Psalm 98 Bible study: All the ends of the earth have seen

The psalm's title is two words in the WEB: "A Psalm." (98:1). It names no writer and no occasion. Then it gives a command and a reason: "Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things!" (98:1) (tap new, marvelous things). The reason comes at once: "His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him" (98:1) (tap arm, worked salvation). The psalm names no helper. The LORD's own right hand and arm did it, and did it "for him". Isaiah says it in the same way of the LORD: "Therefore his own arm brought salvation to him" (Isaiah 59:16), where brought salvation is the verb of 98:1's worked salvation, and arm is its word for arm. The chapter on Psalm 33 follows a new song through the Psalms; here the song has its reason in its first verse.

Psalms 98:3→leads toLuke 2:30-32

Psalm 98 says, "The LORD has made known his salvation. He has openly shown his righteousness in the sight of the nations" (Psalm 98:2), and "He has remembered his loving kindness and his faithfulness toward the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God" (Psalm 98:3). Luke tells that when the parents brought in "the child, Jesus" (Luke 2:27), Simeon "received him into his arms and blessed God" (Luke 2:28), and said, "for my eyes have seen your salvation" (Luke 2:30), "which you have prepared before the face of all peoples" (Luke 2:31), "a light for revelation to the nations, and the glory of your people Israel" (Luke 2:32). These are Simeon's words, not Jesus', and Luke doesn't name the psalm, so setting the two together is a reading. The WEB words them differently: the psalm has "the salvation of our God", "in the sight of the nations" and "the house of Israel"; Simeon has "your salvation", "before the face of all peoples" and "your people Israel". It rests on what both speak of, God's salvation seen before the nations with Israel named beside them, not on the word salvation alone, and no link between the Hebrew and the Greek is claimed. Isaiah 52:10 has the psalm's last line word for word in the WEB, so the psalm is not the only verse with these words. One reading hears Simeon, with the child in his arms, blessing God for the salvation the psalm sings of, seen before all peoples and given to Israel. Another reads each in its own setting: the psalm sings of what the LORD "has done" (Psalm 98:1), and Simeon's words point to no one psalm. These notes don't choose between them, and they don't make the psalm a prophecy of Jesus.

יְשׁוּעָהyeshu'ahsay ye-shoo-AH

Brown-Driver-Briggs: "salvation", "deliverance", and "salvation by God, primarily from external evils, but often with added spiritual idea". Strong's: "something saved, i.e. (abstractly) deliverance". The psalm has it twice: "The LORD has made known his salvation" (98:2), where his salvation is one word, yeshu'ato, and "All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God" (98:3). Psalm 96 has the same form as 98:2: "Proclaim his salvation from day to day!" (Psalm 96:2). The Psalms have the word 45 times in Hebrew.