Light for the Longest Night

December 21 is typically the longest night of the year. The days have been getting shorter for a while now. Some of us leave for work in the dark, and come home from work in the dark. Even with all our modern ability to light things up electrically, all that night can weigh on our spirits—I usually don’t realize it until we get our days back in spring. A little warm sunlight on your face does wonders after a long, cold night.

Think of Psalm 98 like that. All month, we’ve been exploring from the Royal Psalms God’s plan to send a King who would put everything right in our world-gone-wrong. But by Psalm 89 (the one we studied the past three days), things have gotten dark for God’s people, and their hope for a David King is barely flickering. Jerusalem has fallen; there is no king; the people are miserable. In Psalm 98, hope blazes bright again! God tells his people that he is the true King (6), and he is personally coming back into his world to save it (9)! That means we can keep rejoicing and hoping!

For God’s Old Testament people, “salvation” meant the Exodus. When they were slaves in Egypt, God remembered his promises. He reached down with his right hand and holy arm. He sent ten plagues, opened the Red Sea, and saved them. And they sang for joy! Vv1–3 say that God will do it again! Yes, we’re helpless and miserable again, but God will work a better salvation than the Exodus! He will remember all the old promises. He will flex that right arm again, this time, in the sight of all the nations (2)! Show his faithfulness to the ends of the earth (3)! He will do a marvelous thing for us, and we will sing a new song to him!

These verses describe an over-the-top celebration, an explosion of praise for God the rightful King as he re-enters his world. “All the earth” welcomes him in joyous song! In v5–6 the band jumps in: lyres, trumpets, horns. It’s getting noisy! But you haven’t heard anything until 7–8: seas roar! Rivers clap their hands! Hills sing for joy! The creation greets its Maker! Genesis 3 says that sin cursed creation, too; Paul in Romans 8 says it groans and longs to be “set free.” But as the Maker returns, all that he has made erupts in loud, happy praise.

Why is everyone rejoicing? “for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the people with equity (9).” God is coming to judge. If I told you I stood before a judge this week, that would probably be a bad thing. But the psalmists long for God’s judgment. The idea is that his people have been wronged and bullied. They’ve lived God’s way, but have suffered for it. Evil and injustice have been rampant for so long! But the Creator is coming to “judge”—to straighten it all out! Finally, he’ll take charge of his broken world and make it very good again. Deal with evil and and even death, once and for all. Heaven and earth are one. That’s ‘judgment.’ It leads to a big sigh of relief and a noisy, joyful song!

Do you understand the bright hope of Psalm 98 (it’s all through the psalms, and the prophets, too)? God the King is coming! This vision kept his people going through all those long, dark nights: like Daniel and his friends in Babylon, or Ezekiel in his refugee camp, or Ezra and Nehemiah rebuilding ruined Jerusalem, or little Joseph and Mary, under Rome’s heel. Hold on and keep going: God the King is coming! It’s a hope bright enough for our longest nights, too. Tomorrow, we’ll learn how it dawned at Christmas.

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Article by Eric Smith
Senior Pastor, Sharon Baptist Church