Chapter Ninety-Eight

The unknown writer of the psalm tries to arouse in the people reverence before Jehovah and devotion to Him by pointing to both His greatness and justice and to His compassionate relationship toward people.

The Lord, seated on the Cherubim, is the king over the whole world and all peoples, therefore all people should praise Him (1–3). He is righteous and His works of justice fill the history of the life of Jacob (4–5). The Lord hearkened to His chosen ones, protected all the people, forgave them, but also punished when the latter aroused His wrath. Thus the Lord is eternal and compassionate, and worthy of praise and exaltation (6–9).

Psalm 98:1. The Lord reigns: let the peoples tremble! He is seated on the Cherubim: let the earth shake! The Hebrew people – the people chosen by God, under His special protection. The Lord, as king of the whole world, rewards only those people in His love who belong to His subjects, who acknowledge His power and confess Him as their king and God. Of all peoples, only one is such – the Hebrew, in whose temple the Lord is seated on the Cherubim of the Ark of the Covenant. The remaining peoples, who do not acknowledge Him as their God, cannot expect mercy from Him: they should tremble awaiting punishment.

Psalm 98:3. Let them praise Your great and awesome name: it is holy! The name of God is “great and awesome” through the works that the Lord performs in the world, when by His will entire nations disappear and the formidable enemies of Jacob perish. The history of the latter confirms this with numerous facts.

Psalm 98:4. And the power of the king loves judgment. You have established justice; You have executed judgment and righteousness in Jacob. “The power of the king loves judgment.” In the actions of God there is no arbitrariness, as happens in the affairs of people: He loves judgment, His decisions are based on strict justice, as the history of Jacob also testifies.

Psalm 98:5. Exalt the Lord, our God, and bow down at His footstool: it is holy! “His footstool” – the Ark of the Covenant, the lid on it (the mercy seat) and the cast images of the cherubim, on which the Lord is seated.

Psalm 98:6. Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among those who call on His name, they called on the Lord, and He answered them. Psalm 98:7. He spoke to them in a pillar of cloud; they kept His commandments and the statute that He gave them. The Lord relates mercifully and attentively to every sincere prayer of those turning to Him. The prayers of Moses, Aaron, and Samuel were accepted by God and fulfilled because they “kept His commandments and the statute.” The same awaits anyone who would act as these mentioned persons. Moses is called here “among His priests” because he, by God’s command, more than once offered sacrifices (Exod 24:6; Lev 8:6). Samuel also called on the Lord and offered Him sacrifices (1 Sam 7:9-10) and even as a boy served before the Lord, wearing a linen ephod (1 Sam 2:18).

Psalm 98:8. O Lord, our God! You answered them; You were a God who forgave them, but also punished them for their deeds. The people whom the Lord “forgave and punished” most likely refer to the Hebrew people, since the Bible does not indicate cases in which Samuel provoked God’s wrath and was punished by Him.

Psalm 98:9. Exalt the Lord, our God, and bow down on His holy mountain, for the Lord our God is holy. If the Lord is so great, righteous, and compassionate, it is natural that the Hebrew people should serve Him alone zealously and offer Him worship on His holy mountain. This entire psalm is an enthusiastic call of the Hebrew people to spiritual repentance and service to the One Jehovah, the bulwark of their strength and happiness.