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Psalm 98 says
“O sing to the Lord a new song… Make a joyful
noise to the Lord, all the earth; break forth into
joyous song and sing praises.”
So music was in the back of my mind as I was looking up hymns that might connect to the psalm. I was fascinated with what appeared.
Of course, I had already placed “You shall Go out with Joy” into the service. What could be more joyful than trees clapping their hands (and us getting to join in!) And some choices, “Joy to the World,” and the old 100th, “All People that on Earth do dwell” (both of which we will sing later in the service) certainly seemed to fit the theme.
But there were some choices that baffled me. Why connect that hymn with this psalm? And which hymns should I pick to include in the service? The more I worked with the hymns, the more I felt they lifted up something about the Psalm. And so, this sermon was born—having hymns help us highlight some of the words and images embedded in Psalm 98, that we too might sing a new song to the Lord.
So let’s begin with hymn #276 “Sing a New Song unto the Lord” labeled Psalm 98. But if you look at its verses—especially verses 2 and 3 with their images of a Savior, “I know my Savior lives” you realize that words from writers other than the Psalmist have been used. (and our hymnal guide points to two other Psalms, the book of Job, and Paul’s letters to Rome and Corinth.) But verse 1 is solidly Psalm 98. So let us sing, the refrain, verse 1, and the refrain again.
Hymn #276 "Sing a New Song unto the Lord"
Refrain: Sing a new song unto the Lord;
let your song be sung from mountain’s high.
Sing a new song unto the Lord, singing hallelujah!
1 Shout with gladness! Dance with joy!
O come before the Lord.
And play for God on glad tambourines,
and let your trumpet sound. Refrain.
Singing new songs, and new songs with joy, is certainly something I would have remembered after reading this Psalm. But the next image “God’s right hand and holy arm have gotten the Lord victory” would probably not have grabbed me. But it did grab Patrick Prescod from the Caribbean who wrote our final hymn “The Right Hand of God.” Our hymnal guide suggests that the “right hand” of God implies God’s power and God’s favor. It brings to mind the hand of God that appears in Daniel—to write a message on the wall for the bad king Belshazzar. And the hymn then tries to see God’s handwriting, God’s right hand, acting in our time, in our world. I appreciated the balance between striking out against envy, hate, and greed, and healing our bodies, minds and souls. We will sing this hymn in full later, but right now, let’s just sing the first verse to cement that “right hand” image in our mind.
*Hymn #332 “The Right Hand of God”
1. The right hand of God is writing in our land, writing with power and with love; our conflicts and our fears, our triumphs and our tears, are recorded by the right hand of God.
The hymn that probably started this whole enterprise is a Lenten hymn called “Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle.” First of all, I couldn’t believe that a Lenten hymn had anything to do with singing a new song, or being joyful. Yes, “Sing” was its first words, but… I looked again at that first verse—“Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle, tell the triumph far and wide; tell aloud the wondrous story of the cross, the Crucified; tell how Christ, the world’s redeemer, vanquished death the day he died.” And I realized that the vanquishing of death, the dawning of resurrection on Easter morning, was God’s ultimate victory. So, in the minds of someone who had their hands on this hymnal it connected to “The Lord has made known God’s victory; and has revealed God’s vindication in the sight of the nations. God has remembered God’s steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.”
Listen to the first verse of this Lenten Hymn:
Hymn #225 "Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle"
1 Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle; tell the triumph far and wide; tell aloud the wondrous story of the cross, the Crucified;
tell how Christ, the world's redeemer, vanquished death the day he died.
Once death has been vanquished we are back to making a joyful noise to the Lord, with our voices and the lyre and trumpet and horn. We do need to remember that it is not just “all people that on earth do dwell” participating but the seas, the floods, and the hills as well. Nothing makes this point like the wonderful hymn “Earth and All Stars!” which includes hail, wind, rain, and snowstorms, as well as engines, steel, hammers, and beams in the chorus singing a new song to God. Let us sing the first and third verse of Hymn #26.
1 Earth and all stars! Loud rushing planets! Sing to the Lord a new song! Hail, wind, and rain! Loud blowing snowstorm! Sing to the Lord a new song! God has done marvelous things.
We too sing praises with a new song!
3 Engines and steel! Loud pounding hammers! Sing to the Lord a new song! Limestone and beams! Loud building workers! Sing to the Lord a new song! God has done marvelous things.
We too sing praises with a new song!
In the final verses of the Psalm
“Let the floods clap their hands; let the hills sing
together for joy at the presence of the Lord, for God is
coming to judge the earth. God will judge the world
with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.”
Justice is tied to Joy—the world is joyful God is coming to judge—and God will judge with righteousness and equity. We have so many swirling images of justice these days. Blind justice. No Justice, No Peace. Approval when “justice” goes our way. But this is God’s justice. And I find it interesting that the Psalmist here (unlike some other places in Scripture) has no fear of what justice might bring. Somehow, through the centuries, the judgement day, the apocalypse, became filled with fire and brimstone, with plagues and death, with horsemen and Jesus coming on the clouds with a sword!
Here, justice is gladly called for, awaited even with joy. We too can voice this opinion with a familiar hymn, hearing its words, and the words of Psalm 98 in a new harmony. Please turn to #435 “There’s a Wideness in God’s Mercy” and let us sing it together.
1 There's a wideness in God's mercy, like the wideness of the sea. There's a kindness in God's justice, which is more than liberty. There is no place where earth's sorrows are more felt than up in heaven. There is no place where earth's failings have such kindly judgment given.
2 For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind. And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind. If our love were but more faithful, we would gladly trust God's Word, and our lives reflect thanksgiving for the goodness of our Lord.
May we sing a joyful new song to the Lord, today and everyday. Alleluia, Amen.
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