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Pentecost Season · Holy Cross · Year C

Psalm 98:1-5 or Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38

Sing to the Lord a New Song

September 14, 2028

Christ Surrounded by Musician Angels, Hans Memling
Christ Surrounded by Musician Angels, Hans Memling, c. 1480Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
From a great organ-shutter ensemble made for a Spanish monastery and now in Antwerp: angels playing named, playable fifteenth-century instruments, each fingered correctly.The psalm tells the righteous to praise with the harp and the ten-stringed lute, and Memling painted the instruments accurately enough to rebuild them from.Hans MemlingA German-born painter (c. 1430-1494) who settled in Bruges and became its most sought-after master, with a calm, orderly manner that made him popular with foreign merchants.Royal Museum of Fine Arts, AntwerpAntwerp's great collection, strongest in the Flemish painters the city produced, reopened in 2022 after an eleven-year closure.Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp
Revised Common Lectionary
GospelJohn 3:13-17Jn 3:13-17
Epistle1 Cor. 1:18-241 Cor 1:18-24
Old TestamentNum. 21:4b-9Nm 21:4b-9
PsalterPs. 98:1-5Ps 98:1-5 orPs. 78:1-2, 34-38Ps 78:1-2, 34-38

Overview & Insights

“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things.” (Psalm 98:1)

Most of this psalm of Yahweh’s kingship is comprised of calls to praise (vv. 1a, 4–8), along with substantiating reasons that look to Yahweh’s past (vv. 1b–3) and future (v. 9) actions. Like Psalm 96, it opens with a general call for all the earth (v. 4; 96:1) to sing a new song (v. 1; 96:1) about Yahweh’s marvelous things/deeds (Hb. niplāʾôt , v. 1; 96:3) and salvation (v. 2; 96:2). It similarly contains three verses of commands to the human world to join in a ritual celebration of “the LORD, the King” (vv. 4–6; 96:7–9), and a closing section inviting the natural world to join in applauding his coming to judge the earth (vv. 7–9; 96:10–13).

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Take it further: Psalm 98:1-5 or Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38

Commentary

Psalm 98 Commentary: A New Song for His Marvelous ThingsPs 98 Commentary: A New Song for His Marvelous Things Enduring Word · David Guzik

Full verse by verse walkthrough of the primary psalm.

Psalm 98 CommentaryPs 98 Commentary Center for Excellence in Preaching

Reformed lectionary commentary on the same psalm.

Psalm 98:1 CommentariesPs 98:1 Commentaries BibleHub

Aggregates classic commentaries on the psalm's opening call to sing a new song.

Psalm 78 CommentaryPs 78 Commentary Enduring Word · David Guzik

Covers the alternate psalm's call to tell the next generation what God has done.

Background & Word Study

Psalm 98Ps 98 Sefaria

Hebrew and English text with classical Jewish commentary on the primary psalm.

Questions preachers ask

Why Psalm 98 or Psalm 78?

Psalm 98 calls for a new song to the Lord who “has done marvelous things,” his saving victory seen to the ends of the earth; Psalm 78 rehearses God’s deeds so the next generation will not forget. Both frame the cross as God’s marvelous, saving work to be proclaimed.

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