Psalm 98

Here is yet another Psalm of Victory in the “90’s” that exalts YAHWEH with new, joyful and loud songs of praise.  It’s likeness to other nearby Psalms is emphasized by the almost exact duplication of Psalm 96:11-13 in 98:7-9.  It is not that the Psalmist is short of ideas; it is that he has in mind the same exaltation of the Messiah when He comes to judge the world.

Consider this Psalm and its message in three contexts: past, present and future.

v The impetus for this exaltation likely came from one of Israel’s victories, a victory when God especially showed Himself to be Israel’s savior.  A prime candidate would be the victory over Israel’s eastern neighbors Ammon, Moab and Edom in the days of King Jehoshaphat (2 Chron. 20).  After God’s marvelous deliverance, in answer to the King’s great prayer, there was the people blessed God in the Valley of Berachah (Blessing) before returning to Jerusalem with great fanfare of instruments, harps, trumpets and so forth (2 Chron. 20:26-30).  The result for the nations was that they feared God when they saw how He delivered Israel.

v The Church today feels the same call to praise today for the same reason.  Through the victory of Christ in the cross and resurrection (Col. 2:13-15) the “Church on Earth” is assured to become the “Church Triumphant” (Heb. 12:22-24).  We shall be raised victoriously for death is swallowed up in victory through our Lord Jesus Christ and for this reason we are called to give thanks to God (1 Cor. 15:50-58).  The King is in waiting but the victory is already won!  This is reality for God’s people today.  To Him (the One who does exceedingly, abundantly above all we ask or think) be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever (Eph. 3:21).  For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever (Rom. 11:36).  And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.  To Him be glory forever and ever (2 Tim. 4:18).  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Pt. 1:3).  

v The day will come when the King will no longer be in waiting.  He will leave the right hand of the Father and will ride victoriously out of heaven, with His hosts behind Him, and will come to claim His throne, the throne of Zion.  There is no more glorious and hopeful picture than that which is described in Revelation 19:11-21.  Everything about His revelation speaks of victory.  And His first action upon arrival at the Mount of Olives is to subdue His enemies, all His enemies, including the most formidable: Satan, the Antichrist and his false prophet!  All of mankind, yes, all creation are called to give this praise for He is coming to judge the earth … the world … the peoples with equity.

Exposition of the Song of Moses (6) (Deut. 32:23-27)

This is a critical point in the Song of Moses in that the judgment of God reaches a crescendo after which God determines He will not go further.  There are four judgments mentioned in v24: hunger (famine), pestilence, beasts or wild animals and the sword.  Again we see that Ezekiel was paying close attention as he mentions these same four judgments (Ezek. 14:21).  

We mention these connections with the message of the prophets because there is an important truth for the Church today.  We tend to think that the prophets received their messages directly from God by dream or vision; and that did happen without question.  But we are also seeing that a lot of what they preached was the result of their paying attention to the word of the Lord through Moses.  They did what they were supposed to do as Israelites and that was to learn the Song of Moses.  Thus they could look at the extreme sin and lack of blessing in the nation of their day and know that God was fulfilling His word through Moses.  Today we also need to stop the search for new and different messages through the latest person with a dream or vision and simply pay closer attention to what has already been revealed.  It is enough!

Now note the mercy of God in v26-27.  God would, in this future time of judgment, continue to punish Israel until she ceased to be a nation, except that He would fear for His glory.   The nations would think that the destruction they would bring on Israel was their own doing.  The truth will be that the nations are simply God’s tools for judgment.  

God often was close to making Israel extinct.  The prophets noted these times.

·        The bondage in Egypt (Ezek. 20:5-9).

·        The golden calf incident in the wilderness (Ezek. 20:10-17).

·        The rebellion of Korah against God and Moses (Ezek. 20:21-26).

·        The Assyrian captivity (Isa. 37:21-35).

·        The Babylonian Captivity (Zech. 1:14-15).

We can add the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome in 70AD and the attempt to exterminate the Jews by Hitler.  There will be a future attempt by Satan (Rev. 12:13-17).  But none of these destructions were complete because God would not allow it.  This is a promise noted often by the prophets.  

·        Jer. 30:11; 46:28: I am with you; for I will make a complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but I will not make a complete end of you.  I will rightly correct you, for I will not leave you wholly unpunished.

·        Ezek. 11:16: Although I have case them far off among the Gentiles … yet I shall be a little sanctuary for them in the countries where they have gone.

·        Jer. 4:27: The whole land shall be desolate; yet I will not make a full end.

·        Jer. 5:18: In those days, says the Lord, I will not make a complete end of you.

·        Amos 9:8: “Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” says the Lord.

1 Corinthians 14:1-5

The Corinthian Church desired the best gifts (1 Cor. 12:31).  Many in the church had concluded that the greatest spiritual was speaking in tongues.  We can imagine in this divided church that this created more strife.  Perhaps those who thought they had the gift considered themselves superior and encouraged others to seek the same.  Tongues was exalted likely was because of its inexplicable nature; those who had it had something amazing.  How does Paul deal with this?

His answer was not to tell them to quit desiring the best or greatest gifts.  Instead he showed them a more excellent way, the way of love.  Any gift without love was useless (13:1-3).  The church was not to be known by its gifted individuals but rather by their love (13:4-7).  Love would never fail but a time would come when the gifts would cease.  With that we come to a specific application of the more excellent way as we desire the best spirituals.  If we pursue love as we desire spirituals we will desire those that build up the body rather than those that merely build up the one with the spiritual.  In his illustration Paul says it is better to seek prophecy than tongues because prophecy builds up the whole church while tongues only builds up the one who speaks.

Now that these are in focus let us consider what they mean.  We have noted that speaking in tongues in Corinth was not what it was in Acts 2 when people heard a known language.  Proponents of tongues today would say this was a personal language, perhaps a so-called angelic language (from 1 Cor. 13:1).  What I have heard on occasion, where people interspersed English with what was said to be speaking in tongues, sounded quite strange.  At the very least this is the problem Paul raises.  These unintelligible sounds make no sense without interpretation, and if there is interpretation there is no way to verify the interpreter because it is not a known language.  It is of no benefit to those who hear.  The only one who gets encouragement is the one who did the speaking.

Prophecy also needs to be understood.  Many assume this is a predictive ministry, where someone can tell you things about yourself and your future that could not be known apart from some special revealing.  But the ministry of the prophet in Scripture says something different.  The prophet was primarily a preacher, used of God to call people to repentance.  Occasionally the Old Testament prophet engaged in prediction, but it was in the context of calling the people to God.  In the New Testament the prophet was one who spoke edification and exhortation and comfort to men (14:3).  In that time this was an important ministry as the New Testament Scriptures were not available.  The prophets took to the churches the message Christ had given to His Apostles.  But further, in any church, such as Corinth, there could be people who could preach, who could build up the congregation with the message as God enabled them.

The truth of Paul’s words are clear.  In the more excellent way the greater spiritual is the one that edifies the body rather than the individual (v5).