Psalm 150: Crescendo and Conclusion

INTRODUCTION

In Scripture, praise and true authority always go hand in hand. This is because it is faith that overcomes the world (1 John 5:4), and praise always overflows from the confidence of true faith. Evangelical faith sings at the dinner table, sings behind the wheel, sings at the workbench, sings while going to war, and sings in the assembly of the saints. You are the choir militant, and you have been given a new song indeed. Who is given that new song but the elect of God, the 144,000 (Rev. 14:3)?  

THE TEXT

“Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise his name in the dance: Let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people: He will beautify the meek with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory: Let them sing aloud upon their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; To execute upon them the judgment written: This honour have all his saints. Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 149). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

This is yet another hallelujah psalm. It begins with this word (v. 1), and ends with it also (v. 9). Remember our two pieces of bread. The new song is sung before the Lord, and this new song is sung by new men (v. 1). And this is forever because the new birth is the kind of thing that never ages. This is a corporate duty and a corporate pleasure—His praise in the congregation of saints (v. 1). Israel needs to rejoice in the one who made her (v. 2), and the children of Zion must be joyful in their king (v. 2). Praise Him with dance, and praise Him with timbrel and harp (v. 3). The Lord Jehovah does not just put up with this; He takes pleasure in His people (v. 4). He adorns the meek with salvation. He beautifies them (v. 4). Having been thus beautified, the saints are to rejoice in glory (v. 5), and sing aloud on their beds (or couches). They are to sing while at rest, but also to sing while they are going to war (v. 6). The high praises of God should be in their mouth and a double-bladed sword in hand (v. 6). To do what? To execute vengeance on the heathen (v. 7) and punishment on the people (v. 7). In addition, this militant choir binds their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron (v. 8). They are ministers of God’s judgment, and all His saints have this honor (v. 9). And we conclude with another hallelujah (v. 9).  

TIMBREL AND HARP

The timbrel is a small hand drum, or tambourine-like instrument. It is in the percussion family, and Miriam and the women of Israel used it when they danced on the shores of the Red Sea. “And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances” (Exodus 15:20). The harp here was not like our modern harp, but was likely closer to a lyre, or even a guitar. Josephus tells us it had ten strings (see Ps. 144:9) and was played with a plectrum (or pick). 

REJOICING IN GLORY

We are not fit or worthy to praise the Lord in our own strength or in our own name. In order for us to walk in a manner that is worthy of God (Eph. 4:1; Col. 1:10; 1 Thess. 2:12), we must be made worthy. It is all of grace. It is the same with our praise. In order for our praise to be beautiful enough to offer up to God, God must beautify it first. And He does this by beautifying us. In salvation, God justifies His people, declaring them to be perfect. He beautifies them with the righteousness of Jesus Christ, and in that glorious imputation of the purest righteousness, the end result is that we are equipped to rejoice in glory, and to sing everywhere and in everything.

God has made us in such a way as that we must seek glory. We cannot help seeking glory—it is something that we simply must do. This impulse is not eradicated by the fall, or by the presence of sin. What sin does is distort what we find to be glorious. For the unconverted, they must either seek out dark glory (as satanists and sodomites do), or the must seek out vain glory (as the impotently religious do). When Christians seeking to be faithful come along and react to this by abnegating all forms of glory. But this is Buddhism, or Stoicism, not Christian faith.

What is sin but a failure to pursue glory properly? “All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). 

“Who will render to every man according to his deeds: To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life: But unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile” (Romans 2:6–10). 

Those who want to be saved should be in pursuit of what God tells us salvation consists of. It consists of the beauty of the Lord, the glory of God, and the golden weight of the Spirit’s presence. You cannot pursue salvation without pursuing Him, and He is glorious. 

NEW COVENANT WEAPONS

One of the differences between the old covenant and the new has to do with the weaponry. There are still wars and police actions in the time of the new covenant, but this is not how the kingdom is supposed to advance. 

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled” (2 Corinthians 10:3–6). 

At the same time, the advance of the kingdom does result in tumults, riots, protests, slanders, and more. Just read casually through the book of Acts. But our weapons are mighty, and we reveal that we know that they are mighty when they are wielded by Christians who are singing. As Spurgeon put it, “even the tumult of our holy war is part of the music of our lives.” Let the jangling and clashing in the background serve as an interesting form of percussion.

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INTRODUCTION

This is a psalm of praise in action. It begins in the highest heaven, and descends to the deeps, and invites everyone and everything in between to join in with this chorus of praise. Moreover, this wonderful psalm concludes with a promise that is attached to all heartfelt praise. God is exalted in a particular kind of praise, and He makes sure to exalt that kind of praise in turn. There is a reciprocity in praise that will usher in tremendous blessings when we come to understand it.

THE TEXT

“Praise ye the LORD. Praise ye the LORD from the heavens: praise him in the heights. Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created. He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: he hath made a decree which shall not pass. Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: Fire, and hail; snow, and vapour; stormy wind fulfilling his word: Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven. He also exalteth the horn of his people, the praise of all his saints; even of the children of Israel, a people near unto him. Praise ye the LORD” (Ps. 148:1-14).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

We have here another hallelujah psalm. It begins with yet another hallelujah. Praise ye the LORD (v 1). But this is praise that begins on the high dive—in the heavens, praise Him from the heights (v. 1). The residents of this high heaven are summoned to praise Him—the angels and heavenly host (v. 2). Moving through the high places, the sun, moon and stars are called into the rising praise (v. 3). The heaven of heavens, and the waters that are above the heavens are told to join in (v. 4). Let everything that is high praise the name of their Creator (v. 5). He is the one who established them for good and all (v. 6).

But then the psalmist takes a leap, and all that praise plunges to earth—praise the Lord, you dragons and deeps (v. 7). What down here shall praise the Lord? Well, fire does, and hail, and snow, and vapor. Then there are the stormy winds that do His pleasure (v. 8). Remember the astonishment of the disciples—even the winds and waves obey Him (Matt. 8:27). The choir includes both mountains and hills, fruit trees and cedar trees (v. 9). We then move out to the animal kingdom—beasts, cattle, and birds (v. 10). And don’t forget the creeping things (v. 10). One of the things we know about our Creator is that He has, as the fellow said, “an inordinate fondness for beetles.” There are over 400,000 species of beetle.

We come finally to the human part of the choir. At the risk of sounding like a Christian nationalist, kings and princes are told to praise Jehovah (v. 11). As Calvin noted, they might be among those who are the most reluctant to do so, and so they are singled out. But all the people, and all judges, receive the same summons (v. 11). Executive, legislative, and judiciary—praise ye the Lord. The psalmist leaves no one out—young men, old men, maidens, and children (v. 12). All are to praise Him, and the reason is then given to us—His name is excellent, and His glory transcendent (v. 13). And then comes the great promise. When we exalt Him, He exalts us (v. 14). He exalts the kind of praise that exalts Him. This is actually the meaning of revival—when the Spirit of God anoints and adorns the worship of God. So praise ye the Lord.

NOT DEAD MATTER

The cosmos is not simply an inert collection of atoms. It is not a mass of dead matter. The cosmos is teeming with life—angels, the heavenly host, principalities and powers, thrones, and dominions. And there are some things that are commonly assumed by modern materialists to be simply inanimate objects, but Scripture tells us otherwise. “Even in your world, my son, that is not what a star is, but only what a star is made of.” The heavenly host—exhorted here to sing louder—is the very same heavenly host that came down and announced to the astonished shepherds that they needed to go into town to see something (Luke 2:13). And then there are things in this stretch of the Psalms that really are inanimate—cymbals, say. Nevertheless, everything that makes noise need to be employed in this triumph of praise.

So there is far more here than human beings looking at the stars and praising God for them. Rather, this would be the stars themselves doing the praising. A cascading waterfall praises God. Thunder in the mountains, and echoing valleys, praise the Lord. Cows grazing in the meadow, apparently not doing much, are praising God. All the insect life on the floor of that meadow—that too is a constant stream of praise.  

RECIPROCITY AND REVIVAL

We live in an astonishing world. When God gives the gift of a quickening revival, we get a glimpse of that astonishing world—both material and spiritual, both creational and redemptive, and we begin to praise. The praise catches fire—and the Holy Spirit is that fire—and the praise ascends to Heaven, tracing its way back up by the path that this psalm came down. The psalm is given by God from the heights, and it lands in the deeps. We pick it up, and offer it back to God. And what does He do?

He exalts our horn. A praising people is exalted by God, and one of the things He exalts is the nature of that praise itself. God Himself inhabits the praises of His people (Ps. 22:3), which is what makes it glorious. This is why we can go out to battle with the choir in the vanguard. This is the beauty of holiness, which does not mean the cuteness of holiness. It is truly dreadful, and awesome, and terrible, and worthy of all praise (2 Chron. 20:21). The God who created the choir of all creation is the same God who anoints that same choir. And when He does this, there is no standing against Him.

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INTRODUCTION

On the one hand, we know that God is far above us, higher than the highest heaven. But we must also confess that He is beneath our feet, supporting us in every possible way. He is the God of the macrocosm, but He is also an infinitely skilled miniaturist, folding enormous libraries of information into trillions of cells—and that is just in one body. He is the God of general, natural revelation, and He is the God who reveals Himself in the propositions of human language.  

THE TEXT

“Praise ye the Lord: For it is good to sing praises unto our God; For it is pleasant; and praise is comely. The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: He gathereth together the outcasts of Israel. He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He telleth the number of the stars; He calleth them all by their names. Great is our Lord, and of great power: His understanding is infinite. The Lord lifteth up the meek: He casteth the wicked down to the ground. Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; Sing praise upon the harp unto our God . . . Praise ye the Lord” (Psalm 147:1-20). 

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT

The one thing we can say about praising the God of Heaven is that such praise is fitting (v. 1). The builds up the city where He has set His name, and He does it by gathering up the riff raff (v. 2). He heals the broken-hearted, and binds their wounds (v. 3). He knows how many stars there are, and He names each one (v. 4). The Lord is truly great; His knowledge is infinite (v. 5). He lifts the meek, and throws down the wicked (v. 6). Sing to Him; play the harp for Him (v. 7). He fills the sky with clouds, and gives rain to the earth (v. 8). He feeds all the beasts of the field; He feeds the young ravens as they cry (v. 9). He is not impressed by horse power, or by man power (v. 10), probably a reference to cavalry and infantry. When people fear Him, the Lord is pleased. He is pleased by those who look to Him for mercy (v. 11). Again, praise from Jerusalem and Zion is fitting (v. 12). God has built up her defenses, and given lots of blessed children (v. 13). He gives peace along the border, and He bestows abundant crops (v. 14). The world does not run on impersonal natural law, but rather God sends forth His commandment, which runs swiftly (v. 15). He gives us snow; He gives us rime, or hoarfrost (v. 16). He scatters ice, and brings in the freezing cold (v. 17). After giving the ice, He melts the ice (v. 18). He grants the chinook, and everything melts (v. 18). He reveals His laws to Jacob, His commandments to Israel (v. 19). He hath not dealt so with any nation: And as for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord” (v. 20). 

A HALLELUJAH SANDWICH

The first and last word in this psalm is hallelujah—“praise Yah.” Each hallelujah is a piece of bread, and one goes on the top and the other one on the bottom. But in some circles, Christians want to sing hallelujah over and over, like a Hindu mantra. But in biblical terms, this is like making a bread sandwich, bread on each side and bread in the middle. Biblical praise is modeled for us in this psalm—we have here a biblical Dagwood. There is the bread, then salami, then ham, then cheese, then onions, then prosciutto, then a different kind of cheese, and then the other piece of bread. There is substance in the middle. The bread frames the praise, but the actual praise is the content of what we say. And if you look carefully at this psalm, you see all different kinds of content.   

DISTINCTION WITHOUT SEPARATION

One of the perennial temptations that theologians have is that of thinking that the necessary distinctions they must make are distinctions that somehow create a division or separation. For example, we may distinguish the love and justice of God, but these two attributes are not separated in Him. We distinguish them for our sake, because Scripture does, but a distinction does not require separation. Here would be another example. A small child can distinguish height and breadth and depth. It is easy to distinguish them, but impossible to separate them. If you remove the height of this pulpit, you do not have a very flat pulpit, but rather no pulpit at all. 

The reason for addressing this is that theologians are fond of distinguishing natural revelation and special revelation. Natural revelation is the way in which the created order reveal the majesty and nature of God. Special revelation is given to us in the words of Scripture. We distinguish them, and it is good that we do so. But look at the two together in this psalm. He speaks through the stars, through agriculture, through His providential care of ravens, and He shouts whenever He gives us rime. But woven through all of this, He is also the one whose commandments run swiftly (v. 15), and He reveals His laws and commandments to Israel (v. 19).

THE WORLD IS NOT IMPERSONAL

Too many Christians assume that the world is just the kind of impersonal place that Voltaire thought it was, only we believe that God is at the top, along with some angels, and we are down here at the bottom, with our souls tucked away under the sternum. Everything else, we think, is just atoms banging around. Or, if we are more Deistic than materialist, we think it is a cold, impersonal clock, following its pre-programmed routine. But the world is not like that at all. Christ is the one who holds all things together, not gravity (Col. 1:17-18). What we call natural law is simply God being kind to us. Most of the time the car keys are right where we left them yesterday. But the universe does not have an autonomous or independent existence apart from God. In Him, we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). 

WHY GOD IS PLEASED WITH YOU

We are evangelical and Calvinistic enough to know that everything I am about to say is all of grace, and nothing but grace. We have not earned or deserved anything on our own. But because of Christ, and through Christ, and in Christ, what does God think of you? You have fled to Christ for mercy, and what is God’s disposition toward those who do this? “The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.” (Psalm 147:11). You come to Him for mercy because you sinned. God takes pleasure in receiving you. You look to Him as a God-fearing woman or man, or girl, or boy. And what is God’s response? Because of Christ, He takes pleasure in it. 

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