Life is a journey, and the fourth section of the Psalms, known as the Numbers' Psalms, show us the goodness and guidance of God along that journey.

If we want to move forward, we must look up. Let's join Scott Pauley now as we open the Word of God and find direction for the road of life.

Every song has a story. I have enjoyed through the years researching the background, both of the writers and the songs themselves, of hymns that we sing and gospel songs. Well, the same thing is true of the Psalms. Every Psalm has some setting. Now, we're not certain of all of them, but we know

many of them, and we're in a section of the Psalms right now that is fascinating. Psalm 97, 98, 99, and 100.

Those four Psalms really go together, Psalm 100 being the most famous of them, but four Psalms that all revolve around

a special event that happened in Second Chronicles chapter 7. You remember when David brings the

ark back into the temple? You remember it was carried away by the enemies? It's been gone for a number of

years. It comes back into the temple. And when the ark comes back in, you want to

talk about a rejoicing. David, of course, begins to sing and dance and rejoice and praise God.

And by the way, every sincere person did. Why? Because the ark represented the visible presence

of God among his people. And so they began to sing and rejoice.

And this section of Psalms, Psalm 97 through 100, we believe, was written on that occasion.

And we've come to Psalm 98.

I'm going to do something a little different.

I'm going to read to the middle part of Psalm 98.

Then we'll look at the way it begins and

ends. Right in the middle of Psalm 98, we read these words beginning in verse four, make a joyful

noise under the Lord all the earth. Make a loud noise and rejoice and sing praise. Sing into the Lord

with the harp with the voice of a psalm with trumpets and sound of

cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord the King let the sea roar and the fullness

thereof the world and they that dwell therein let the floods clap their hands let

the hills be joyful together I think the tone of the Psalm is pretty well known. It's jubilant. It's wonderful.

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