Psalm 98:1 NKJV
Oh, sing to the Lord a new song!
For He has done marvelous things;
His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.
Sing to the LORD a new song: The idea of a new song is found in many places in Scripture (Psalms 33:3, 40:3, 96:1, 144:9 and 149:1; Isaiah 42:10; and Revelation 5:9 and 14:3). The concept of the new song means there should be something fresh and dynamic about worship and the songs we sing to God. (Guzik)
i. Miriam didn’t use an Egyptian song. Deborah didn’t use Miriam’s song. “There must be new songs on new occasions of triumph.” (Spurgeon)
ii. A new song: “The song of redeeming grace can never grow old, even though the same words recur…. Are not His mercies new every morning, and His faithfulness every night? Is not His love always at work spreading thy table for new meals, making thy bed for new slumber, contriving new alleviations and delights? Look out for these till meditation induces thanksgiving.” (Meyer)
iii. “The new song, in the context of this hope of victory, evidently means a song to be composed for the occasion; other suggestions seem over-elaborate.” (Kidner)
For He has done marvelous things: The new song has a reason – to extol the great works of God, His marvelous things. It isn’t empty praise or singing for the sake of singing. The worship is connected to life experience of His marvelous things. (Guzik)
i. Marvelous things: “Niphlaoth, ‘miracles,’ the same word as in Psalm 96:3, where we translate it wonders.” (Clarke)
His right hand and His holy arm: These are the instruments of God’s victory, the expressions of His skill and strength. As in Isaiah 52:10, the idea of His holy arm is that God has rolled up His sleeve to do His mighty work. Together, His hand and arm have gained Him the victory. (Guzik)
i. Right hand: “So Christ fought our battle with his right hand; he did it with ease, with strength, and with infinite wisdom.” (Spurgeon)
ii. “As the singer rejoices over the salvation of God manifested on behalf of Israel, he emphasises the fact that it has been wrought by Jehovah alone. ‘His right hand, and His holy arm’; these were the only instruments available for, or capable of working deliverance.” (Morgan)
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“O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvelous things.” We had a new song before (Psa 96) because the Lord was coming, but now we have another new song because he has come, and seen and conquered. Jesus, our King, has lived a marvelous life, died a marvelous death, risen by a marvelous resurrection, and ascended marvelously into heaven. By his divine power he has sent forth the Holy Spirit doing marvels, and by that sacred energy his disciples have also wrought marvelous things and astonished all the earth. Idols have fallen, superstitions have withered, systems of error have fled, and empires of cruelty have perished. For all this he deserves the highest praise. His acts have proved his Deity, Jesus is Jehovah, and therefore we sing unto him as the LORD.
“His right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory;” not by the aid of others, but by his own un-weaponed hand his marvelous conquests have been achieved. Sin, death, and hell fell beneath his solitary prowess, and the idols and the errors of mankind have been overthrown and smitten by his hand alone. The victories of Jesus among men are all the more wonderful because they are accomplished by means to all appearance most inadequate; they are due not to physical but to moral power—the energy of goodness, justice, truth; in a word, to the power of his holy arm. His holy influence has been the sole cause of success. Jesus never stoops to use policy, or brute force; his unsullied perfections secure to him a real and lasting victory over all the powers of evil, and that victory will lie gained as dexterously and easily as when a warrior strikes his adversary with his right hand and stretches him prone upon the earth. Glory be unto the Conqueror, let new songs be chanted to his praise. The salvation which Jesus has accomplished is wrought out with wonderful wisdom, hence it is ascribed to his right hand; it meets the requirements of justice, hence we read of his holy arm; it is his own unaided work, hence all the glory is ascribed to him; and it is marvelous beyond degree, hence it deserves a new song. (Spurgeon)
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O sing unto the Lord a new song – Compare Psalms 33:3; Psalms 96:1. “For he hath done marvelous things.” Things suited to excite wonder, or to fill the mind with astonishment. See Psalms 77:14; Psalms 86:10.
His right hand – The instrument by which we execute any purpose. Compare Isaiah 59:16; Isaiah 63:5.
And his holy arm – The arm of his holiness; that is, his arm put forth in a righteous cause, or vindicating that which is right.
Hath gotten him the victory – literally, “has worked salvation for him:” for himself, or in his own cause. The victory – the salvation – was really in defense of his own government; in maintaining his own authority against those who set themselves in opposition to it. What is here said may be applied to all that God does. It is really in his own cause, in order to maintain the principles of his own administration. (Barnes)
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for he hath done marvelous things; by assuming human nature, in that he, being God, became man, took flesh of a virgin, even pure and uncorrupted, a clean thing out of an unclean; which he took into personal union with himself, and that for the sake of sinful creatures: a most marvelous affair this! which calls for a new song from men, as it had from the angels. In this nature he taught wonderful doctrines, at which his hearers were astonished, wondering from whence he had his wisdom; and in it he did many miraculous works, which filled them with amazement above measure; and especially in it he performed the amazing and surprising work of man’s redemption, an instance of the marvelous lovingkindness and astonishing wisdom of God; performed in a manner quite stupendous, through Christ’s being made under the law both the precept and penalty of it; through his being made sin and a curse for men, even for the ungodly, sinners and enemies; a redemption which is of the souls of men from sin, Satan, and the law; a complete and plenteous one, which includes and secures all the blessings of grace and glory, justification, pardon, adoption, and eternal life. To which may be added the resurrection of himself from the dead, his ascension to heaven, the effusion of the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit on the apostles, the wonderful success of the Gospel in the Gentile world, the support of his interest against all the powers on earth, the destruction of the man of sin, the calling of the Jews, and the bringing in of the fulness of the Gentiles in the latter day; all which marvelous events require a new song of praise. (Gill)
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The wonders he has wrought: He has done marvelous things, v. 1. Note, The work of our salvation by Christ is a work of wonder. If we take a view of all the steps of it from the contrivance of it, and the counsels of God concerning it before all time, to the consummation of it, and its everlasting consequences when time shall be no more, we shall say, God has in it done marvellous things; it is all his doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. The more it is known the more it will be admired. (Henry)
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A new song — A song of excellence. Give him the highest praise. See on Psalms 96:1.
Hath done marvellous things — נפלאות niphlaoth, “miracles, ” the same word as in Psalms 96:3, where we translate it wonders.
His holy arm — His Almighty power, –
Hath gotten him the victory. — הושיעה לו hoshiah llo, “hath made salvation to himself.” (Clarke)
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalms 98:1
Sing a unto the Lord a new song: for he hath done marvelous things: *his right hand and his holie b arm have gotten him the victory.
a That is, some song newly made in token of their wonderful deliverance by Christ, b He preserves his Church miraculously, *Is. 59.16.
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