These Psalms seem the answer of the Spirit in the congregation—this their call to the heathen, the people; hence it is specifically the celebration of Jehovah which we have seen to be the subject of all these Psalms. It is not what “Jehovah hath done"—that is for the Jews-but the Jehovah that hath done it. "Sing unto Jehovah all the earth"; before Him all the earth shall fear, even the Jehovah that hath done all these things, pod nota. In Psa. 98 it is "before the Lord, the King," for the Lord being it, being indeed King, but to the Jews, you will see that the celebration of His Gentile glory includes the gathering into one, heavens and earth—"Let the heavens rejoice and the earth be glad" (Psa. 96)—whereas the Jewish blessing is the blessing of the world; see Psa. 98:7. The field and the trees take the place of the floods and hills.
The connection of the heavens, the heavenly glory, with the recognition of Jehovah in Jesus, is most instructive here of one of the many ties and boundlessness of the latter-day glory. We own Jesus to be Jehovah—He is then, the Jehovah of the Jews, but it is He who is our Lord, whom we have owned to be such in the time of His humiliation, even Jesus, and are therefore with Him in glory where we see Him whom they once rejected-the Jehovah of the Jews, even our Jesus. The time is however the same, the Sabbath day. “The Lord cometh," “cometh to judge."
It cannot but be noticed, the constant mention or suggestion of “Jehovah" to the Gentiles in this Psalm to bring them to remembrance. Jehovah Elohim of the Hebrews—the recognition of Jehovah by Jesus, as a Jew, in all His ways—and our recognition that Jesus is indeed Jehovah, is the deep, deep mystery developed in these Psalms in dispensation; so, and in the Person of Jesus only, we know it, with all its vast results. Psalm 90, " Jehovah, the dwelling-place" of the Jews; Psa. 91, recognized by the faithful One; Psa. 92, the preparation for the Sabbath—Psa. 93 and 94, the light through the night of the Sabbath, when the light should overcome it in the morning; Psa. 95-99, the morning service—the new song that the whole Creation, on the summons of Jesus their Head, the Firstborn, shall sing in heaven and earth—the sea and all the world, the floods and hills—the head of redemption, of which He is the Head in His saints-the Gentiles below, called in also. It is indeed the Sabbath day or day of restraint, but of restraint of joy, when none of the redeemed may be wanting—above—below. Joy and glory in heaven and earth—and, in the Jews received, life from the dead to the world—the union of the headship of Creation and redemption, of the Lord Jesus, the Firstborn of every creature, and Firstborn from the dead; compare Col. 1.
We have then the introductory songs, a sort of instruction of the Sabbath eve, the day of preparation, Psa. 96; 97, 98 and 99. “The new song." I believe I have noticed, heretofore, all that is necessary for the general character of these Psalms, but there is a special point in Psa. 96, which remains—the connection of Jehovah with the earth, with Creation. It is not Bara Elohim (God created) merely, nor Jehovah Elohim, but the world established by Jehovah. God shall then lose none of His characters, but they shall be verified in greater glory. “All the earth” here, being not merely “the Land" seems, I think, plain though that shall be the center. The world shall be established under Jehovah, Zech. 14, where the same question occurs.
In this Psalm also, for the true millennial blessedness, we have the heavens introduced, for it is the general and extended character of it. This is left out in the corresponding Israelitish part; Psa. 93 It is not the Church's, nor the Father's glory in the heavens, but Jehovah who created them (who is the God of the Jews) ministers in creation a providential, authoritative blessing—the government and blessing of the whole earth. This may be for the glory of the Jews, whose God He is, but it is for His glory—His glory—the glory of His character in all the earth. This is a very interesting point, and a link in the character of the blessedness of that day. All that is judicially and authoritatively distribution of that blessing comes in. What we have seen in Judaea is but a type of the administration which shall then take place, for it belongs to Him by virtue of His glory. It is not merely God generally but a God known in relation character and covenant—that Jehovah, that was known in Israel, reigneth. This is to be announced among the heathen. It was a wider glory, in se, than that over Israel, but it was the same Jehovah. So shall He be in that day. Accordingly Psa. 98 celebrates Him in the consequence of His character manifested in power for Israel, terminating in the same joy, but in the lower sphere merely, for the power is a link with a higher thing, not indeed revealed here, but understood by the saints, that He is the God of the heaven and earth, for these are ours—an Abrahamic inheritance in Christ in God.