Psalm 149

Everything that God’s people do in serving and glorifying the Lord must flow out of worship, for without Him we can do nothing (John 15:5). The most important activity of the local church is the worship of God, for this is the activity we will continue in heaven for all eternity. This psalm is a primer on worship and gives us the basic instructions we need.

Worship the Lord Intelligently (vv. 1–2). Worship is something that we must learn to do, and we will be learning all of our lives. In times of corporate worship, the saints do minister to one another (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), but the primary focus must be on the Lord, glorifying and extolling Him. Yes, we may worship the Lord in solitude, and we should (v. 5), but we must not forsake the assembly of the saints (Heb. 10:25). As members of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12–13, 27), we belong to each other, affect each other, and need each other. We need both the old songs and the new songs (see on 33:3), which suggests an intelligent balance in worship. The church family has young and old, new believers, and seasoned saints (1 Tim. 5:1–2; Titus 2:1–8; 1 John 2:12–14), and nobody should be ignored. The old songs bear witness to our steadfastness in keeping the faith, but the new songs give evidence that we are maturing in the faith as we grow in the knowledge of His Word and His grace (2 Peter 3:18). A maturing faith demands mature expressions of worship, just as a maturing marriage demands new expressions of devotion, but we do not abandon the old and major only on the new. “Let us press on to maturity” (Heb. 6:1 NASB). The old and the new must be integrated or we will not be balanced believers (Matt. 13:51–52). We must walk in the Spirit (Eph. 5:18–21) and grow in knowledge of the Word (Col. 3:16), learning new truths about the old truths and having new experiences of blessing from both.

The church today can join with Israel in saying, “God is our Maker and our King” (95:6; 100:3; 10:16; 24:7–10; Eph. 2:10; Rev. 15:3; 19:16). How He has made us is His gift to us, and what we do with it is our gift to Him. We must remind ourselves that we came from the dust, but because of God’s grace, we are destined for glory! “Soon and very soon / We’re going to see the King.”

Worship the Lord Fervently (vv. 3–4). A very expressive people, the Jews used musical instruments, songs, and dances in their worship of the Lord. The dances, of course, were not modern ballroom or club dances but rather interpretive dances that pointed to the Lord and not some person’s talent (see Ex. 15:20; Judg. 11:34; 1 Sam. 18:6; Jer. 31:4). We find no evidence that the New Testament church patterned its worship after the Jewish temple. Their pattern seems to have been the local synagogue worship, with its emphasis on prayer, the reading of the Word, exposition and exhortation, and singing hymns. However, spiritual fervency must not be confused with fleshly enthusiasm. There are false worshippers as well as true worshippers (John 4:22–24; Col. 2:16–23), and some people who think they are filled with the Spirit are really being fooled by the spirits. Bringing false fire into the sanctuary can lead to death (Lev. 10:1–11). Our purpose is not to please ourselves or to demonstrate how “spiritual” we are. Our purpose is to delight the Lord (147:11), and humility is one virtue that brings Him great joy (Isa. 66:1–2). The Lord gives spiritual beauty to those whose worship brings Him delight. Worship ought to be beautiful, for we are beholding the beauty of the Lord (27:4; 29:2; 90:17; 96:9) and becoming more like the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). Worship must focus on God, not on us, and it must be enrichment, not entertainment. The experience of true worship can help us experience deliverance from the bondage of sin and the world.

Worship the Lord Gratefully (v. 5). “Let the saints rejoice in this honor” is the New International Version translation, the “honor” being the privilege of worshipping the true and living God. God gave His Word and His glory only to the nation of Israel (147:19–20; Rom. 9:1–5), and this Word and glory have been passed on to the church (John 17:8, 14, 22). When the believer’s private worship and the church’s corporate worship become routine, the Spirit is grieved and the blessing is gone. Worship ought to mean so much to us that we sing even on our beds! The word is “couches” and could refer to someone reclining at the table or resting in bed. Singing at the table or in our beds can bring joy to the Lord. Instead of the bed “swimming” with tears (6:6 NKJV), it is filled with “songs in the night” (42:8; 77:6). Even while lying in a sickbed, we can look up to God and worship Him. Without private worship, we are but hypocrites at public worship.

Worship the Lord Triumphantly (vv. 6–9). Worship and warfare go together, as the book of Revelation makes very clear.4 Satan has always wanted to be worshipped (Isa. 14:12–15), and he is willing to pay for it (Matt. 4:8–11). Satan is constantly at work enticing the world to worship him (Rev. 13), for he does not mind if people are “religious” so long as they leave out Jesus Christ and the truth of the gospel. In recent years, some denominations have eliminated the “militant songs” from their hymnals and their worship, and this is disappointing. Whether we like it or not, the church is an army, this world is a battlefield, and there is a struggle going on for the souls of lost sinners (Matt. 16:17–18; Eph. 6:10ff.; 2 Tim. 2:3–4; 2 Cor. 10:3–5). Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace (Isa. 9:6) is also the Conquering Warrior (45:3–7; Rev. 19:11–21), and like the workers in Nehemiah’s day, we must have both tools for building and swords for battling (Neh. 4:17–18). Our weapons are prayer, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God (Eph. 6:17; Heb. 4:12), and hymns of praise to the Lord. Worship is warfare, for we are singing soldiers! Did not our Lord sing before He went out to the cross to do battle against the Devil? (See Matt. 26:30; John 12:31–32; Col. 2:13–15.)

God has declared in writing that “the day of the Lord” will come when He will send judgment to a world that has rejected Christ and chosen to worship Satan (Rev. 6—19). God’s people will appear to be the losers, but in the end, they will conquer the enemy and reign with Christ (Rev. 19:11ff.). Today, the sword belongs to human government and its agents (Rom. 13), and God’s servants do not wield it (John 18:10–11, 36–37). But the day of the Lord will come “as a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2ff.), and then Christ will “gird his sword … and ride prosperously” (45:3–5). Until then, the church must take worship very seriously and realize that worship is a part of the believer’s spiritual warfare. To ignore worship, trivialize it, turn it into entertainment, or make it a routine activity is to play right into the hands of the enemy. It is an honor to serve in the Lord’s army of worshipping warriors!