Psalm 98: Salvation

There are some things that just seem as if they belong together: peanut butter and jelly, salt and pepper, vacations in the summer, sand and the sea, grey hair and wisdom. Then there are things that are clearly opposed: oil and water, cheese and seafood (this is my opinion, but I will argue it is a correct opinion), patience and toddlers, cats and dogs, love and selfishness. Psalm 98 hinges on two things that we often assume to be opposed, mercy (steadfast love) and judgment. We tend to believe that God offers mercy or gives judgment, that He either saves or condemns, that He gives grace, or He brings punishment, but what if mercy and judgment are not “either or” actions, what if they are not two sides of one coin, but they are actually connected to each other? What if God’s mercy is His judgment and His judgment is His mercy because His character does not change? 

The psalm is filled with commands to sing, make a joyful noise with instruments, break into joyous songs to the LORD because “he has done marvelous things!” Those “marvelous things” are largely described by one repeated word, salvation. Verse 1 says, “His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” We know, from Romans 8:34, Ephesians 1:20, Colossians 3:1, Hebrews 1:3, and several other verses that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God. The “Arm of the Lord” is an ancient biblical and rabbinic term for the Messiah. The psalm begins with a call to rejoice because of what the coming Messiah will do, it was a current command and a prophetic announcement. “Sing now for the One who has been promised to come.” 

How does the LORD make known His salvation and reveal His righteousness in the sight of the nations? It is all through the appearance of Jesus. Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15), He is the embodiment of the Kingdom of God, He is not just the One who saves us, He is our salvation. Jesus is the Redeemer promised, in the garden of Eden, to crush the head of the serpent. He is the prophet Moses said would come after him and be like him. He is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, that through him all the nations of the earth would be blessed. He did not simply come to save us; His coming is our salvation. 

In Jesus’ prayers found in John 17, He made it clear that He had come to make God known, the Word became flesh, not to find out what humans were like, but to show humans who God is. Jesus revealed that God is our Father, that He is compassionate, patient, kind, merciful, gentle and possibly most of all, near. Jesus showed us, by His relationship to the Father, that God is not far off, He is not only in control, He is concerned, He is not just with us, He is for us and Has sent the Holy Spirit to live in us so that we can be in Him, in the relationship of the Godhead. 

Jesus has revealed God’s righteousness, which is His character, in the sight of all the nations. How has He done this? “He has remembered His steadfast love (mercy) and faithfulness to the house of Israel.” Often, we try to look at the actions of Jesus without contemplating His heart. We try to talk about the miracles, the signs and wonders, the cross and resurrection, we try to apply them to our lives without slowing down enough to see them through His eyes. In Matthew 15:24, when a Canaanite woman pleaded with Jesus to heal her daughter, He told her, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” Jesus came to the Jews as a Jew because God had promised that salvation would be “to the Jew first”, that it would not only come to Israel, but it would also come through Israel. 

Salvation is only possible because God’s character is immovable. God made a covenant with Israel that was not dependent upon their effort, but His kindness. He kept His promises even when they broke His commands. Mary used similar language to Psalm 98 in Luke 1 when she sang “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” The conception of the Messiah was God’s remembrance of His mercy to Israel so that He could fulfill His promise that through Israel every nation and family on earth would be blessed. If God had forgotten Israel, we would all be forgotten. If He is not faithful to those, He has chosen then how can we ever have hope that He would be faithful to us? 

He has remembered! This does not mean that He has ever forgotten. When Scripture says that God remembers it is not like you or I, who often forget and then a thought, a memory or an idea comes back to us. When God remembers it means that He chooses not to forget, that He keeps His Word, that He fulfills His promise. When God remembers Israel, His righteousness is revealed “in the sight of the nations”. God’s actions toward her gives hope to us. How do I know that there is forgiveness for my sin? It is only because of how God forgave Israel. How can I be confident that He is patient with me? Because I have seen His patience with Israel. How can I be sure that He continues to show me grace even when my faith and love grow weak and cold? Because when Israel chose idols to be their own gods, God did not choose for Himself another people, instead He chose to give Israel mercy. 

That leads us to the end of the Psalm. The author (most assume to be David) starts telling inanimate objects to join in this chorus to God, “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 for joy together before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with equity.” God often remembers His mercy and shows His righteousness through His actions of judgment. In our finite minds, judgment is what happens when mercy runs out, but in God’s character judgment is given so that mercy can be extended. God sent droughts, famines, plagues, and enemies against Israel to turn her back to Him when she would choose to live far from Him. His judgment was to bring her back, not to cast her out. His judgment is from the abundance of His mercy, not His lack of it. 

Jesus did not just save us; He is our salvation. This means that we are not simply saved from hell or for heaven, we are saved into Jesus. This is the beauty of Psalm 98, it begins with mercy and ends with judgment all while singing the joy of salvation, because Jesus is our Savior and our Judge. His heart of mercy is found in all His judgments and His authority to judge is found in all His mercy. In Jesus, the Messiah, there is not mercy or judgment, there is salvation which is judgment that leads to mercy and mercy that welcomes rather than fears judgment. All of this means that salvation is not a thing that is given, it is a relationship that is desired, it is not an act He did for us it is an invitation He has given to us. Today I will ask you, not if you are saved, but are you living in salvation? Is God’s mercy and judgment not only working but being welcomed in your life? Are our songs of joy because of what He has done or who He is? All of God’s actions are not only for His will, not even only for His glory, all that God is doing is for our salvation, that we would know Him and that through us others would see Him. Again, do not settle for being saved, long to live in Jesus, He is our salvation.