"Praise the Lord" Sermon: Psalm 149

"Praise the Lord"
[Psalm 149]
November 4, 2007 Second Reformed Church

We opened this morning's worship by singing, "Sing Praise to the Lord," which is a setting to music of the Psalm which is our Scripture this morning. How did you sing it? Did you sing it something like this: "Ah, sing praise to the Lord, yawn; come, aaahh, sing a new song. Amidst all his saints his praise prolong, yawn – ah..."

This morning's Scripture opens and closes with a command, "Praise the Lord." And we ought to notice that -- it is a command. It is not a suggestion. It is not just good advice. We are commanded, as the people of God, to praise Him. And the psalmist gives us two big reasons why we ought to obey this command -- and we find them as we look at this psalm:

First, we have reason and a duty to praise the Lord since Jesus has saved us from sin and the Wrath of God. And second, we have been given the two-edged sword of the Word of God to put down liars and false teachers until all the enemies of Christ are made a footstool for His Feet.

We have a tendency to forget God until we are in trouble. We don't come before Him to praise Him, even to be thankful for all the common and ordinary things: How often to we wake up in the morning and thank God that we woke up? That we are still breathing? We have so much to be thankful for that if we actually took the time to give thanks for each thing we have been given each day, we would do nothing but give thanks and praise Him. God understands that we are bound in time, yet we are still commanded to praise Him.

Now, the psalmist says that these things should be done by Israel. We ought to understand that this psalm was originally written to be sung and obeyed by ancient Israel; the nation of God. However, since the Incarnation, we understand that Israel is no longer a nation; Israel is all those who believe in the Promised Savior, Jesus. The Church is Israel, not modern-day Jews or the residents of the land of Israel. So, this psalm applies to us because we are the continuation of Israel, in the sense that we have believed in the Promised Savior.

So, the psalmist tells us that we are to come into the sanctuary singing a "new song." What does that mean? Does it mean that the songs we have sung for two hundred years shouldn't be sung any more? Does it mean that we should sing only those songs that we don't know? No, what the psalmist is telling us is that we are to sing is a way that the songs are fresh, meaningful, worthy of our God. We can sing this psalm, choking on our yawns, not considering the words, and that is not pleasing to God. Or we can come, singing this psalm, listening to its meaning and believing these words, offering them up before God as our life and desire. That would be singing it in a new way.

Then the psalmist says that we are not to neglect assembling together to sing praise to the Lord. It is not possible to be a Christian by yourself. We are told over and over in the Scripture that we are to assemble together; we are to worship together, as a people, as the Kingdom of God. God has given us the Church and told us that we are to worship Him together as the Church. (Yes, we can sing and praise Him on our own, but we must also gather together for corporate, public worship.)

We do well to remember, especially on this All Saints' Sunday, that we humans living on earth are not the only ones who praise God. When we gather for worship, we join together across dimensions, with those saints who are in glory. The saints who are in glory, are perpetually worshiping and glorifying God, with all of the heavenly beings. And when we gather for worship, we join with them in praising our God.

When we gather to worship, we ought to acknowledge that our God is the Maker -- the Creator -- of everything that is. Nothing exists that He did not create. You and I are not the products of chance, or merely biology, but of the Almighty God calling us into existence, as He did with the rest of the Creation. And we have not just been created once, but twice -- we have been made a "new creation" through Jesus (II Corinthians 5:17). So, He is our King, our Lord, our Maker, our Creator, and we owe our praise and allegiance first and always to Him.

In our pew Bible, we read, "let the children of Zion rejoice in their king." The word that is translated "rejoice" is actually bigger than that -- it is "shout with joy" or "shriek ecstatically." We should be excited in worship -- excited to be in the presence of our God and Savior. Don't worry, we do not have to literally shout and shriek, though it would not be wrong if someone did as a true response and a praise to God. But, if we are alive -- spiritually alive -- we ought to be spiritually moved in the presence of God, even if we are "traditional" and "reserved" in our physical stance.

Yet, the psalmist says we are to come, praising the Lord with dancing, playing the tambourine and the lyre. Get up! Dance! Who has a tambourine or a lyre with them? Don't panic, we need to obey the spirit of the Law. What does that mean? It means that we can use different body parts to express our praise -- we can sing, rather than dance. And we can use other instruments -- in our case, the piano and organ. What God is commanding through the psalmist is that we praise God with our whole body and with music. It is right and good and commanded that our whole self -- heart, soul, mind, and strength -- our body -- give praise to God -- and that will be expressed by different persons in different ways in different churches -- and that is good. Likewise, different communities will have persons gifted in different instruments, so the instruments used in worship will vary -- and that is good, too.

And then the psalmist writes "For the Lord takes pleasure in his people." We ought to praise God because He receives pleasure -- He receives glory -- from His people. Why? How is this so? "He adorns the humble with victory" -- the word "victory" in our pew Bible is actually, more generally, "salvation." So, "He adorns the humble with salvation." So, what is he saying?

God receives pleasure -- He is glorified -- in us -- because He has saved us. Seeing His Work of Salvation in us, He receives pleasure and glory. Because God saves -- in war, in any variety of life's circumstances -- and most greatly in eternal salvation -- because God has done that in us, when that work is seen, He is magnified and glorified. It's like using a telescope to look at the moon -- we can see something of the moon with our eyes, but when we are given a telescope, the moon is seen much more clearly and in greater detail. So when God gives us salvation, He is better known and receives glory for Who He is. And He is to be praised for all of His Salvation.

And this is a life-long pursuit: we are called to exalt in His Glory -- to function as telescopes before God, magnifying Him so others will know Him better. And we are to cry out -- to sing -- for joy -- and our pew Bile says "on their couches" -- this is referring to the thing we lie down on and sleep on, so we may understand this as a bed. We are to sing for joy on or in our beds. Notice there are no limits -- the psalmist did not say that we should sing for joy on our beds before we go to sleep -- though that is certainly included. We ought to praise Him on our beds when we go to sleep and when we wake up. And we ought also praise Him in our sick beds and on our death beds. He is always worthy of praise.

We always have reason and a duty to praise the Lord since Jesus has saved us from sin and the Wrath of God.

The second part of this psalm gives us another reason to praise the Lord:

We are told to lift high praises to God from the depths of our throats -- from the very depths and all of our being -- as we saw in the first part. And, we are to take up two-edged swords in our hands. What? Is the psalmist saying that we should be violent -- kill -- as a way to praise of God? Well, yes and no.

Yes, in writing for the original nation of Israel, he is literally reminding Israel, encouraging Israel, as God commanded them, to kill all the pagans in the land -- to take all of Canaan in the Name of God and for His people. We see this played out in the Old Testament. They did kill with the two-edged sword. They did capture and bind kings, place them in irons, execute them in accordance with God's Law, and so forth, as the psalmist says.

However, we are not the ancient nation of Israel. God's Promises to us are not tied to land. Besides we are told, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord'" (Romans 12:19). That is not to deny our part in the final judgment, because Paul writes, "Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world?" (I Corinthians 6:2a). But it is not our place, now, in this life, to slaughter the pagans.

So what shall we do with the second half of this Psalm? Our use of the two-edged sword must be understood as metaphorical. It is symbolic of something else -- that being the Gospel -- the Word of God. The author of Hebrews wrote, "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thought and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:12-13).

John saw Jesus in His exalted state and described Him like this: "Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like flames of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength" (Revelation 1:12-16).

So, we share in the glory of Christ and praise Him as we use the two-edged sword of the Word of God -- through preaching and teaching the Gospel -- that all will come to know the Truth of our Savior, Jesus. We have been given the two-edged sword of the Word of God to put down liars and false teachers until all the enemies of Christ are made into a footstool for His Feet.

God promised Jesus, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet" (Hebrews 1:13b). That will occur at the end of days -- at the last judgment.

So, we understand that we have been given the two-edged sword of the Word of God to put down liars and false teachers until all the enemies of Christ are made a footstool for His Feet. We are to be learning and spreading the Word of God so that all peoples understand that Jesus is the Truth, and as we do that, as He is known for Who He is, praise is directed to Him.

Thus, God commands us through the psalmist: Praise the Lord.

Let us pray:
Almighty and Praise-Worthy God, we thank You for coming to us, for making Yourself known to us and raising us from spiritual death. We ask that You would continue to inspire us and lead us in Your Praise. Teach us more of Yourself that we might better communicate Your Gospel to the world. As we meet You now in this Supper, we ask for Your strength and wisdom, by Your Grace. May You receive all the Praise, for it is in Jesus' Name we pray, Amen.