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A Life of Praise

Once more we're turning to one of the Hallelujah Psalms at the end of the book of Psalms – this time to Ps.149. You'll remember by now, I trust, that each of the last 5 psalms begins and ends with a "Hallelujah" or "Praise the LORD".

We should be getting used to the idea that our writers want us to learn what it is to Praise the LORD. Praise is something that should characterize the believer's life. This particular psalm is concerned to impress upon us the duty not this time of religious worship but of living an entire life which is marked by joyful, exuberant praise.

There occasions in life when we focus specifically upon worship – we gather on the LORD's Day to that end – and our services should be moments consecrated to the worship of Almighty God.

·       We worship as we wait humbly upon Him trusting not in our own strength and abilities but relying upon His power and help.

·       We worship as we pray and give our wholehearted assent to the pastoral prayer.

·       We worship as we take our hymnbook and thoughtfully raise our hearts and voices to the LORD in thankfulness.

·       We worship as we still our hearts to hear the Bible being read. We recognize that our own thinking needs to be informed by God's own Word – and we acknowledge that it is the entrance of His word that gives our the light we stand in need of.

·       We worship as we pay careful attention to the preaching of that same Word of God – we listen to receive from God rather than to assess the preacher.

·       We worship as we celebrate the two ordinances of the Christian church – baptism and the LORD's Supper.

All these aspects are tremendously important to us as believers. Nevertheless they are restricted in duration and our worship services only form part of our lives.

"Worship, however, is not to be a limited part of the Christian's life: it is to be the Christian's life."

Andrew Bonar put it this way:

"We should be always wearing the garment of praise, not just waving a palm branch now and then."

Another wrote:

"A drop of praise is an unsuitable acknowledgement for an ocean of mercy."

Psalm 149 speaks then about how praise should colour and perfume your whole life if you are a believer, a member of God's people.

Despite the fact that the text does not give any conclusive evidence as to the historical context in which it was written, many commentators believe that it was written to celebrate the return of the exiles from their 70 year long captivity in Babylon.

In the history of God's people disobedience was not without its consequences. The people of Judah (the southern kingdom) after years of disobedience and unfaithfulness were carried away into exile where they were far from the blessings of the Promised Land. While they were there their captors tormented them with mocking requests that this religious people sing some of the songs of Zion for them.

You know perhaps the Psalm that relates to this – once famously recorded as a pop song! We read in Ps.137 just how hard the people found it to sing. On the religious front their life was one of sadness and longing. Here are just a couple of verses from that psalm:

Ps.137:1-2 "By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres."

Ps.137:4 "How shall we sing the LORD’s song in a foreign land?"

How appropriate then for a people who had found it so difficult to sing to the LORD in exile to be encouraged to sing a "new song" upon returning to the Land of Promise, the land that God had given to their ancestors, the land where He had established His worship!

But we must not allow ourselves to limit the application of this psalm to just that one particular historical period. The call that is included in this psalm to "sing to the LORD a new song" can be applied to every new situation in which the LORD works out His acts of mercy and deliverance for His people!

This exhortation appears a three times in the Book of Psalms and one more time in the Book of Isaiah. In addition there are three further references to the idea of singing a new song – and in every case the context is similar. And just what is that context? It is that of joyous praise as we can see in:

Ps.42:3 "He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the LORD."

In the NT we can find two references to a new song: both occurrences are in the Book of Revelation where glorious praise is being offered to the Lamb of God for the wonderful salvation deliverance He has secured for His people.

But we might be tempted to ask what it means to sing a new song?

Calvin suggested that it referred to a song that was rare and choice. Something that was out of the ordinary and fresh. And indeed the word "new" contains this idea of freshness.

So it is not necessary to be continually writing new songs and always leaving the older songs behind though of course it is always appropriate to write new songs that celebrate the LORD's mercies which come to us "new every morning" Lam.3:22-23.

What we really must be careful to do is to sing our praises to God with this element of freshness. Our worship whether corporate or private must never be allowed to become stale and tedious and boring. When we sing old and well known hymns we need to be careful that we don't merely repeat well-known sounds and phrases without thinking about what we are singing. We need to focus upon the words we use and good hymns will always correspond in some measure to the greatness of our God and the majesty of His works

Looking forward from the time of the Psalmist to the New Testament period new songs become entirely appropriate because God was indeed doing a "new thing" as His Son Jesus Christ came into the world to be our Saviour and to deliver us from the thraldom of sin and Satan.

The gospel in the NT comes as the realization of the New Covenant – the passing away of the old things – the new has indeed come. Jesus Christ has come and has opened up for us a new and living way and this merits songs of praise!

What kind of folk are to give themselves to such lives of joyful celebration? What sort of person is here being encouraged to praise God?

The psalmist makes that very clear in vv.1, 5 & 9 where he speaks repeatedly of the godly. He is speaking of saints, those who have faith, the children of Israel ie. members of the people of God. He is speaking to us as Christians concerning our duties.

These are the ones that know and enjoy the following relationship with the LORD God. Not only are they made by Him – He is after all the Maker of all – but they know Him to be their King and they experience His kindly rule and reign in their lives. He has fought for them and delivered them and they are His!

Verse 4 is perhaps the most important verse of the whole psalm. It is certainly the key to understanding the numerous exhortations that are contained in the psalm.

v.4 "For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation."

What tremendous truths are to be found in this verse! Small wonder then that the psalmist wants to encourage the LORD's people to live lives of praise, lives that express thankful worship.

What does He say?

Well let's start with the second phrase: "he adorns the humble with salvation". The verb "to adorn" means "to make more attractive or beautiful". Other translations express it like this "he will beautify" "he crowns"! The LORD is not simply content to save His people but He goes much further than that – He undoes the ravages of sin and works to make His people attractive to Him. Elsewhere in the Scriptures this idea is described like this:

2Co 3:18 "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit."

Col 3:10 "the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator"

No deliverance is to be viewed as a small thing and certainly the salvation that the LORD has wrought for His people in the New Covenant is glorious. Just think of it – once we were standing before God alone and guilty with is people in the New Covenantour sin screaming out for condemnation. And God delivered us by sending His own Son who died in our place and now stands at our side as our Advocate! Not only that but we have become the Temple of the Holy Spirit. What transformations He has accomplished for us.

And there is more! The psalmist tells us that "the LORD takes pleasure in his people."

That means that we have His smile and His favour. His friendship is never going to run out for us. He sees us as the fruit of His handiwork and He takes pleasure in what He has done. He sees us as the ones that Jesus Christ has bought with His own life blood and He is please. Do you remember how Jesus faced the sufferings of the cross? Sufferings that were necessary if He were to become the Saviour of His people?

Heb 12:2 "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God."

The joy that was set before Him was the accomplishment of the work of salvation – you, believer! He is satisfied with His work and now He takes delight in you!!

You may not have a great number of friends amongst men but you have One who delights in you, who loves you, who will never ever withdraw His friendship from you. This One is watching over you, caring for you day by day when you are aware of it and when you're not. He plans to take you one day to spend eternity with Him and even now is preparing a special place for you that you may ever be with Him.

No grounds for being proud in ourselves – it's the humble after all that He adorns with His salvation but oh what reasons for living our lives joyfully and full of praise!!

The first part of the psalm speaks of singing the LORD's praises in the assembly of the godly or the congregation of saints but we mustn't let that make us think that the whole psalm is about corporate worship.

Yes, corporate worship is very important and certainly not something from which the believer should cut himself off.

But as we move further through the psalm it becomes clear that the psalmist has a much wider focus than corporate worship alone. He wants the believer's whole life to be characterized by this joyful celebration of God's goodness and grace.

Just take a look at v.5:

"Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds."

Here singing takes place at home in the privacy of one's own bedroom!

The following verses too speak not of a worship service context but of a judicial battle context as the Lord gives His people victory of their enemies.

Now the only "two-edged sword" that we as Christians are to take in our hands is the Word of God itself. In the OT Israel was a theocracy and there was a strict identity between God's people and the nation. All this changes in the NT with the gospel no longer being restricted to one nation but going out to all nations and to the very ends of the earth.

As such the worldly weapons and attitudes referred to in vv.6-9 are not to be literally applied under the New Covenant. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. However as we proclaim the word of God and evangelize the nations the Christian church is pulling down the strongholds of the enemy and bringing glory to our Lord.

Nevertheless the principle that underlies vv.6-9 for the people of Israel must find a suitable application for all believers under the New Covenant.

In the second half of the psalm OT believers were encouraged to exercise a total commitment to the cause of the LORD and to be actively involved in promoting His righteous judgments amongst the nations. Each believer had a role to fulfil. Just as every believer was exhorted to active in singing songs of praise and adoration so every believer was exhorted to be actively involved in the Lord's work in the world.

In the New Covenant we too are to be fully involved in corporate worship and in private worship but our responsibilities do not end there. The Lord expects us to be actively involved in the promotion of Christ's Kingdom in the world.

We pray, we preach, we proclaim, we chat to our neighbours. And all the time we are directing them to our Wonderful Lord! We justify God before the nations. We bind the strong man as we pray and we let loose that double edged sword that knows well how to pierce through all human resistance until the human heart is attained.

And this is not a task given to the angels – the LORD entrusts the proclamation of His glorious gospel to folk just like us. It is indeed the glory of the church to have this high privilege. May the Lord grant us the grace we need to accomplish faithfully His purposes.

Praise the LORD!

Amen.