Isaiah 42:10

David had said: "Sing to him a new song; play skillfully, and shout for joy" (Psalm 33:3). Now Isaiah picks up on the same thought. Psalms 93-110 are examples of "a new song," but their tone is different. There, even nature praises God (Psalms 96-98), but the tone here is not festive at all.

שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה שִׁיר חָדָשׁ תְּהִלָּתוֹ מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם וּמְלֹאוֹ אִיִּים וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶם׃

10 Sing to the LORD a new song, (sing) his praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea, and all that fill it, you islands, and those who dwell in them.

שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה שִׁיר חָדָשׁ Sing to the LORD a new song, שִׁירוּ qal imperative, both noun and verb are identical forms: שִׁיר "sing / song." What does "new" (חָדָשׁ) mean? A change of condition, new for each generation, the Lord's "new mercy" (Lam. 3:23), and the new attitude of the Lord toward the Gentiles. Most of Isaiah's songs are "new" in that they are prophetic.

תְּהִלָּתוֹ מִקְצֵה הָאָרֶץ (sing) his praise from the ends of the earth. Once again we have the Psalm word, תְּהִלָּתוֹ. The קָצֶה is the extreme part or edge of something, including the fringe of a garment or a curtain; the fringe.

יוֹרְדֵי הַיָּם You who go down to the sea, יוֹרְדֵי qal participle, attributive and construct with הַיָּם "the sea." The Jews generally become sailors themselves; they tended to hire Phoenicians. An example of this is in Jonah, when his ship bound for Tarshish is not manned by any Jews, but foreigners who "each prayed to his own god" (Jonah 1:5). It is also evident from the questioned with which they pepper him, "What do you do? Where do you come from? What is your country? From what people are you?" (Jonah 1:8).

וּמְלֹאוֹ and all that fill it, This is a qal infinitive construct used as a noun, "its fillers; inhabitants."

אִיִּים וְיֹשְׁבֵיהֶם you islands, and those who dwell in them. As we have seen, אִיִּים "islands" described all of the people far away, either on coastlands or islands. They are Gentiles.

The new song is sung because of the new condition God has given to us. Because of his forgiveness, we are made new every day. Jeremiah said, “Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness” (Lamentations 3:22-23). And the song is new because of the new people--including the Gentiles--who are hearing the gospel and singing praises to God.

Here a new people sings praise to God, as well. Those "who go down to the sea" were not normally the people of Israel, but the Phoenician sailors they hired and sometimes worked for.

The Phoenicians lived next door to Israel, in cities like Tyre and Sidon, and they spread out all over the Mediterranean Sea. They had colonies all along the northern coastline of Africa, most famously just across from Italy's boot at a place called Carthage. When the Romans fought the Phoenicians in the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, just after the time of Malachi and the close of the Old Testament, they called them Punic wars because of the Latin pronunciation of Phoenician (related to the word phoenix, not to the word punish as is sometimes thought). The Phoenician colonies along the coastlines and throughout the Mediterranean islands are hinted at in this passage: "the sea, and all that is in it, you islands, and all who live in them."

As the "new song" begins, new people like the Phoenicians are singing along. God's mercy extends over all the earth. His forgiveness covers over every one of our sins, and as we carry his message of forgiveness to the world, new voices are added all the time. Every generation and every nation adds new voices to this song, and the rooms of heaven are filled with every believer, known and loved by God from before the creation of the world.

And that goes for you, too.