The interpretation timeline

Ps 98:4

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Jewish · 1 Catholic · 1 Lutheran

Ps 98:4 · Douay-Rheims
“And the king’s honour loveth judgment. Thou hast prepared directions: thou hast done judgment and justice in Jacob.”
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“and the might of the King Who loves judgment This refers back to the preceding verse. You founded equity You founded compromise and peacemaking between persons, by Your statement (Exod. 23:5): “Should you see your enemy’s donkey lying etc.”; (ibid. verse 4), “Should you come upon Your enemy’s ox, etc.” Now who is it who sees his enemy being kind to him, whose heart will not be inspired to embrace him and kiss him? (Tanchuma).”
Source
744 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Post-Reformation c. 1650 – 1900
1849
A.D.
1774–1849
“Loveth judgment. Requireth discretion. (Calmet) — Hebrew, “the king’s strength loveth judgment.” He does nothing unjustly, as the enemy is forced to confess. (Calmet) — This is the highest glory of a king. (Theodoret) — God requires that we should honour him, by correcting our faults. (St. Augustine) — Directions. Most right and just laws to direct men. (Challoner) — Jacob. There God principally instructed mankind, and punished the perverse. Other nations he seemed to have left to themselves. (Haydock)”
Source
1875
A.D.
Keil & Delitzsch Lutheran
1861–1875
“The second Sanctus celebrates Jahve with respect to His continuous righteous rule in Israel. The majority of expositors construe it: "And (they shall praise) the might of the king, who loves right;" but this joining of the clause on to יודוּ over the refrain that stands in the way is hazardous. Neither can ועז מלך משׁפּט אהב, however, be an independent clause, since אהב cannot be said of עז, but only of its possessor. And the dividing of the verse at אהב, adopted by the lxx, will therefore not hold good. משפט אהב is an attributive clause to מלך in the same position as in Psa 11:7; and עז, with what appertains to it, is the object to כּוננתּ placed first, which has the king's throne as its object elsewhere (Psa 9:8, Sa2 7:13; Ch1 17:12), just as it here has the might of the king, which, however, here at the same time in מישׁרים takes another and permutative object (cf. the permutative subject in Psa 72:17), as Hitzig observes; or rather, since מישׁרים is most generally used as an adverbial notion, this מישׁרים (Psa 58:2; Psa 75:3; Psa 9:9, and frequently), usually as a definition of the mode of the judging and reigning, is subordinated: and the might of a king who loves the right, i.e., of one who governs not according to dynastic caprice but moral precepts, hast Thou established in spirit and aim (directed to righteousness and equity). What is meant is the theocratic kingship, and Psa 11:4 says what Jahve has constantly accomplished by means of this kingship: He has thus maintained right and righteousness (cf. e.g., Sa2 8:15; Ch1 18:14; Kg1 10:9; Isa 16:5) among His people. Out of this manifestation of God's righteousness, which is more conspicuous, and can be better estimated, within the nation of the history of redemption than elsewhere, grows the call to highly exalt Jahve the God of Israel, and to bow one's self very low at His footstool. להדם רגליו, as in Psa 132:7, is not a statement of the object (for Isa 45:14 is of another kind), but (like אל in other instances) of the place in which, or of the direction (cf. Psa 7:14) in which the προσκύνησις is to take place. The temple is called Jahve's footstool (Ch1 28:2, cf. Lam 2:1; Isa 60:13) with reference to the ark, the capporeth of which corresponds to the transparent sapphire (Exo 24:10) and to the crystal-like firmament of the mercaba (Eze 1:22, cf. Ch1 28:18).”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.