a sea (as breaking in noisy surf) or large body of water · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
roar
יִרְעַ֣םyir.'Am
H7481
to tumble · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
fulness
וּמְלֹא֑וֹu.me.lo.'O
H4393
fulness (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
world
תֵּ֝בֵ֗לte.Vel
H8398
the earth (as moist and therefore inhabited) · noun, common feminine singular construct
dwell
וְיֹ֣שְׁבֵיve.Yo.she.vei
H3427
properly · conjunction + verb, qal active participle, masculine plural construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Isaiah 49:13 Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people, and will have me…
Psalms 24:1 The earth is the LORD’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Psalms 96:11-97:1 Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.
Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will caus…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Psalms 98:4–end
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, Psa 95:1, Psa 95:2. 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 Hosannas (Mat 21:9), sing Hallelujahs, Rev 19:6. Let him be welcomed to the throne, as new kings are, with acclamations of joy and loud shouts, till the earth ring again, as when Solomon was proc…
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.
John Calvin on Psalms 98:4–end
Psalm 98:4-9
4. Exult before Jehovah all the earth; make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise. 5. Sing to Jehovah upon the harp, upon the harp, and with the voice of a psalm. [111] 6. With trumpets, and sound of the cornet, sing before Jehovah the King. 7. Let the sea roar, and the fullness thereof; the world, and those who dwell therein. [112] 8. Let the floods clap their hands: [113] let the hills be joyful together, 9. Before Jehovah: for he cometh to judge the earth; with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with uprightness.
4 Exult before Jehovah all the earth Here he repeats the exhortation with which he had begun, and by addressing it to the nations at large…
Here, too, it is all an echo of the earlier language of Psalms and prophets: Psa 98:7 = Psa 96:11; Psa 98:7 like Psa 24:1; Psa 98:8 after Isa 55:12 (where we find מחא כּף instead of the otherwise customary תּקע כּף, Psa 47:2; or הכּה כּף, Kg2 11:12, is said of the trees of the field); Psa 98:9 - Psa 96:13, cf. Psa 36:10. In the bringing in of nature to participate in the joy of mankind, the clapping rivers (נהרות) are original to this Psalm: the rivers cast up high waves, which flow into one another like clapping hands;
(Note: Luther renders: "the water-floods exult" (frohlocken); and Eychman's Vocabularius predicantium explains plaudere by "to exult (frohlocken) for joy, to smite the hands…
The Church Fathers
Let the sea be moved, and the fullness thereof. Let the sea be moved, and let the bitter waters be changed into sweet. In fact, Marah too was changed and made into a sweet taste. Nothing else made that bitter water sweet except the wood of the cross, which had been cast into it. It seems to me that the bitter sea is the law of Moses. This is what is called Marah, that is, 'bitter.' This bitter water of the old law received the wood of the cross, and was made sweet.
While ye are rejoicing, and delighted with the ductile trumpets, and the voice of the horn, what followeth? "Let the sea be stirred up, and the fulness thereof" (ver. 7). Brethren, when the Apostles, like ductile trumpets and horns, were preaching the truth, the sea was stirred up, its waves arose, tempests increased, persecutions of the Church took place. Whence hath the sea been stirred up? When a joyful noise was made, when Psalms of thanksgiving were being sung before God: the ears of God were pleased, the waves of the sea were raised. "Let the sea be stirred up, and the fulness thereof: the round world, and all that dwell therein." Let the sea be stirred up in its persecutions. "Let the floods clap their hands together" (ver. 8). Let the sea be aroused, and the floods clap their hands together; persecutions arise, and the saints rejoice in God. Whence shall the floods clap their hands? What is to clap their hands? To rejoice in works. To clap hands, is to rejoice; hands, mean works. What floods? Those whom God hath made floods, by giving them that Water, the Holy Spirit. "If any man thirst," saith He, "let him come unto Me, and drink. He that believeth on Me, out of his bosom shall flow rivers of living water." These rivers clapped their hands, these rivers rejoiced in works, and blessed God. "The hills shall be joyful together."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
The created order is personified as rejoicing at the coming of the righteous Judge (see 93:3-4; 96:11-13).
Spurgeon's Treasury of David on Psalms 98:7
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.
Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof. Even its thunders will not be too grand for such a theme. Handel, in some of his sublime choruses, would have been glad of its aid to express his lofty conceptions, and assuredly the inspired psalmist did well to call in such infinite uproar. The sea is his, let it praise its Maker. Within and upon its bosom it bears a wealth of goodness, why should it be denied a place in the orchestra of nature? Its deep bass will excellently suit the mystery of the divine glory. The world, and they that dwell therein. The land should be in harmony with the ocean. Its mountains and…
