Psalm 149

God is worthy of our praise, and so we  praise Him with vitality, humility and confidence.

Introduction: (600)

I’ve often wondered what it’s like for someone who has never been to church before when the time comes to sing in a service. Do they wonder what the purpose of singing is? Do regulars in church question the purpose of singing? Imagine a church service that had no singing?

So what I want us to do this morning is take a look at Psalm 149. And it’s a Psalm about Praise, which many of the Psalms are. If you read through the book of Psalms, it’s like a song book of praises. And this particular Psalm, I feel, helps us to understand a little bit more about why we praise God together as a group of people.

So Psalm 149 talks about praising God. The opening words in verse 1 are ‘Praise the Lord’ and the closing words in verse 9 are ‘Praise the Lord’. If you had a Hebrew Bible in front of you, you would see the word, ‘Hallelujah’. Because that means ‘Praise the Lord’.

Verse 1 is a call to worship. Praise the Lord (Hallelujah), Sing to the Lord a new song, And his praise in the assembly of the saints. The writer of this Psalm, is calling God’s people, Israel, to worship.  

Try and imagine being part of the Israelite nation. Back in Old Testament times. If you were an Israelite back during that time, you would have been part of God’s people. God’s chosen nation. The other nations weren’t part of God’s nation. They didn’t have that privilege. All the other nations would have worshipped other gods. They would have worshipped idols. The other nations didn’t have God, the God of the universe, the creator of the world, the sustainer of the world as their God.

There’s something about gathering together. There’s something about celebrating with others. We’ve seen that with the rugby world cup celebrations. Our country was united. If that’s how a nation can be because of winning a world cup, Imagine a nation, that had been rescued by the God of the universe, who were God’s special people, God’s chosen people, For whom he had a plan. Imagine them gathering together to celebrate and to sing.

How do we apply that to today? If you’re a Christian. You are part of God’s people. The New Testament shows us that Christians are now God’s Holy nation. So on a day like today, and of course it doesn’t only have to be on a Sunday. It doesn’t only have to be at a church service. The Psalmist is calling those who are in a covenant relationship with God (who in the OT was Israel) to praise Him together. If you’re a Christian, you are in a covenant relationship with God. and Christians can gather together and praise Him.

Now this Psalm makes some helpful points It makes some helpful points regarding worshipping God. I want to highlight 3 things. This Psalm shows us that must praise God joyfully, and we must do this for 3 reasons in this Psalm. Firstly because of who He is, secondly because of what he has done and who we are as a result, and thirdly because He is victorious.

So let’s look at those 3 things.

The first thing: We praise God joyfully for who he is. Look at verses 2 and 3. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the people of Zion be glad in their King. (3) Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.

God is our maker. God is our creator. He created us. We are his creation. We need to rejoice in that. We need to be joyful about that. We need to give our creator the credit that is due to him because of who he is. And one of the ways we can do that is by together acknowledging that he is great. Together acknowledging that He is God. Together acknowledging that he is our maker.

And not only does the Psalmist point out that Israel should rejoice in their maker, but also that they should be glad in their king. The one who rules over them. Does the same apply to us today? Is God your maker? Of course he is. Is God your king? Do you believe that God is in charge of the world. Do you believe that God rules? That God is sovereign? Ultimately that God is the King of the world, and the king of your world. If you’re a Christian you should.

So if you’re a Christian, if you consider yourself to be in a relationship with God, you should rejoice in your maker, and be glad in your king.

With lots of good worship music coming out nowadays, it’s easy to worship worship itself. But our worship isn’t the object of our worship, we worship God.

So by all means, get excited about the songs. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. But what are we to rejoice in? vs 2. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker, let the people of Zion be glad in their King.

Lets glorify the one who created us. Let’s be glad in the one who rules over us. Let’s be glad that it’s God who has the world in his hands.

The next thing is that we praise God for what he’s done, and who we are as a result.

So verse 3 says:  (3) Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.

Why? Verse 4: For the Lord takes delight in His people; he crowns the humble with salvation. (5) Let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds.

God loves his people. He loved Israel. He loves you. He takes delight in his people. Just think about the characteristics of God that have been put forward in this psalm so far. God is our maker, our creator. He’s the one who put this world together. Who created it. He’s the one who created you and I. He is king. He is sovereign. He rules over the whole world. He’s got the whole world in his hands.

So just think about this. The God who has the whole world in his hands. Who rules the world. Who sustains the world. the world that he created. That God, takes delight in his people. That God takes delight in His people praising his name with dancing and making music to him with tambourine and harp. When we praised God earlier, God took delight in that. God was pleased that we praised him. God was pleased and delighted that we worshipped him.

Is this grovelling nervously before God? Is God being egotistical expecting us to worship Him?

No, it’s us putting God in his rightful place. It’s us giving God the recognition he deserves. If you meet the president or the queen, you would give that person the recognition that they deserve.

When we praise God. When we acknowledge that He is king. When we acknowledge that he is maker. When we acknowledge that He is God. We are giving him the recognition that he rightfully deserves. We are placing him where he should be. Where he deserves to be. And we are humbling ourselves before him.  because we musn’t miss what verse 4 is saying. Just read it again:

4: For the Lord takes delight in His people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

He crowns the humble with salvation has also been translated as He adorns the humble with salvation. One translation says ‘he beautifies the humble with salvation.’ In other words. If we lower ourselves to our rightful position, where we are holding up God in his rightful position. We’re putting God on the throne, and acknowledging that he is king. He is maker. This is his world. It’s not Colin’s world. It’s not your world. When we acknowledge that he is king, and in charge. And that we’re not. And we need him to set us straight. We get elevated and beautified, and adorned and crowned to a position that we don’t deserve. For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

(5) Let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds.

What an honour it is, for God to delight in his people. What an honour it is to be crowned with salvation, or adorned with salvation, beautified with salvation. Rejoice in this honour. Be joyful about this.

None of us are worthy of having a relationship with God. None of us deserve it. Our default position is that we are actually enemies of God. Our natural born state, is that we live for ourselves and not for God. The Bible refers to that as sin. And that is our status before God. and the consequence of that status is that we deserve God’s judgement. There’s an eternity waiting for you, and if your status is that of sinfulness, the eternity that awaits you according to scripture isn’t a good one.

But if you have humbled yourself before God. If you’ve acknowledged that He is king. His ways are best. You’ve taken the forgiveness that he has offered. The forgiveness that he’s made available because he sent Jesus to die on a cross. If you’ve said, I’m going to put God on the throne, take myself off. You have been crowned / adorned / beautified with salvation.

Let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds.

In other words: This is something we need to rejoice in because of what God has done, and who we are as a result of that. And that is something we do in praise and worship times at the church. But sing about it on your bed. Now that could mean literally singing on your bed. That word for bed, by the way could also be translated as couch. The thing you sit on in your lounge. So what I think the Psalmist is saying, is that we praise God in church. But we praise God even when we’re not at church. Our lives need to be lives of worship. What we do here in church when we sing. What the saints do together when they gather and praise God, that’s an expression of your heart. Not just how you feel on a Sunday morning. But it’s an expression of someone whose life has been changed and saved by the maker and creator. We should constantly have this attitude of praise. Not just on a Sunday.

Kanye West was on the Jimmy Kimmel show. And one of the questions that Jimmy Kimmel asked him was, “Do you feel born again, Kanye? Would you consider yourself to be a Christian music artist right now?’ And I love Kanye’s answer: ‘I’m a Christian everything!’

In other words, I’m not just this Christian artist who does Christian art, Christian music. I’m not just a Christian performer, and sell Christian albums. It’s not just about the music. That’s an expression of who I am. I’m a Christian everything.

That song by Matt Redman:  “The Heart of Worship”, where the pre chorus goes, “I’ll bring you more than a song, because a song in itself, is not what you have required, you search much deeper within than the way things appear, you’re looking into my heart.” May the way we sing on Sunday reflect our attitudes on a Monday.

And then 3rdly: we can praise God joyfully and confidently because he is victorious and triumphant.

So the Psalmist has just been talking about the saints rejoicing in the honour of being adorned and crowned with salvation. But now the Psalm seems to take a weird turn. It starts to get militant. So still talking about the saints he says vs 6: May the praise of God be in their mouths.

And a double edged sword in their hands, (7) to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples. (8) to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, (9) to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all the saints.

From praising God among the people. Praising God together with the saints. Praising God on their beds. Having a heart of worship. To holding a double edged sword in their hands. Inflicting vengeance and punishment on the nations. Binding kings with fetters. Binding the nobles with shackles of iron, carrying out the sentence against them.

What is that about?

Part of the purpose of praise is to equip the saints for battle. Please note, when you see God’s people going into battle. They are doing what God has commanded them to do. They are executing God’s commands. They are serving their King. They are serving God and serving God’s purpose of judging the other nations. There are nations that have rebelled against God. Nations that are enemies of God. And God is judging them. God’s people are the instruments used to fulfil God’s purposes. God’s people are the instruments of God’s judgement. So the pagan kings will be bound in shackles, to carry out the sentence against them.

Please note that this is not God’s people appointing themselves as judge and jury. God’s people are not called to start a hit list and start taking it upon themselves to punish those who offend God. Like in these movies where there’s some serial killer, and they find out that his motivation was he took it upon himself to punish someone who was breaking the 10 commandments. Or the 7 deadly sins.

When we get to the new Testament. We get to Ephesians, that famous passage that goes on to talk about putting on the full armour of God. Just a couple of verses before Paul starts listing those things, in Ephesians 6 vs 12, Paul writes this: For our struggle (or battle) is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in this dark world.

That’s the battle that we as God’s people have been commanded to go into and fight. Not against flesh and blood. Like you had in the Old Testament. We’re not commanded to fight holy wars. But the battle we face today is against rulers, authorities and powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in this dark world.

He’s talking here about spiritual warfare. So we fight temptation,we stand up for the truth, we persevere in our faith, we help those who can’t help themselves. We keep sharing the good news about Jesus. And we do all of this with the praise of God in our mouths, and a double edged sword in our hands (vs 6). In other words we do it as people who have put ourselves in our humble place and placed God in his rightful place, as King, as Lord. And let’s remember that when God sends his people into battle, he is victorious. We can know that God is victorious because he sent his son to win that victory on the cross. So we still struggle with all these things we struggle with. But we know that because of Jesus, there will come a day, when that struggle will be no more. We can praise God victoriously. It should give us confidence as we go and battle it out against the evil forces that wage against us.

Home Group questions:                                 

Read Psalm 149

1. Do you enjoy singing in church? Why / why not?
2. What should we praise God for? (vs 2)
3. Why should we make music to God and dance before him? (vs 3 & 4)
4. What does it mean for the saints to ‘sing for joy on their beds’? (vs 5)
5. How do we apply vs 6-9 to us today?
6. Spend some time in prayer, specifically praising God.