SPEAKER_01: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_00: Take your Bible with me to the book of Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: What do we consider on Christmas morning?
SPEAKER_00: Last night we we thought a little about Luke chapter 2 and the Christmas story.
SPEAKER_00: I know that at least some of you remember the way to be able to count down Luke's story, right?
SPEAKER_00: Three, two, one, four.
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
SPEAKER_00: Ending in an explosion of responses to the gospel story.
SPEAKER_00: How will you respond?
SPEAKER_00: That leads, I think, very well into Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: If you have your Bible, I encourage you to open it with me to the 98th Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Yesterday evening in our Christmas story reading from Luke 2, we heard the angel's words from verse 10 for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: The good news of great joy present in the birth of the Savior was not just for the shepherds guarding their sheep in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: It was not just for Mary and Joseph.
SPEAKER_00: It was for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: The peace made available to the earth was not just to the shepherds or those suffering under the dominion of Rome or the Magi traveling from the east.
SPEAKER_00: It was for all the people.
SPEAKER_00: How can that be?
SPEAKER_00: How can it be that the good news of the birth of Jesus is good news for all people?
SPEAKER_00: Now, as Christians, we believe that the good news is about the Lord's coming so that he might restore sinful, hostile people to the God who made them.
SPEAKER_00: He did that not simply by coming, but by dying.
SPEAKER_00: It's in that Savior that we trust.
SPEAKER_00: But I would suggest to you that we can find a broader answer given long before the angel's announcement in the prayer book of the Psalms.
SPEAKER_00: I suggest that Psalm 98 answers how the news of the Savior's birth is good news of great joy for all people.
SPEAKER_00: But then we might ask, how is Psalm 98 a Christmas text?
SPEAKER_00: Well, we've already heard that Christmas is a divinely provided opportunity to lift our voices and sing the song of Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: The song we just heard declared, lift your voices and now proclaim.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 98 calls us to do just that in praise of the great things that God has done.
SPEAKER_00: Look at it with me.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: I'll read it if you would like to follow along.
SPEAKER_00: It starts out saying it's a psalm, a song.
SPEAKER_00: And it says, Oh, sing to Yahweh a new song, for he has done marvelous things.
SPEAKER_00: His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh has made known his salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Break forth into joyous song and sing praises, sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn.
SPEAKER_00: Make a joyful noise before the king, Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Let the sea roar and all that is in it.
SPEAKER_00: The world and those who dwell in it.
SPEAKER_00: Let the rivers clap their hands, let the hills sing together for joy before Yahweh, for he comes to judge the earth.
SPEAKER_00: He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Before we even think about Psalm 98's application to Christmas, we must remember that this song was part of Israel's worship.
SPEAKER_00: Whether sung in the Temple Commons or prayed as part of a congregational prayer, it reminded Israel of God's mighty work in the past in order to prompt worship in the present and trust for God's future salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It likely reminded Israel of God's deliverance of their people from the hand of the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe even from Exodus chapter 15 of Moses' song written after they crossed over the Red Sea and rescued from the armies of the Egyptians.
SPEAKER_00: It was sung to remind them of God's power, of his mighty salvation, his deliverance from the enemy, but also to generate praise for what God had done.
SPEAKER_00: Praise that we give today in the moment, so that we are reminded then we can trust Him for tomorrow, for the next day, and for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Now there are three stanzas in this song.
SPEAKER_00: We might call them verses if we put it in our hymnal.
SPEAKER_00: Three verses, one through three, then a second verse, verses four through six, the third stanza, verses seven through nine.
SPEAKER_00: Most of our Bibles have it naturally divided that way.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to walk through these very simply, very quickly.
SPEAKER_00: The first stanza reminds us that God has done marvelous things, and it's a call to God's people to sing.
SPEAKER_00: So God's people, we gathered here today, are called to sing.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sing! That's the first words.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, sing to Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: A new song.
SPEAKER_00: For He's done marvelous things.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like you to think with me about this first section, these first three verses, where God's people are called to sing.
SPEAKER_00: Why is it that we are called to sing?
SPEAKER_00: I think we can see at least three reasons here.
SPEAKER_00: The first one is that God has worked powerfully.
SPEAKER_00: It says, sing a new song.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because he has done marvelous things.
SPEAKER_00: His right hand, that's a Hebrew way of saying God's power, his might, that's found in his powerful and strong right hand.
SPEAKER_00: His holy arm has done what?
SPEAKER_00: Has worked salvation for him.
SPEAKER_00: And God has done this for himself.
SPEAKER_00: It's not because he found anything good or righteous or worthy in his people.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's because he desired to show his power and his glory by doing something his people did not deserve.
SPEAKER_00: So when we sing a new song at Christmas, we remember that God has worked powerfully.
SPEAKER_00: Not only has he worked powerfully, he's also worked publicly.
SPEAKER_00: It says he's made known his salvation in the sight of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Not just in this little circle, not just in a single home or in a manger, but in the sight of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: This is not something that God did in private.
SPEAKER_00: He worked powerfully so that the whole world, the ends of the earth, could see it and not just see it one time, but to experience the results of this powerful work for the rest of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: He's done it in the sight of the nations.
SPEAKER_00: He's done it powerfully, he's done it publicly, and he's done it permanently.
SPEAKER_00: God continues to carry out his character.
SPEAKER_00: He remembers his steadfast, faithful, loyal love that he's had for his people in the past, and he continues to have today, and he will have tomorrow.
SPEAKER_00: He shows that to the house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, it spreads to all the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Where's the end of the earth?
SPEAKER_00: It's not flat as some think, so it doesn't have an end.
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the point.
SPEAKER_00: The psalmist says if you go to the end of the earth, you keep going and you keep going, you cannot find the place where God's salvation has not touched.
SPEAKER_00: The ends of the earth, he has worked permanently so that the world has seen who he is, his power, and what he has done.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what the New Testament echoes in Romans chapter 1, where every single person who has ever lived or who will ever live knows that God exists and that he is a powerful God.
SPEAKER_00: Here, the psalmist says that God has worked in such a way in the past so that everyone going forward knows his saving work.
SPEAKER_00: And that awareness of God's work is a reason, he says, to sing a new song to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: So at Christmas, on Christmas morning, we are given a divinely provided opportunity to remember that God has done marvelous things by sending a Savior who is Messiah Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: And we remember that by singing, by singing, even singing a new song.
SPEAKER_00: The second stanza begins in verse 4 and goes all the way through verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: And this stanza begins with commands.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there are there's a string of three parallel commands.
SPEAKER_00: Make a joyful noise, break forth in joyous song, and sing praises.
SPEAKER_00: Sing, sing, sing.
SPEAKER_00: That's how he starts.
SPEAKER_00: We should be so blown away by the power of God to deliver and bring salvation in the past that we do nothing but sing and make noise.
SPEAKER_00: Notice how this is described.
SPEAKER_00: First in verse 4.
SPEAKER_00: We are to make noise demonstrably.
SPEAKER_00: Make a joyful noise to Yahweh, all the earth, break forth into joyous song, and sing praises.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do that, singing joy to the world.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't work.
SPEAKER_00: This is demonstrably.
SPEAKER_00: This is you can't sit still.
SPEAKER_00: You can't do it sitting down.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to get into it.
SPEAKER_00: Because you are so moved by the power of your God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, he extends that.
SPEAKER_00: Not only do we do it demonstrably, we do it deafeningly.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if that's a word.
SPEAKER_00: I may have made up some new words for this morning.
SPEAKER_00: Sing praises to Yahweh with the lyre.
SPEAKER_00: With the lyre and the sound of the melody.
SPEAKER_00: The lyre is a stringed instrument that was like a harp, most likely, that was plucked.
SPEAKER_00: But then we get louder with trumpets.
SPEAKER_00: And with the horn.
SPEAKER_00: The writer here is very specific.
SPEAKER_00: Trumpets are those man-made brass instruments that are loud.
SPEAKER_00: And the horn here is the shofar, a ram's horn.
SPEAKER_00: So we have voices making joyful noises.
SPEAKER_00: We have this lyre making a noise.
SPEAKER_00: We have the sound of melody.
SPEAKER_00: To that is added the cacophony of trumpets and horns making a joyful noise.
SPEAKER_00: This is deafening.
SPEAKER_00: Christmas morning ought to be deafening.
SPEAKER_00: In joyous praise for what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: But he doesn't end there.
SPEAKER_00: He finishes this theme in verse 6 by saying, We are to make noise devotionally.
SPEAKER_00: Now, what do I mean by that?
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean that you go to your room and you're quiet and you open your Bible and you read it.
SPEAKER_00: That's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00: No, this means that you are devoted to the King.
SPEAKER_00: Who in this case is Yahweh, the God of Israel, the God of creation.
SPEAKER_00: We sing demonstrably, we sing deafeningly, and we sing because we are devoted to the King.
SPEAKER_00: That's what the angels meant.
SPEAKER_00: And they sang in the middle of the night.
SPEAKER_00: To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Messiah Yahweh, the coming of the King.
SPEAKER_00: So at Christmas, we are given a divinely provided opportunity to make joyful noise with our voices, with all kinds of instruments in praise of his marvelous work of providing salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And these things just build.
SPEAKER_00: Remember that the second stanza builds on the first stanza.
SPEAKER_00: The commands to praise with joyful noise are because God has done marvelous things in providing salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And that leads us to the third stanza.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 7.
SPEAKER_00: God's people are charged here to respond.
SPEAKER_00: To respond specifically to his coming.
SPEAKER_00: And not just the sea, but everything that fills it.
SPEAKER_00: The world and those who live in it.
SPEAKER_00: That the rivers clap their hands.
SPEAKER_00: I've never seen rivers with hands, but by now we ought to get the picture, right?
SPEAKER_00: That the understanding of what God has provided is so astounding that even the rivers are heard as having hands that make noise because of what God has done.
SPEAKER_00: Let the hills sing for joy.
SPEAKER_00: So what do we hear in this verse of God's people responding to his coming?
SPEAKER_00: We respond first comprehensively.
SPEAKER_00: Everything responds.
SPEAKER_00: There's not a part that does not respond.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when the Lord Jesus was coming down the hillside on the donkey into the city of Jerusalem on the triumphal entry?
SPEAKER_00: The Pharisees were all upset and they said, Jesus, you need to make your disciples quiet down.
SPEAKER_00: And he said, No, you don't get it.
SPEAKER_00: Because if they didn't give praise, even the rocks would cry out.
SPEAKER_00: That's the image here.
SPEAKER_00: That when Christ the King comes, there's nothing that's silent.
SPEAKER_00: Everything gives praise.
SPEAKER_00: It's comprehensive and encompasses the entire earth because, secondly, we respond captivatedly.
SPEAKER_00: We are captivated by who is coming.
SPEAKER_00: We're so enthusiastic and so overwhelmed by who comes.
SPEAKER_00: It's before Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: It's Him.
SPEAKER_00: It's He who comes.
SPEAKER_00: Not somebody else.
SPEAKER_00: In the New Testament, there was no word translated for the divine name, and so often they simply used the word Lord when they translated the Old Testament into New Testament language of Greek.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's exactly what's happening in Luke chapter 2 when the angel says, To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Messiah Yahweh.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: Because the psalmist says, Give praise, for Yahweh comes.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is.
SPEAKER_00: It's Christmas morning.
SPEAKER_00: How will you respond?
SPEAKER_00: Lord willing, we respond comprehensively because we are captivated by the God who comes.
SPEAKER_00: It's not his emissary who comes, it's not a rep representative who comes.
SPEAKER_00: It's God himself who comes.
SPEAKER_00: And so then, lastly, we respond cordially.
SPEAKER_00: I don't mean we just say nice things about him.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't suggest that, oh, we are we're kind to him, and okay, yeah, there's a baby that's born, so we ooh and we yaw and we're all nice and friendly.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is because you recognize that the one who's coming is the judge of all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And this judge is the one who has provided salvation.
SPEAKER_00: He has provided salvation for his people in the past.
SPEAKER_00: He's going to provide salvation for his people in the future, and he has the powerful right arm to be able to do it.
SPEAKER_00: And so he comes.
SPEAKER_00: And he comes to judge.
SPEAKER_00: But in this passage, this is interesting because if you go back to verse 2, you find this parallelism happening in this poetry.
SPEAKER_00: God has made known his salvation, he has revealed his righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: In this context, righteousness and salvation are equivalent terms.
SPEAKER_00: They're used back and forth.
SPEAKER_00: So when we get to the end, he will judge the world with salvation.
SPEAKER_00: It's his righteousness that comes to provide salvation, and it's his salvation is the means by which he provides judgment.
SPEAKER_00: And so we ought to have respect and awe for the one who comes to judge with salvation, with his righteousness, with equity.
SPEAKER_00: He is able to do what is right in his judgment.
SPEAKER_00: The one who comes is both judge and savior.
SPEAKER_00: So we see then that the Psalm looks back at God's provision of deliverance, of salvation at some past point to remind us that God is also going to provide deliverance, salvation at some future time.
SPEAKER_00: God Himself would come to bring judgment, resulting in his righteousness being given through a Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, the angel announced that a savior had been born.
SPEAKER_00: Which was good news.
SPEAKER_00: For who?
SPEAKER_00: Everyone.
SPEAKER_00: It is that event, that event when a savior was born to provide good news for everyone.
SPEAKER_00: It is that event that God had in mind right here in Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: It is the coming of Christ the Lord, Messiah Yahweh, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth that we hear echoed in this Psalm.
SPEAKER_00: Now that might seem like a crazy tale to you.
SPEAKER_00: So let me let me back that up if I can.
SPEAKER_00: We can tell that, that this has in mind the future coming of Christ the Lord in Psalm 98 by following the trail backwards.
SPEAKER_00: Let's start at the end of the trail.
SPEAKER_00: Luke chapter 2.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is brought to the temple.
SPEAKER_00: And an old man by the name of Simeon comes up, and it says he is filled with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: He's being driven by the Spirit of God.
SPEAKER_00: And he makes this statement to God.
SPEAKER_00: He says, My eyes have seen your salvation that you have prepared in the presence of all peoples.
SPEAKER_00: A light of revelation for the Gentiles and for glory to your people, Israel.
SPEAKER_00: God's Spirit moved Simeon to do that at the exact moment that Joseph and Mary brought Jesus into the temple.
SPEAKER_00: Now, in his spirit-driven praise, Simeon is quoting Isaiah 52 10.
SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
SPEAKER_00: What's that say?
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah 52 10 says, Yahweh has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Of our God.
SPEAKER_00: Simeon is standing there with this infant in his arms, and he's saying, God, he's here.
SPEAKER_00: You promised.
SPEAKER_00: And now I can depart in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Because my eyes have seen your salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Now here's the neat part.
SPEAKER_00: Simeon quotes Isaiah 52, but Isaiah, when he wrote his text, Isaiah, the prophet, quoted Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: We know that because there are only two places in the Hebrew Bible where we see the phrase his holy arm.
SPEAKER_00: One is Isaiah 52, 10, and the other is Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah is looking back at Psalm 98 and saying, God, you already said it.
SPEAKER_00: You already said that your holy arm would be bared before all the nations, bringing salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And he wrote it down.
SPEAKER_00: And Simeon read Isaiah's text and he said, God, you said it.
SPEAKER_00: Here he is.
SPEAKER_00: So by tracing the hand of God in fulfillment, we see that Simeon through Isaiah looks at the infant Jesus in fulfillment of God's promise to reveal his holy, mighty arm once more in providing salvation, not just for the Jewish people, but for the nations.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 98 reminded Israel of God's mighty work in the past, to prompt worship in the present and trust for his future salvation.
SPEAKER_00: And it reminds us on Christmas morning of God's powerful redemption provided at the cross, of the forgiveness of our sins brought through our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And it motivates trust that he will ultimately bring our salvation to its perfect completion.
SPEAKER_00: That, my friends, is a reason to sing, to make noise, to make a joyful noise, and to rejoice at the coming of our Savior, Christ the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: In 1719, the text of a hymn was published in Isaac Watts's hymnal with the title, The Messiah's Coming and Kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Isaac Watts composed his lyrics as a paraphrase of the last few verses of Psalm 98.
SPEAKER_00: He wanted to celebrate God's provision of salvation to remove the cause of sin through the Lord's coming.
SPEAKER_00: Today, that hymn by Isaac Watts from Psalm 98 is known worldwide by the title Joy to the World.
SPEAKER_00: As Connie and Webb come, would you stand with me as we sing Psalm 98 on Christmas morning?
SPEAKER_00: Joy to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 98 leads us to make a joyful noise in praise of God's marvelous work of giving a Savior.
SPEAKER_01: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_01: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.