Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof ,.... See Gill on Psalm 96:11 , the world, and they that dwell therein ; men, the inhabitants of the world; that is, let them rejoice because this glorious King has taken to himself his great power, and reigns, Revelation 11:15 . read more
Let the floods clap their hands ,.... Or "rivers" F5 נהרות "fluvii", Cocceius, Gejerus, so Ainsworth. , dashing against their banks, as they pass along; a prosopopoeia, as the preceding and following, expressing great joy on account of the Messiah, the reigning King. Aben Ezra interprets this of men that are in rivers, as the sea; in the preceding verse of such that are in ships at sea; and the hills in the next clause of such that dwell on them; let the hills be joyful together ... read more
Let the sea roar - These are either fine poetic images; or, if we take them as referring to the promulgation of the Gospel, by the sea all maritime countries and commercial nations may be intended. read more
Let the floods clap their hands - נהרות neharoth , properly the rivers - possibly meaning immense continents, where only large rivers are found; thus including inland people, as well as maritime stations, and those on the sea-coasts generally; as in those early times little more than the coasts of the sea were known. The Gospel shall be preached in the most secluded nations of the world. Let the hills be joyful - All the inhabitants of rocky and mountainous countries. read more
Universal salvation. "The last great revelation, the final victory of God, when his salvation and his righteousness, the revelation of which he has promised to the house of Israel, shall be manifested both to his own people and to all the nations of the earth." I. GOD HAS REVEALED A GREAT SALVATION FOR THE WORLD . ( Psalms 98:1-3 .) Distinguished by three great things. 1 . Righteousness. ( Psalms 98:2 .) Reveals his righteousness in and by means of Christ in... read more
Showing our joy in God. It must strike every reader of the Psalms that the call to give expression to the joy felt in God is very frequent. We are constantly made to feel that the people did not readily come up to the psalmist's standpoint. Emotionally he could not raise them to his level, and their flagging and dragging seems sometimes to worry him. But the intensely earnest man, the man of cultured spiritual feeling, the pious poet soul, always has this trouble, and is always in danger... read more
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof (see above, Psalms 96:11 , where the same phrase occurs). The call on the inanimate things of nature to rejoice is grounded on man's sympathy with nature, which makes him desire, and half believe, that nature may sympathize with him. The world, and they that dwell therein (comp. Psalms 24:1 ). read more
Man's relation to the natural world. In a beautiful sermon on these verses by the late Revelation T.C. Finlayson, M.A to which this homily is greatly indebted, he remarks, that when piety and poetry are married to each other, such a song as this is the offspring of their marriage; he notes also the unhappy rarity of this union. Where piety is, there, all too often, imagination is conspicuous by its absence, and such absence is regarded with much complacency, and as a thing desirable rather... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 98:4-9
The setting up of the kingdom of Christ is here represented as a matter of joy and praise. I. Let all the children of men rejoice in it, for they all have, or may have, benefit by it. Again and again we are here called upon by all ways and means possible to express our joy in it and give God praise for it: Make a joyful noise, as before, Ps. 95:1, 2. Make a loud noise, as those that are affected with those glad tidings and are desirous to affect others with them. Rejoice and sing praise, sing... read more