Psalms 98

Psa 98:1 we have already read in Psa 96:1. What follows in Psa 98:1 is taken from Isa 52:10; Isa 63:5, cf. Psa 98:7, Psa 59:16, cf. Psa 40:10. The primary passage, Isa 52:10, shows that the Athnach of Psa 98:2 is correctly placed. לעיני is the opposite of hearsay (cf. Arab. l-l-‛yn, from one's own observation, opp. Arab. l-l-chbr, from the narrative of another person). The dative לבית ישראל depends upon ויּזכּר, according to Psa 106:45, cf. Luk 1:54.

The call in Psa 98:4 demands some joyful manifestation of the mouth, which can be done in many ways; in Psa 98:5 the union of song and the music of stringed instruments, as of the Levites; and in Psa 98:6 the sound of wind instruments, as of the priests. On Psa 98:4 cf. Isa 44:23; Isa 49:13; Isa 52:9, together with Isa 14:7 (inasmuch as פּצחוּ ורננוּ is equivalent to פּצחוּ רנּה). קול זמרה is found also in Isa 51:3.

Here, too, it is all an echo of the earlier language of Psalms and prophets: Psa 98:7 = Psa 96:11; Psa 98:7 like Psa 24:1; Psa 98:8 after Isa 55:12 (where we find מחא כּף instead of the otherwise customary תּקע כּף, Psa 47:2; or הכּה כּף, Kg2 11:12, is said of the trees of the field); Psa 98:9 - Psa 96:13, cf. Psa 36:10. In the bringing in of nature to participate in the joy of mankind, the clapping rivers (נהרות) are original to this Psalm: the rivers cast up high waves, which flow into one another like clapping hands; (Note: Luther renders: "the water-floods exult" (frohlocken); and Eychman's Vocabularius predicantium explains plaudere by "to exult (frohlocken) for joy, to smite the hands together prae gaudio;" cf. Luther's version of Eze 21:17.) cf. Hab 3:10, where the abyss of the sea lifts up its hands on high, i.e., causes its waves to run mountain-high.