The Bible Commentaries and Others: Psalms 149 v 4

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Posted by Psalms on Sunday, 17 January 2016

Psalms 149:4

For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

4. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. Therefore they should take pleasure in him. If our joy be pleasing to him let us make it full. What condescension is this on Jehovah’s part, to notice, to love, and to delight in his chosen! Surely there is nothing in our persons, or our actions, which could cause pleasure to the Ever-blessed One, were it not that he condescends to people of low estate. The thought of the Lord’s taking pleasure in us is a mine of joy never to be exhausted. He will beautify the meek with salvation. They are humble, and feel their need of salvation; he is gracious, and bestows it upon them. They lament their deformity, and he puts a beauty upon them of the choicest sort. He saves them by sanctifying them, and thus they wear the beauty of holiness, and the beauty of a joy which springs out of full salvation. He makes his people meek, and then makes the meek beautiful. Herein is grand argument for worshiping the Lord with the utmost exultation: he who takes such a pleasure in us must be approached with exceeding joy.

God takes pleasure in all his children as Jacob loved all his sons; but the meek are his Josephs, and upon these he puts the coat of many colors, beautifying them with peace, content, joy, holiness, and influence. A meek and quiet spirit is called “an ornament,” and certainly it is “the beauty of holiness.” When God himself beautifies someone, that person becomes beautiful indeed and beautiful forever.

The verse may be read, “He shall beautify the meek with salvation,” or “He shall beautify the afflicted with deliverance,” or “He shall beautify the meek with victory”; each of these readings gives a new shade of meaning, well worthy of quiet consideration and joyful adoration.

Excerpt from:

The Treasury of David by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)