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God Has A Past Too - Psalm 98

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Psalm 98

Oh sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
The LORD has made known his salvation;
he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth;
break forth into joyous song and sing praises!
Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre,
with the lyre and the sound of melody!
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
the world and those who dwell in it!
Let the rivers clap their hands;
let the hills sing for joy together
before the LORD, for he comes
to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.


Past, Present, Future. This Psalm includes God's past faithfulness, our present response of praise, and God's future promise. In other words, the center of the Psalm, the present response of praise, is grounded in both the past and the future. God's people are called to presently praise God because of his proven track record in the past and what will be in the future. 

In this way, the past proves precedent for the future. The grounds for trusting in future promise is past faithfulness. A closer look at this Psalm proves the rationality of faith and the irrationality of fear and anxiety. Many consider faith to be a "leap of faith" or some kind of hopeful possibility. The biblical view of faith involves certainty, not possibility. 

However, the world does not see it this way. "Faith" often gets smacked on the side of the cheek because it is understood as an alternate to rationality. This is why the categories of faith and reason are separated. You either have faith or you have reason but not both. Rational people who are done with the fairy tale stuff pride themselves on science and reason, claiming everything to know about life is matter of fact or a matter of reason. On the other hand, if you are weak and want to believe in a higher power that makes you feel better about life then you can have faith. In this way, the notion of God is akin to a child with a giant teddy bear that brings them comfort. It is cute and cuddly but it isn't real. Faith, therefore, is typically viewed as being at odds with rationality and ultimately deemed as "unscientific."

However, Scripture gives us a completely different approach. First of all, Scripture suggests that faith and reason do in fact go together and they don't necessitate separation. In Psalm 98, the writer actually makes the subtle case that faith in God is the only reasonable or scientific approach. 

He does this by grounding every reason for believing in past precedence. Whatever your word choice, faith does have a scientific side to it. Granted, the writer does not clarify the past circumstances to us in this Psalm but if you wanted to do some digging you would certainly see that he isn't making up his claims. His basic point is this: "you have seen with your own eyes the tangible ways that God has worked consistent with his promise." In that same way, we can and should trust in him into the future. This is the only rational conclusion. And this isn't some kind of fairy tale hopefulness with the warm fuzzies...this is fact. God has a past and it includes utter faithfulness. Thus, God and his people have a future as well and it will certainly include more of that same faithfulness and power and might and blessing. 

Actually, for the person who carefully traced out the promises of God and the way he has worked for his people to keep those promises in the past, it would take more "fairy tale like faith" to disbelieve God than it would to believe in him. In other words, refusing to believe in God not only takes more "blind faith" but it also is truly irrational. 

The same goes for worry or fear, especially if you consider yourself a believer in God. Consider that you are a Christian and you defend the existence of the living God and claim that faith in God is not irrational, you are correct. However, many people who claim to believe in God are still anxious...really anxious. Many people who claim to believe in God are still marked by fear of the future rather than praise and joyfulness in the present. This too is irrational. In fact, if "religious" people have a strike of irrationality against them it is this, that they say they believe in God but act like, in every other functional way,  he actually doesn't exist. 

Psalm 98 confronts God's people in their fear of man and their anxiety and invites them to consider their God. The call is to remember God's faithfulness and to consider his future judgements. The whole earth is under his control and every human being is accountable to Him. Rejoice! Our God will return and "judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity." He has proven it in the past as the sure foundation for the future. It isn't opinion, it is a matter of fact. 

Thus, "make a joyful noise before the King, the LORD!"

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