| Introduction In our hymnal, we have several hymns written by the English pastor Isaac Watts. Watts follows in the heels of the great Puritan revival of the 17thcentury. In his own day, the congregations he served sang metered psalms. He didn't think that those poetical renderings psalms that had been arranged for singing were very good. He wasn't keen on the poetry nor the tunes. So, he set about the task of trying to do a better job of rendering those psalms. In doing that, he produced a book of songs to sing in worship. The hymn that we now know as Joy to the World is a rendition of Psalm 98 in his book of psalms. Besides improving the poetry and tunes, Watts tried to bring the Psalms into the New Covenant context so that the singing of the church would reflect the reality of Jesus Christ. If you would like to learn more about Isaac Watts, take a look at Douglas Bond's The Poetic Wonder of Isaac Wattspublished by Reformation Trust. We generally only sing the second half Joy to the World. Notice in the bulletin that our version of the hymn starts at verse 4 of Psalm 98. Psalm 98 is a psalm about the coming of the Lord. Because it is in the Old Testament, it is difficult to figure out if it is about the first coming or the second coming of the Lord Jesus. In fact, it is the New Testament writers who have to help us understand whether the Old Testament writers were talking about the first coming or the second coming, or both, in different parts of the Old Testament. When Watts arranged this new covenant rendering of Psalm 98, he had in mind primarily Jesus's second coming, but over the last hundred years it has been adopted and sung by the Church in association with Christmas as well as the second coming. A. Psalm 98 is exhorting us to sing about the salvation and the victory of God. 1. It uses language that unmistakably points us back to God's victory over Egypt in bringing Israel out of Egypt across the Red Sea, through the wilderness, and into Canaan. 2. You will notice that this psalm doesn't contain direct instructions on right worship, on how we are to worship, but it is a psalm of worship to God. 3. It is full of joy and excitement. B. I want you to see three things in this Psalm. 1. In calling us to worship God, the psalmist gives us six reasons why we should do so, 1-3. 2. God calls on the nations to join in the joyful worship spoken about in verses 1-3, 4-6. a. This should immediately have your curiosity up. b. Why would the nations be rejoicing about the judgment of God? More on this later. 3. The call to worship is extended even to all nature in anticipation of the coming judgment of the Lord, 7-9 – the same question I already mentioned should come to your mind (why would the nations and all nature be joyful because of God's coming in judgment?). II. Why We Should to Be Full of Praise to the Lord. A. Because God has done marvelous things, 1b. 1. The expression marvelousor wonderful thingsthroughout the OT refers to the miraculous saving acts of God. 2. When the psalmist says, "The Lord has done wonderful things," he really means wonder-fullthings which cause our hearts and minds to be flooded and filled with wonder and amazement. 3. God's saving act on behalf of his people is wonderful in the strictest sense of that word. c. It is a miraculous intervention of God on our behalf. 4. This psalm finds the children of Israel pinned against that Red Sea. a. They were ready to be destroyed by the Egyptians. b. The deliverance from their bondage through a series of miraculous plagues against Egypt seemed to have happened so long ago. c. And as the people think they are going to be destroyed, God opens up the sea and let them walk through on dry ground! d. It is a wonderful thing in the strictest sense of the word: a miraculous, saving act of the Lord. 5. So, the psalmist begins by saying, "we need to praise the Lord because of his wonderful works." a. Look back and see how gloriously God delivered you. b. Find reason to praise him in what God has done for you. B. Secondly, praise God because you have not delivered yourself – God did that for you, 1c. 1. Not only has he done a wonderful thing; not only has this miraculous deliverance been given to us, but he has delivered us all by himself. 2. This is Israel confessing that it was God's right hand that prevailed. a. What did Israel contribute to the parting of the Red Sea? NOTHING. Ex. 14:13-14– And Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall see again no more forever. The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace." b. God said, "Sit there and watch what I am going to do." c. He saved them by his right arm, and they contribute absolutely nothing to it. d. The victory over Egypt is entirely of the Lord. C. Thirdly, praise God because the Lord has made known his salvation, 2a. 1. In the very act of redeeming Israel, God has shown us what he is like. a. He is a gracious and merciful God. b. The problem at the time of the Exodus wasn't that Egypt was sinful and Israel was righteous, and poor Israel was just being oppressed by mean old bad sinful Egyptians. c. The Israelites tried to worship other gods, even as God was saving them (golden calf). 1) God in saving the Israelites didn't show that if you are good you get saved, and if you are bad you get condemned. 2) He showed that if you are going to be saved, it is not because you are good, but because Godis good, gracious, and merciful. D.Fourthly, praise God because he is doing all that publicly for all to see, 2b. 1. If we were to put words in God's mouth about Israel's deliverance form Egypt, they would be as follows: "Though Pharaoh claimed to be a god, though Pharaoh claimed to have a right over my people, though Pharaoh claimed that it was right for him to oppress my people, I, the Lord God, in judging Egypt, in bringing Israel out of bondage, am making a public declaration to everybody that Pharaoh and his oppressive regime were wrong, and that I have delivered my judgment on them because of their sins." 2. He was publicly putting right the wrong, and in doing that he was revealing his righteousness in the sight of the nations. E. Fifthly, praise God because he has remembered his mercy (lovingkindness, steadfast love) and faithfulness to the house of Israel, 3a. 1. God has remained true to his promise. Gen. 15:12-16– Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, horror andgreat darkness fell upon him. Then He said to Abram: "Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that isnot theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Now as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall return here, for the iniquity of the Amorites isnot yet complete." 2. So, when Israel comes out of Egypt all that they can say is, "Lord, you did exactly what you said you were going to do." a. The Lord remembered his lovingkindness. b. He remembered his grace and his faithfulness to the house of Israel. c. Though his people had languished in Egypt, he did not forget his promises to Abraham. 3. The Lord does not forget his promises – though you wait long, you will not wait in vain. F. Sixthly, we are to praise God because he has (or will) made known his salvation to the ends of the earth, 3b. 1. When Israel had just come into Palestine under Joshua's leadership, a group of Canaanites from a particular city came to them – Gibeonites – and claimed not to be from the land of Canaan. a. They wanted to make a treaty, a covenant, with the Israelites and they claimed to not be from the land of Canaan. b. They tricked the Israelites into making a covenant with them. c. Later on, when the trick is found out, the Israelites say, "Why did you lie to us?" d. The Gibeonites said, "News has already spread here that you crossed the Red Sea on dry land, and that you have come into the land of Canaan on dry land, and that you have already wiped out Jericho and Ai." e. This is what this psalm is speaking about when it says that even the Gentile nations have heard of God's judgments. 2. But think about it for a minute – can this psalm and the glorious truth of God's deliverance of the children of Israel in Egypt and the news of that deliverance spreading to the surrounding Gentile nations fulfill the fullness of the meaning of verses 1-3 in this psalm? a. Can the fullness of those words be exhausted by the neighboring nations' knowing about God's victory over Egypt? b. Hold that thought in the back of your mind. c. For right now, why the joy? Because of who God is, and because of what he has done for Israel. G.There is a point in this for us. 1. As believers in Jesus Christ, it is important for us to rehearse God's past mercies to us, or we will become unthankful, ungrateful people; and we will not be able to endure the times where God's mercies are not so obvious. 2. If we do not celebrate God's obvious mercies and recognize that those are not just the happenstance of fate and chance, but that they are the deliberate gifts of God to us, then we will begin to doubt God's goodness when the trials of life come. 3. So, it is important for us to look back in our own experience and remember God's mercies to us, and praise him for it! a. Thank him for it! So that when the trials come, we will not be able to say, "Lord, you haven't ever heard our prayers. You haven't ever come to our rescue. You haven't ever been there in our time of need." b. He has delivered us over and over, but we forget to praise him for it. c. And when we forget to praise him for it, we become forgetful of his mercy and grace to us. III. Believers Must Expect, Desire and Work for the Nations to Praise the Lord, 4-6. A. After you read verses 1-3, you could see a reason why every believer ought to praise God, but why should all the earth shout joyfully to the Lord because of the Lord's deliverance of Israel? B. This psalm expresses the desire of the Old Testament saint that all the nations would come to participate in the joy of the Lord. 1. The phrase "break forth" indicates a delight too great to be restrained. 2. The instruments that are mentioned here are all parts of the temple worship and were used on festive occasions. 3. The nations are being invited to worship and praise the God of Israel, the God of the Bible. 4. That invitation is the proclamation of the Gospel. a. There is no other way that the nations can join in worshiping God. b. More on this in a moment. IV. The Coming of the Lord Is the Hope of the Christian, 7-9. A. Here the whole of the world is invited to participate, not just the peoples of the earth, but even the earth itself. B. At this point you might say, "Wait a minute! So, the world is supposed to sing for joy because God is coming to judge?" 1. Well, that is what the Psalmist says. a. Would you be happy knowing that God was coming to judge and condemn you? Is that something that you would sing a song of praise about? No. b. You would only sing a song of praise about the Lord's judgment if you, by his mercy, have been spared that judgment. C. The Psalmist is talking about all nations of the world coming to a saving knowledge of the living God, all the ends of the earth coming to embrace the grace of the God of Israel. 1. The Lord is coming to judge. 2. If everything had already been put right in the Lord's victory over Egypt, there would be no need for him to come again to judge. 3. His people still face tribulation, and so there is a promise of encouragement held out to them of his future judgment. 4. But the nations and the whole world are invited to join in singing for joy for that. a. The psalmist is assuming that the peoples of the world will come to saving faith in the God of Israel. b. This is not universalism, but a desire based on what we call the Great Commission, to see men and women and boys and girls from every tribe and tongue and people and nation resting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation, as he is offered in the Gospel; Because of all that, the psalmist commands us to sing to the Lord a new song, 1. Why sing to the Lord a new song? What is that new song? It is not just a command to learn a new hymn. The "new song" must be sung because the Lord has done something new on your behalf; and the new song is identified for us in Revelation 5:9. Rev. 5:9-10– And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall reign on the earth."
That is why Isaac Watts rendered this song "Joy to The World, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King." The new song is the song of praise that we lift up to God because of the coming of Christ into this world. Is this new song on your lips? Have you been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you join the saints in heaven in submitting to God by faith in Jesus?
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2018/12/joy-to-world-psalm-98.html
|  | Send olympiabp blog feed to OBPC Podcast |  |
Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.  |
