SING A JOYFUL SONG TO THE LORD
98:1 O sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have gotten him victory.
98:2 The LORD has made known his victory; he has revealed his vindication in the sight of the nations.
98:3 He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the victory of our God.
98:4 Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth; break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
The Book of the Psalms, though it gives basis to the lyrics of the sung psalms in the famous collection of the Presbyterian Psalter, and also they are the texts of the sung psalms in other denominations as well, and notably a lot of psalms were even originally and intentionally written as tuned hymns and songs, the Book of Psalms is still a prayer book, the book of the Tehillim, which literally means praises.
Some of the Psalms are attributed to King David, however, at least nowadays, the very authorship of the Book of the Psalms, or parts of the Book of the Psalms is not accepted by most of the researchers and Bible scholars, who think that it is compiled from five identifiable compilation of the psalms into one big collection through the period of the 9th and 5th centuries BCE by various authors. One of the final editor could have been Ezra, who redacted practically the full Hebrew Scriptures, available to his time in the middle of the fifth century BCE.
History has it, that in the year of 457 BCE Artaxerxes I, the Persian Emperor, sent Ezra from Babylon to Jerusalem to teach the laws of God to the population in Jerusalem, who almost forgot them. Ezra led a group of Judean exiles living in Babylon to Jerusalem, where with the support of the authority of the Persian Emperor, he led a religious revival in Judea, reintroducing the study of the Law of Moses, given by God to the Jews at Mount Sinai.
Whosoever wrote the majority of the Psalms, probably edited by Ezra into one book, the book of Psalms contains a lot of genre, hymns, lamentation, communal prayer, personal prayer, praise and celebration of God as king, thanksgiving, wisdom literature psalms, pilgrimage psalms, liturgical psalm and so on.
Even by singing, they are wholehearted praying poems. Nonetheless, the Book of Psalms are still hymns as well, to be sung by the faithful.
The song must be joyful, for the song must be grateful.
No matter what, which means whatever happens.
Even on the cross. As we know, everybody has a cross, even those who seemingly do not have one, or sometimes do not have an obvious one, or an explicitly visible one.
How can someone sing a joyful song to the Lord on the cross, in the pit, within the storms of sufferings.
If we know that the joyful song is the song of gratefulness, then we can be grateful to God, who made a universe where the physical cross does not last forever, but it will pass eventually.
If we are separated from our loved ones because of the temporary circumstances on Earth, we will be reunited in Heaven, for the compassion and mercy of the Lord comes with comfort and understanding, wiping away tears and wounds.
The song must come from the heart, it is not reasoning, not arguing, not made up by logic, it is an emotion, which must be unconditional, overwhelming, all bearing, overarching as it is written as an advice, and a commandments, that You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.
(Deuteronomy 6 : 5)
And the joyful song, must always be a new one, or at least among the joyful songs there must be some new ones, as we are advised and obliged to be grateful for the past, for our ancestors, for the great deeds God did for the former generations, and in the same way we have to be grateful for the present, whatever we received from the Creator of the Universe, being hopeful and grateful for the future as well, as we know, that everything in God's hand.
Sometimes it may feel, as it was witnessed by countless generations, that justice was often violated, rights were often tramped, millions of lives were often taken without visible consequences, and the wicked got away with everything what they did.
However, even the long awaited justice is always served, sometimes a bit sooner sometimes a bit later, but always being served, as it is written:
"Vengeance is mine, and I recompense, at the time when their foot of the wicked slides, for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
(Deuteronomy 32:35)
We must be sure, that if something wrong happens caused by human ignorance, by people, who are sinning involuntarily or by explicit wickedness, still we are not without comfort, we are not without advice, we are not without direct help, and ultimately we are not without redemption, as we are not without salvation.
As it is written in Psalm 68:
"A father of the fatherless, and a defender of the widows, is God in his holy habitation."
In and other Psalm, number 137, the people taken into Babylonian captivity express their
despair, the feeling of hopelessness, the feeling either they are punished with captivity for their sins, or the Lord abandoned them , as it is written:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
On the willows in that land, we hung up our harps. For there, those who led us captive asked us for songs. Those who tormented us demanded songs of joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” (BUT) How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land? The Psalm is bitter, and the people in captivity declares that we do not sing.
However, a bit later, for them 70 years later, the Babylonian captivity ended, they were allowed to return to Jerusalem, they were allowed to rebuild the city, they were allowed to rebuild the Temple.
The Lord is faithful to the faithful.
Thus, whatever but whatever happens, we should never stop to give thanks to the Lord, the Creator God, and the grateful song means joyful song, as no matter what, we have to Love the Lord, our God, from our whole heart, from our whole soul, and with all our strength, AMEN
