Psalm 98

From this psalm Isaac Watts found the inspiration for his popular hymn “Joy to the World,” often classified as a Christmas carol but more accurately identified as a “kingdom hymn.” Watts described Christ’s second advent and not His first, the messianic kingdom and not the manger. The parallels to 96 are obvious, but the psalms are not identical. This psalm was written to praise the Lord for a great victory over Israel’s enemies (“salvation,” vv. 1-3), perhaps the victory of the Medes and Persians over Babylon (Dan. 5) that led to the return of the Jewish exiles to their land (Ezra 1). Some of the vocabulary in the psalm reflects the language of Isaiah the prophet, who in chapters 40–66 of his book wrote about the “exodus” of the Jews from Babylon (44:23; 49:13; 51:3; 52:9-10; 59:16; 63:5). But the psalm also speaks of a future judgment (vv. 7-9). The psalmist saw in the destruction of ancient Babylon a picture of God’s judgment of end-time Babylon (Rev. 17–18).