Praise the LORD! We Win!
Psalms 149
January 29, 2023
Tonight we come to the 149th Psalm.
It is the 4th of the 5 “Hallelujah Psalms”
And tonight we study the one which might be the most obvious reason
We know to shout Hallelujah!
TONIGHT WE SING SONGS OF VICTORY!
And I think perhaps the best thing to do tonight
Is to simply jump right into the Psalm.
It breaks down into 2 main points rather easily.
#1 REJOICE IN EXPERIENCED VICTORY
Psalms 149:1-4
When you read the Psalm as a whole it is obviously
A Psalm that focuses on victory, even military victory.
In verse 6 they even pull out their “two-edged sword”.
And the Psalm begins with the congregation
Being called upon to praise God
For the victory they have recently enjoyed.
They are called to “Praise the LORD!”
FOR if you’ve studied any of the victories of Israel
You know that everyone only occurred because of the hand of God.
• Very often outmatched…
• Very often outnumbered…
• Very often overwhelmed…
• And then God would grant the improbable victory.
Certainly God is praised for every victory.
Psalms 33:13-22 “The LORD looks from heaven; He sees all the sons of men; From His dwelling place He looks out On all the inhabitants of the earth, He who fashions the hearts of them all, He who understands all their works. The king is not saved by a mighty army; A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory; Nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope for His lovingkindness, To deliver their soul from death And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart rejoices in Him, Because we trust in His holy name. Let Your lovingkindness, O LORD, be upon us, According as we have hoped in You.”
God has always been the only hope of Israel.
Well here they have won a new battle
So they are encouraged to “Sing to the LORD a new song”
• New victories call for new celebrations.
• New deliverances call for new praise.
And the entire congregation is to join in:
They are to sing “His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.”
All of Israel is called to stop what they are doing
And take a moment to praise their God.
(2-3) “Let Israel be glad in his Maker; Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King. Let them praise His name with dancing; Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.”
• You’ve got gladness and rejoicing.
• You’ve got praise and dancing.
• You’ve got tambourines and guitars.
It is a congregational celebration after the great victory.
We think of that ICONIC PICTURE of the streets of New York after WWII was over and people celebrating in the streets and that one soldier kissing that nurse in Time Square.
Everyone around is celebrating and dancing and even kissing.
THAT IS THE PICTURE HERE.
We think of such times in the past:
TURN TO: EXODUS 15:1-21
It is the celebration of Israel.
• They are singing the song of Moses.
• Miriam has all the women dancing.
• It is a glorious time of deliverance.
Or this mighty victory:
1 Samuel 18:6-7 “It happened as they were coming, when David returned from killing the Philistine, that the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with joy and with musical instruments. The women sang as they played, and said, “Saul has slain his thousands, And David his ten thousands.”
That is the type of celebration the Psalmist calls for.
• Get up Israel!
• Sing to the LORD!
• He has granted you a great victory.
Certainly this reveals a relief from oppressors.
• The Egyptians will never bother you again…
• The great Philistine is dead…
THAT ALONE IS REASON TO CELEBRATE.
But even more than that:
It’s not just what the victory accomplished,
But also what the victory meant.
The God of the universe came down to help YOU in battle.
What honor that God has poured upon YOU
To take such an interest in YOUR battle.
(4) “For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
God just did something for Israel that He didn’t do for everyone.
• He singled them out for favor.
• He singled them out for deliverance.
• He singled them out for salvation.
We read that story of Jacob and his sons and how he loved Joseph more because he was the son of his old age and how he clothed Joseph in that “coat of many colors”.
His favor towards Joseph was obvious,
Even to the point that it incited the other brothers to jealousy.
Well God treated all of Israel as His Joseph.
“He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.”
He singled them out.
He showed them His favor.
AND THIS IS PURE GRACE:
• Who was Abram that God should choose to bless him?
• Who was Moses that God should choose to elevate him?
• Who was David that God should choose to anoint him?
• Who was Israel that God should choose to exalt them?
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Or you could read again that 16th chapter of Ezekiel
• Where Israel is seen as that “throw away baby”
• Who was left out in the field abandoned to die,
• But God saw them and rescued them and adorned them with beauty.
That is the calling of the opening of this Psalm.
“Praise the LORD!”
• He favored us!
• He delivered us!
• He granted us victory over our enemies!
• Sing to Him
• Dance for Him
• Play the timbrel and lyre for Him
• Celebrate the victory which He has granted
“For the LORD takes pleasure in His people;”
They may have actually wondered for a while if God still cared for them.
They may have grown wearied after years of making bricks in Egypt.
But God intervened!
He led them out with a mighty hand!
He drowned the Egyptians in the sea!
He does love us!
He does favor us!
We are His people!
SING TO HIM!
That is the spirit of the opening of this Psalm.
Rejoice in Experienced Victory!
#2 REJOICE IN EXPECTED VICTORY
Psalms 149:5-9
The tone of the Psalm changes now
With the introduction of the word “Let”
Which implies something that should be done from this time forward.
“Let the godly ones exult in glory;”
The idea here is that they exult in future glory.
“godly ones” here is a great term.
• We are NOT just talking about people who live “good lives”.
• We are talking about people who have chosen God over the things of this
world.
We learned in 1 John that you’re either of God OR of the devil.
You are either godly people OR you are worldly people.
The reference here is to people who have forsaken this world
That they might hang on to the promise of God.
And the Psalmist says that those people should “exult in glory”
It is the truth reiterated regarding Abraham:
Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”
These people can smile at the future.
The Psalmist also calls them to “sing for joy on their beds.”
• It is the night before the battle.
• It is the night before the upcoming turmoil.
But they now have no fear.
• They know that their God is for them.
• They know they are favored.
• They know the victory will be secured by Him.
So the night before the battle as they lay on their beds
There is no fear, only excitement.
They know they will win for God is for them.
And as they awaken in the morning:
(6) “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand,”
• They wake up tomorrow ready for battle and filled with praise.
• They know God will grant the victory.
• They are His favored children.
And they will go forth:
(7-9a) “To execute vengeance on the nations And punishment on the peoples, To bind their kings with chains And their nobles with fetters of iron, To execute on them the judgment written;”
IT IS A PICTURE OF THE CONQUEST.
God delivered them out of Egypt with a mighty hand and let it be know that they are His people.
Now they arise to take Canaan and no one can stand before them for God is on their side.
• They go to “execute vengeance on the nations”
• They go to execute “punishment on the people”
• They go “to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron”
• They go “to execute on them the judgment written”
We saw this truth this Wednesday night
As we studied Genesis with the youth.
As God was promising to give the land of Canaan to Abraham He said:
Genesis 15:13-16 “God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. “But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions. “As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you will be buried at a good old age. “Then in the fourth generation they will return here, for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
God said that Abram’s descendants would return.
We know they would return and kill the Canaanites.
And here God says why it did not happen in the days of Abram,
But would be over 400 years later;
“for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete.”
I had an Old Testament professor during my brief time at seminary who asked “Was God ethical to order the annihilation of all the people of Canaan?”
You know it’s this view that
• We had all these poor innocent people in Canaan
• And God just sort of blind-sided them with death
• And kicked them out of the land.
But what we find in Scripture is that those people
Should have been judged long before they actually were.
God allowed those people to survive long past what they deserved.
And once their iniquity was complete He judged them.
ONLY
• He DIDN’T judge them with a flood like in Noah’s day.
• And He DIDN’T judge them with fire from heaven like with Sodom.
No, God judged them with the armies of Israel.
• They were God’s flood.
• They were God’s fire.
• They were God’s sword.
We think of the truth Paul revealed to the Romans:
Romans 9:18-24 “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”
God patiently endured Pharaoh until it was time to show His power
And then He was perfectly just in destroying him.
God had also patiently endured the idolatrous Canaanites
Who managed to serve the purpose
To preserve and prepare the land of Canaan for His people.
And then God used Israel as His method of judgment upon them.
And you can go read the book of Joshua and see how God toppled
• Jericho and Ai
• And the Hittite
• And the Amorite
• And the Canaanite
• And the Perizzite
• And the Hivite
• And the Jebusite.
Those were sinners who had refused to repent
And who had ignored the testimony of creation
And had bowed down to worship foreign Gods.
And God unleashed judgment upon them with the armies of Israel.
And here you have Israel on the eve before those battles
Celebrating the certain victory.
And the Psalmist says:
“This is an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the LORD!”
This was an honor which God bestowed upon Israel.
They were His people and He honored them with victory in battle.
And so you see the driving force behind this Psalm of praise.
• Israel is called to Praise the Lord for the victories they have experienced and
for those they are about to.
• They are honored people who have received both the favor of God’s victory
and the honor of being God’s forces of judgment.
That’s what this Psalm calls them to praise God for.
The question that arises now is:
HOW DOES THE CHURCH SING THIS SONG?
We don’t slay the wicked.
Some see this as an “end times” type of song
About some future day in which we join Christ in slaying His enemies.
BUT THIS IS NOT AN ESCATALOGICAL PSALM
This is NOT looking forward to the coming judgment of the wicked.
When Christ returns to judge the living and the dead
It is NOT the church who takes up the sword and slaughters the wicked.
That judgment will be poured out at the hands of the holy angels.
2 Thessalonians 1:6-8 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.”
So we DON’T read this Psalm and then begin to look for the day
When we take up the sword to strike down wicked men.
BUT THE CHURCH DOES STILL SING THIS SONG!
DO WE NOT STILL REJOICE IN EXPERIENCED SALVATION?
Are we not aware of what we are?
• No better than Abram the pagan…
• No less significant than the youngest brother David…
• No less useable than the 80 year old shepherd Moses…
Titus 3:3 “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.”
Yet, what God did for Israel, He also did for us.
He saved us!
He set us free!
He granted us victory!
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 “O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The Psalmist called for Israel to praise God saying:
“He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation”
• We spoke of Israel being clothed in Joseph’s coat of many colors.
• And yet we have been wrapped in the righteous robe of Jesus.
He has covered us with more beauty than imaginable.
TURN TO:
EPHESIANS 1:1-14
KEEP READING:
EPHESIANS 2:1-22
Just take that in!
• That is our Exodus!
• That our passing through the Red Sea!
• God delivered us from our sin and clothed us with salvation.
We are justified in the works of Jesus.
• Certainly we can sing that new song!
• Certainly we can join Moses in singing and Miriam in dancing!
• Certainly we can outdo the celebration in Times Square!
We have been granted the victory and so much more.
And yet that’s not all.
WE ALSO REJOICE IN EXPECTED VICTORY
2 Corinthians 2:14-17 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things? For we are not like many, peddling the word of God, but as from sincerity, but as from God, we speak in Christ in the sight of God.”
Paul speaks of “triumph in Christ”
The Roman triumph was a unique picture.
William Barclay wrote:
“In [Paul’s] mind is the picture of Roman Triumph and of Christ as a universal conqueror. The highest honor which could be given to a victorious Roman general was a Triumph. To attain it he must satisfy certain conditions. He must have been the actual commander-in-chief in the field. The campaign must have been completely finished, the region pacified and the victorious troops brought home. Five thousand of the enemy at least must have fallen in one engagement. A positive extension of territory must have been gained, and not merely a disaster retrieved or an attack repelled. And the victory must have been won over a foreign foe and not in a civil war.
In a Triumph the procession of the victorious general marched through the streets of Rome to the Capitol in the following order. First came the state officials and the senate. Then came the trumpeters. Then were carried the spoils taken from the conquered land. For instance, when Titus conquered Jerusalem, the seven-branched candlestick, the golden table of the shew-bread and the golden trumpets were carried through the streets of Rome. Then came pictures of the conquered land and models of conquered citadels and ships. There followed the white bull for the sacrifice which would be made. Then there walked the captive princes, leaders and generals in chains, shortly to be flung into prison and in all probability almost immediately to be executed. Then came the lictors bearing their rods, followed by the musicians with their lyres; then the priests swinging their censers with the sweet-smelling incense burning in them. After that came the general himself. He stood in a chariot drawn by four horses. He was clad in a purple tunic embroidered with golden palm leaves, and over it a purple toga marked out with golden stars. In his hand he held an ivory scepter with the Roan eagle at its top and over his head a slave held the crown of Jupiter. After him rode his family; and finally came the army wearing all their decorations and shouting lo triumphe! Their cry of triumph. As the procession moved through the streets, all decorated and garlanded, amid the cheering crowds, it made a tremendous day which might happen only once in a lifetime.
That is the picture that is in Paul’s mind, He sees Christ marching in triumph throughout the world, and himself in that conquering train. It is a triumph which, Paul is certain, nothing can stop.”
(cited in MacArthur’s commentary of 2 Corinthians, pg. 68-69)
Paul knew that everywhere he went
The gates of hell could not prevail against him.
He would write later in the same letter:
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”
And that is our picture here as well.
• We are not carrying a literal “two-edged sword”.
• We carry the spiritual one which is SHARPER THAN any two-edged sword.
And we take that word to the nations
• And we battled against “speculations and every lofty thing raised up
against the knowledge of God”
• And “we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ”
• And “we are ready to punish all disobedience”
IT IS A SPIRITUAL CONQUEST.
We are talking the word of God and applying it to men’s hearts
And seeing the strongholds of the enemy broken.
Captives are set free.
Sinners are forgiven.
Satan is defeated.
And it all comes with this ultimate promise:
Romans 16:20 “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you.”
We think of the parables of Jesus regarding the kingdom.
Matthew 13:31-33 “He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR come and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES.” He spoke another parable to them, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened.”
• The kingdom may have looked insignificant, especially in Jesus’ day, but it would soon cover the whole world and it will.
How will such an insignificant beginning turn into such a glorious end?
“like leaven”
The kingdom spreads from person to person and from heart to heart.
One shares the gospel with another
And that person shares the gospel with someone else.
And it can’t be stopped.
WE WIN!
And just as the Psalmist says, “This is an honor for all His godly ones.”
• Preaching the gospel is NOT JUST an obligation…
• Preaching the gospel is NOT JUST a duty…
• Preaching the gospel IS AN HONOR.
God has entrusted to us these magnificent powerful words
Which set sinners free from the bonds of the devil.
2 Corinthians 4:6 “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 5:20-21
“Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”
It is really a remarkable thing when you think about it.
So we praise the LORD too for victories He has given
And victories He will yet give.
We are also on conquest and we will prevail.
We are more than conquerors.
And Christ always leads us in triumph.
Praise the LORD!
