope we'll see tonight. That in the hard times, this psalm can help us look beyond those times to the blessings we still possess now and for blessings that God has promised that He will bestow upon us. So we want to look at how this psalm is put together to encourage us, to lead us in our praise and in our celebration. And the first thing that we see is the first part of the psalm is a psalm of remembering what He has done. In hard times, it's always good to look back and remember what God has done. If we find it hard to see God in the present, we can be greatly encouraged by looking back to see God in the past. Maybe you have experienced that in your own life when you've been sick, perhaps, and life seems pretty grim and difficult and a struggle. It would be a great help to look back and remember that God has been with you in the past, perhaps helped you in an illness in the past. He has not abandoned His people. Here, the psalmist is looking back at the great saving works of God, the marvelous things He has done, the miracles He has wrought in history. Bringing His people out of Egypt by a mighty outstretched arm, with miracle after miracle. The Red Sea opened. the people passing through on dry land, the sea closing on Pharaoh and his host, the people being led by the pillar of fire at night and the pillar of cloud in the day. Miracle after miracle accompanying, being able to see at times the Shekinah glory of God, the dwelling glory of God among His people. God amongst His people at times does marvelous things. And then in the birth of Jesus, a marvelous thing. And then in the life of Jesus, marvelous things displaying who he was. And then in the resurrection of Jesus, marvelous things that we can look back on to be comforted in distress, to remember that God has acted and God will act because he's a God of power. This has to be our confidence. This should be our confidence. This is our confidence. That when God fails to act as we think he ought to act, it's not because he is powerless. God has all power. And we can have that confidence as we look back on what he has done and what he has accomplished. And God always uses that confidence in a personal way. We see that in the second half of verse 1, don't we? His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. Now, boys and girls, we know that God is a spirit. He doesn't have a body, and that means He doesn't literally have arms and hands. This is a poetic way of talking how personally God reaches out to us, how God embraces us, how God uses His strong right arm to fight for us and to care for us. And that's critical as well, isn't it? To know the personal care of God. It's not only powerful, but it's personal for us. That too we see above all else in the face of Jesus Christ. Jesus is God come to us in the flesh to speak to us face to face, person to person, intimately. to assure us of God's love and God's care. So this psalm encourages us to praise our God by remembering His power, to remember His person, but also to remember His purpose. God always has a purpose in what He is doing. That's not always clear to us. It's not always easy for us. But it's true, He has a purpose. And in this psalm, there's a particular purpose that the psalmist focuses on in verses 2 and 3. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Now, when I read that, did you pause for a moment and scratch your head and think, how has all the earth seen the salvation of our God? Now, see, maybe I'm just more critical. I pause and think about those things. You're just more trusting, maybe. But, you know, it's important to ask that kind of question of the Bible. What is the psalmist saying here when he says the whole earth has seen the salvation of our God? I think we know pretty well what the Bible means when it says the whole earth has seen God as creator. The whole earth has seen how God has displayed his power in the design of this world and the preservation of this world. The only way to avoid seeing a creator when you look at creation is to suppress that knowledge in unrighteousness, Paul tells it. The knowledge of the Creator pounds on us all the time in the work that He has made. But that's not so true, is it, with salvation? How is it that the psalmist can say the whole earth has seen the salvation of our God? Where is the salvation of our God displayed? I think it's displayed in the people of God. It's displayed in the Old Covenant in Israel and it's displayed in the New Covenant in the church because God has created and preserved a people and the whole earth sees something of that people preserved, maintained, created in the first place and then kept by the Savior. It's a remarkable thing when you think about it. It's maybe easier for us to understand than it was for Israel to understand because the church today is spread around the whole earth. There's hardly a country in the world where there isn't a church, where there aren't a people that God has gathered to Himself. And in the midst of that people, God has displayed His own character. His character of steadfast love and faithfulness. His steadfast love that never fails for His people. And His faithfulness that preserves them in the face of so many enemies and opposition. When we study Bible history or when we study church history, what do we see over and over again? There are enemies of God's people. Sometimes they are physically violent enemies. And sometimes they are intellectual or spiritual enemies. But they've opposed God's people. But God shows his steadfast love. God shows his faithfulness. God shows his mercy by preserving a people, by drawing a people together. And that's really pretty amazing when you think about it. But for thousands and thousands of years, God has maintained a people to honor his name. And in that people, something of his character is displayed. Now, many people have said, well, God's people are characters. And maybe part of the amazement should be that such a disparate group of people with different personalities and different interests and different activities and different works are still one in the Lord. I mean, we like one another. Some of us like, you know, somebody a little more than others. But we're united, aren't we? Because the steadfast love of the Lord has made us loving. The faithfulness of the Lord has made us faithful. And that reality shines in the world. And we should never forget that. That should help direct us. That should help form us to be a light shining in the world. We are the light that shows the salvation of God to the world. And we have to rejoice in that. Now on this positive note, I shouldn't turn negative, but I am a Calvinist minister, so you have to expect a little negativity from time to time. You know, you could easily think tonight that there are some people who are not in church. Can you imagine that? There are some people in this society who are not in church on Sunday night. It's hard to believe, but it's true. Some of them are at the Oscars, worshiping a graven image. Is that a little too far? Maybe. But they are celebrating Hollywood. When I was younger, I thought the church was too hard on Hollywood. As I've gotten older, I'm beginning to wonder if I was the one that was wrong. Hollywood has spent decades in our society attacking Christian sexual ethics and promoting violence to make money. And now in recent weeks, Hollywood is suddenly horrified that we live in a society that is violent and sexually immoral. Of course, they're only concerned about a little bit of sexual immorality and a little bit of violence. And the Church of Jesus Christ has called people away from sexual immorality for its whole existence. Now, we haven't always lived up to what we've preached. We know that. and hypocrisy in the church and failure in the church makes it hard for us to preach as passionately as we should. But if women are to be respected, then there has to be a sexual ethic that calls men away from all their sexual misbehavior and calls women as well to purity and holiness before the Lord. That's what the Lord calls us to. And that's what we will find ultimately satisfying. Elizabeth Taylor was married eight times. She was once interviewed and said, it shows how much I believe in marriage. I keep trying. But I suspect she'd have been a lot happier. A lot more fulfilled. Had she found a husband and the two of them stuck together in the service of the Lord. That's what God calls us to. That's his purpose for us as his people. Not everyone will respond to that purpose. Not everyone will honor that purpose. Not everyone will think it's a good idea at all. But on our living for the Lord, lives of commitment and faithfulness and holiness, we will be a light shining in a dark world. So our first praise is to remember what the Lord has done, to remember His great purpose in history, to rejoice that we are part of that purpose. We are helping Him. Well, that's the wrong way to put it. He's using us to fulfill that purpose. And then that remembering should lead us to rejoicing in who God is. And the center of this psalm is full of rejoicing to the Lord, celebrating, as verse 6 puts it, that He is King. He is King. Whether He's recognized or not, He is King. He is the Sovereign. And the Sovereign will accomplish His purpose. That's the joy that should fill us. that's the joy that should echo among us I was really impressed with the singing this morning I don't know if it's just because I haven't been up here for a while and haven't heard the singing up front I think sometimes in the pew you don't really hear how good the singing is maybe it was just that I picked such marvelous songs but the singing was great and it reminded me that our praise to God is to have an exuberant spirit. The praise here in Psalm 98 is loud because the Lord is deserving of excited praise, of exuberant praise, of committed praise. And we are told here that that praise too will fill the whole earth. We'll fill the whole earth because it's praise to our king. I always remember, so as you who know me, my mind is full of useless bits of information. I always remember a story from the 16th century where the French Calvinists were being besieged in the city of La Rochelle. And the forces of the king of France, the Roman Catholic king of France, were attacking this city. And they sent a message into the city. Surrender to your king. And the French Calvinists sent back a two-word reply. Regam habemus. We have a king. We have a king. He is not our king. The king of France is not our king. We have a king, a superior king, a greater king. That's what we need to remember. We have a king. We have a king who's in control. We have a king who's in charge. We have a king who is so great that the rivers clap their hands in his presence. I don't know what that means. I love to see a river full and flowing. In my youth, in the summer, we used to go to the Russian River up in northern California. And it's fascinating to drive along that narrow river valley. And in the summer, when I would go there, there was no danger of drowning in that river. You could walk, most of the time, with water only up to your ankles. But about every ten years, the river would flood. And the river going through this narrow valley would rise 40 feet. I've always wanted to see that. 40 feet. Maybe that's how rivers clap their hands. You don't want to get in the way of those hands coming together. But there's the joy. There's the nature itself testifying. When your heart is full of the joy of the Lord, in nature itself you can see a testimony. And that's what this psalm is saying. What a glorious thing that the joy of our hearts, we're told, will fill the earth because we have a king. And as we remember, and as we rejoice, then we can rely on the promise that the king is coming. In hard times, we can celebrate God because the king is coming. That's what we read in the last verse of this psalm. Well, last two verses, let's read. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing, for joy together before the Lord. For He comes to judge the earth. He will judge the earth with righteousness and the peoples with equity. He's coming. He's coming. Do you believe that? That's part of the comfort we have in hard times. He's coming. there'll be a final judgment, and then everything will be made new. And that's the promise. We can rely on that promise. But as I was studying this, and I didn't check with Josh, so I'm not absolutely sure this is true, but I'm going to preach it anyway because I'm pretty sure. You know, when it says here that the Lord is coming to judge, I don't think it has only the last judgment in mind. I don't think it has only the last judgment in mind because the word for judge here is the word we find in the book of Judges. In history, we also see the Lord coming as he came at Christmas in Jesus Christ. In history, we see from time to time the Lord coming to promote righteousness and equity, fairness amongst his people. We see the Lord manifesting himself in surprising ways. I think we saw that at the time of the Reformation when there was a great renewal of the church. America saw it at the time of the Great Awakening in the 18th century. There have been various times. I think the Netherlands saw it at the time of the Calvinist revival in the days of Abraham Kuyper. There have been moments in history when the Lord has come as judge to make things better. Not yet everything new, but to show His power, to show His personal care, to show His purpose. And so while our prayer should always be, come quickly, Lord Jesus, a prayer for that end of all things and culmination of all things, I think it's also right that we pray that until he comes, we might see the king coming to display his power in righteousness, also in history. How wonderful if we would see that among us. Such days of blessing. Such days of encouragement. But whether we live in really good days, which still have a lot of problems, or whether we live in days which seem completely dominated by problems, our assurance should be this, that our God is king. Our God does all things well. Our God will accomplish His purpose. And He'll accomplish His purpose through us as we are faithful to Him And as we are a light in this world, a light of a loving community, of a holy community, of a faithful community. And that should fill us with joy in all times. God grant that that may be true for each one of us. Amen. Let us pray. Oh Lord, we are so thankful that we can acknowledge you to be our King. And we are so thankful and so filled with joy to know that you do all things well. And we are thankful to know that you have the whole course of human history in your hands. And that you have each one of our individual lives in your hands. And that you will accomplish your purpose. And so, O Lord, we pray, even in the hard days, even in days of waiting, even in days of trouble, Even in days of pain, you will grant us a joy before you as we think of your great saving work so that we can sing the new song of salvation, confident that you are coming. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. And in the meantime, use us to be faithful in our callings. Use our lives and our testimony to draw many to Christ. And may he be exalted at all times. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.