Psalm 98 (97 in the Vulgate numbering), the responsorial psalm at the Mass during the Day on Christmas, is a jubilant hymn of victory and universal praise. Composed in the post-exilic period, it belongs to the same “enthronement” collection as Psalm 96. The psalmist celebrates a great triumph of God—probably the return from Babylonian exile—described in dramatic, almost military terms: “His right hand and his holy arm have brought salvation” (v. 1). Yet the victory is not over human enemies alone; it is God’s decisive revelation of “his salvation” and “his truth” to Israel and, astonishingly, to all nations: “All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God” (v. 3).

On Christmas Day, after sunrise, when the Church celebrates the full light of the Incarnation, this psalm takes on radiant new meaning. The refrain, drawn directly from verse 3, proclaims that the salvation once hoped for has now been visibly accomplished in the birth of the Messiah. The “wonders” God has worked (v. 1) are no longer only the Exodus or the return from exile; they are supremely the Word made flesh. The “salvation” shown to the nations is the Child lying in the manger, adored first by Jewish shepherds and soon by Gentile Magi.

The second half of the psalm erupts into cosmic and liturgical joy: every corner of creation and every musical instrument must praise the King. At the daytime Mass, with the church now bathed in light, this call to “sing psalms… with the harp… with trumpets and the sound of the horn” perfectly mirrors the festal atmosphere. The same God who remembered “his merciful love and faithfulness to the house of Israel” (v. 3) has now extended that mercy to every people. Christmas Day reveals that the salvation once glimpsed by Israel has broken into history for the whole world to see. All the ends of the earth, indeed, behold their Saviour.