The Bible Commentaries and Others: Psalms 149

Psalm 149

149:1. Praise ye the Lord. Specially you, chosen people, whom he has made to be his saints. With renewed zeal and fresh delight lift up your song unto Jehovah. Sing unto the Lord a new song. Sing, for it is the fittest method for expressing reverent praise. Sing a hymn newly composed, for you have now a new knowledge of God. He is ever new in his manifestations; his mercies are new every morning; his deliverances are new in every night of sorrow; let your gratitude and thanksgivings be new also. It is well to repeat the old; it is more useful to invent the new. Our singing should be unto the Lord; the songs we sing should be of him and to him, “for of him, and to him, and through him are all things.” Among our novelties there should be new songs; alas, people are fonder of making new complaints than new psalms. Our new songs should be devised in Jehovah’s honor; indeed all our newest thoughts should run towards him. Never can we find a nobler subject for a song than the Lord, nor one more full of fresh matter for a new song, nor one which we are personally so much bound to sing as a new song “unto the Lord.” And his praise in the congregation of saints. God is in the midst of saints, and because of this we may well long to be among them. They are so full of his praise that we feel at home among them when we are ourselves full of praise. The sanctuary is the house of praise as well as the house of prayer. All saints praise God: they would not be saints if they did not. Personal praise is sweet unto God, but congregated praise has a multiplicity of sweetnesses in it. Saints do not gather to amuse themselves with music, nor to extol one another, but to sing his praise whose saints they are. A congregation of saints is heaven upon earth. Yet at times even saintly conclaves need to be stirred up to thanksgiving; for saints may be sad and apprehensive, and then their spirits require to be stimulated to happier worship.

149:2. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him. Here is that new creation which calls for the new song. It was Jehovah who made Israel to be Israel, and the tribes to become a great nation: therefore let the Founder of the nation be had in perpetual honor. Joy and rejoicing are evidently to be the special characteristics of the new song. The religion of the dead in sin is more apt to chant dirges than to sing hallelujahs; but when we are made new in the spirit of our minds we rejoice in him that made us. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Those who had seen the tribes formed into a settled kingdom as well as into a united nation should rejoice. Israel is the nation, Zion is the capital of the kingdom: Israel rejoices in her Maker, Zion in her King. In the case of our God we who believe in him are as glad of his government as we are of his creation: his reign is as truly the making of us as was his divine power. The children of Israel are happy to be made a people; the children of Zion are equally happy to be ruled as a people. In every way our God is the source of joy to us: this verse issues a permit to our joy; it lays an injunction upon us to be glad in the Lord.

149:3. Let them repeat the triumph of the Red Sea, which was ever the typical glory of Israel. Miriam led the daughters of Israel in the dance when the Lord had triumphed gloriously. The sacred dance of devout joy is no example, nor even excuse, for frivolous dances, much less for lewd ones. Who could help dancing when Egypt was vanquished, and the tribes were free? Every mode of expressing delight was bound to be employed on so memorable an occasion. Dancing, singing, and playing on instruments were all called into requisition, and most fitly so. There are unusual seasons which call for unusual expressions of joy. When the Lord saves a soul its holy joy overflows, and it cannot find channels enough for its exceeding gratitude: if the man does not leap, or play, or sing, at any rate he praises God, and wishes for a thousand tongues with which to magnify his Saviour. Who would wish it to be otherwise? Young converts are not to be restrained in their joy. Let them sing and dance while they can. How can they mourn now that their Bridegroom is with them? Let us give the utmost liberty to joy. Let us never attempt its suppression, but issue in the terms of this verse a double license for exultation. If any ought to be glad it is the children of Zion; rejoicing is more fit for Israel than for any other people: it is their own folly and fault that they are not oftener brimming with joy in God, for the very thought of him is delight.

149:4. 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.

149:5. Let the saints be joyful in glory. God has honored them, and put a rare glory upon them; therefore let them exult therein. Shall those to whom God is their glory be east down and troubled? No, let their joy proclaim their honorable estate. Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Their exultation should express itself in shouts and songs, for it is not a feeling of which they have any need to be ashamed. Even in their quietest retreats let them burst into song; when no one hears them, let them sing aloud unto God. If confined by sickness let them joy in God. In the night watches let them not lie awake and weep, but like nightingales let them charm the midnight hours. Their shouts are not now for the battlefield, but for the places of their rest: they can peacefully lie down and yet enjoy the victory with which the Lord has beautified them. Without fighting, faith wins and sings the victory. What a blessing to have our beds made into thrones, and our retirements turned into triumphs!

149:6. It seems they are not always on their beds, but are ready for deeds of prowess. When called to fight, the meek are very hard to overcome; they are just as steady in conflict as they are steadfast in patience. Besides, their way of fighting is of an extraordinary sort, for they sing to God but keep their swords in their hands. They can do two things at a time: if they do not wield the trowel and the sword, at least they sing and strike. In this Israel was not an example, but a type: we will not copy the chosen people in making literal war, but we will fulfill the emblem by carrying on spiritual war. We praise God and contend with our corruptions; we sing joyfully and war earnestly with evil of every kind. Our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty. The Word of God is all edge; whichever way we turn it, it strikes deadly blows at falsehood and wickedness. If we do not praise we shall grow sad in our song. The verse indicates a happy blending of chorister and crusader.

Note how each thing in the believer is emphatic: if he sings, it is high praises, and praises deep down in his throat, as the original has it; and if he fights, the sword is two-edged. The living God imparts vigorous life to those who trust him: people both hear them and feel them. Quiet is their spirit, but in that very quietude abides the thunder of an irresistible force. When godly people give battle to the powers of evil each conflict is high praise unto the God of goodness. Even the tumult of our holy war is a part of the music of our lives.

149:7. Israel when they came into Canaan fulfilled the righteous sentence of the Lord upon guilty nations. At this hour, under the gentler dispensation of grace, we wrestle not with flesh and blood; yet is our warfare none the less stern, and our victory none the less sure. All evil will eventually be over-thrown: the Lord will display his justice against evildoers, and in that warfare his servants will play their parts. The saints will judge the world. Both the conflict and the victory at the end of it will cause glory to God, and honor to his holy ones.

149:8. Thus are the greatest enemies of Jehovah and his people reduced to shame, rendered helpless, and themselves punished. This was Israel’s boast in actual fact; it is ours spiritually. The chief powers of evil will be restrained and ultimately destroyed. Those who made captives of the godly will themselves be made captive. The powers of evil cannot bind our King, but by his power their king will be bound with a great chain, and shut up in the bottomless pit, that he may at length be trodden under the feet of saints.

149:9. To execute upon them the judgment written. Israel as a nation had this to do, and did it, and then they rejoiced in the God who gave success to their arms. We praise our God after another fashion; we are not executioners of justice, but heralds of mercy. It would be a sad thing for anyone to misuse this text: lest any warlike believer should be led to do so, we would remind them that the execution must not go beyond the sentence and warrant; and we have received no warrant of execution against our fellow-men. Christians have no commission of vengeance; it is theirs to execute the command of mercy, and that alone. This honor have all his saints. All the godly shared in the triumphs of the Lord when he smote Israel’s foes. We have like honor, but it is shown in victories of another sort. All the holy ones are sent upon errands by their holy Lord. The honors described in this psalm are common to all the family of grace; and such service as the Lord appoints is to be undertaken by every one of them, without exception. The Lord honors all his chosen here, and he will glorify them all hereafter: this rule is without exception. Surely in this we have the best argument for glorifying the Lord, wherefore we close our new song with another Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord.

Excerpt from:

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