“The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.”
~ Psalm 98:2
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know what a psalm is? A psalm is a sacred song or a poem which is used to worship God. Do you know what the meaning of psalm is? Psalm means praise. Do you know who used psalms to worship God? David wrote psalms to worship God. The Psalm Book in the Bible has 150 Psalms in it. There is a consensus that David scribed at least 73 of the Psalms that are in the Psalm Book. David may have written many of the 49 Psalms who no one knows who the authors are. Psalm 98 is one of those Psalms that no one is sure who wrote it. 23 of the Psalms that are found in the Psalm Book were composed by a couple of Levitical singing groups called Asaph and Korah. Solomon is the writer of two of the Psalms that are found in the Psalm Book while Moses, Heman and Ethan each wrote a Psalm that is found is in the Psalm Book. Psalms were written to praise God. Psalms were written to be sung by choirs and orchestras. God wanted to hear loud, joyful noise coming from His specially chosen guys and gals when they sang praises to Him. Does God still want a guy, gal or kid sing to Him if the guy, gal or kid cannot sing very well? Your grandpaa is tone deaf. A guy, gal or kid who is tone deaf cannot find or hold a tune. A guy, gal or kid who is tone deaf can make a loud noise but to a guy or gal who can sing well, that loud noise does not sound very nice to them. Your grandpaa would like to sing loud sometimes but when your grandpaa does, your grandpaa will at times have guys and/or gals look at him. The guys or gals do not tell your grandpaa that his singing is awful but . . . music is something that is found in every single planet Earth country. Music is a part of every culture. Most music that is sung or played is not sung or played to praise God. Music can be used for all kinds of things. Songs are often written to your enemy – the devil. The different kinds of music today – such as country, blues, jazz, rap, pop, rock and roll and a whole lot more, are styles of music. The kind of music which God always wants to hear from His specially elected guys, gals and kids will use words which adore Him, which praise Him and which bring glory to His name. God heard this from the writers of each Psalm in the Psalm Book. This is what God wants to hear from your grandpaa today – when your grandpaa does his best at singing. It is good to do your best to sing praises to God.
Today’s Psalm is a psalm of celebration, thankfulness and joy. Today’s Psalm has nine verses which are divided into three stanzas of three verses each. The first stanza of three verses is a call to celebrate in song God’s saving acts on behalf of His specially chosen guys, gals and kids. The second stanza of three verses is a call to every guy, gal and kid living on planet Earth to join in on the celebration. The third stanza of three verses is a call for everything that was created to celebrate. How do you think this song must have sounded during the time of David when a choir sang it? This song probably was a song which begins normally but gets louder and louder. Do you like to sing? Do you like to listen to music? What kind of music do you like to listen to – if you like to listen to music? Would you like to play an instrument? Your grandmaa used to play a clarinet. To play an instrument to praise God is good. Today’s Psalm talks about using a harp, trumpets and blasts from a ram’s horn to show joy to God. Today’s Psalm also talks about God’s creation praising Him. Can you see rivers clapping? Can you envision mountains singing? Who created everything? God did. God’s creation will praise Him – as this is what God wants His creation to do for Him. God knows that His glory is being reflected through everything that He is unfolding on planet Earth. God’s specially chosen guys and gals will praise Him – as this is what God wants His specially chosen guys and gals to do for Him. When you think of all that God has done, you cannot help yourselves but to praise God for what He has done. Verse 2 says “The LORD has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nations.”
God created His specially chosen and elected guys, gals and kids to want to praise Him. Music is something that God wants you to use to praise Him. You can sing songs to God – to praise Him. You can play an instrument to God – to praise Him. You can join choirs to sing songs to God – to praise Him. Your dad sang in an ensemble when he was a high school student at a New Tribes boarding school called Tambo. If you have a good singing voice, you can join a quartet or be a part of a duet or sing solos to God – to praise Him. Church services always have a number of hymns and choruses for all the guys, gals and kids who are attending the service to sing together. There are many churches today that have worship teams which lead the worship or singing time. Worship teams today often use drums and guitars. Your Uncle Chris is on the worship team at the First Alliance Church in Hockessin, Delaware. Your Uncle Chris plays a guitar. Your Uncle Chris also has sung solos. Different instruments are used in different countries to worship God. Guys in Bolivia use different kinds of flutes, guitars and charangos – which looks like a weird guitar made with armadillo skin, to make beautiful music to God. Some guys here in Guatemala use marimbas to make beautiful music to God. It is one thing to make beautiful music to God and another thing to know why you make beautiful music to God. It is one thing to read or to sing one of the Psalms and another thing to know why the Psalm was written and to really appreciate the words of the Psalm. The words of today’s Psalm will bring joy to the life of a guy, gal or kid – as the Psalm is full of hope and promise. Your grandpaa knows that God did a marvelous thing for your grandmaa and grandpaa when He led your grandmaa and grandpaa to make decisions of faith. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have every reason to celebrate with joyful thankfulness what God is doing in their lives.
Psalm 98 (104)