Psalms 149:4. For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people: He will beautify the meek with salvation.
These last five psalms of the Psalter reach a crescendo of praise. Every one of them begins and ends with “Praise ye the Lord”. In the Hebrew the word is Hallelujah, and hence they have been called the Hallelujah Psalms. Given the contents of these Psalms, and indeed given the contents of the whole book of Psalms, it is only fitting that all the praise should go to the Lord. Let Him be magnified for His wondrous grace to His people.
In our text, the focus is upon the Lord taking pleasure in His people, the Lord delighting in them. His people, though, find it very hard to take any pleasure in themselves. Anyone who has grace finds it difficult to take much pleasure in himself. He is saying, “My sin I ever see”. Where the true grace of God is in the heart, it is hard to take pleasure in oneself. “O wretched man that I am!” is the cry of the Lord’s people. But the Lord does take pleasure in them. He delights in the operations of grace which He sees in them.
In the Song of Solomon, it does not surprise us that the Church commands Christ. Having gone through various details, words begin to fail and she says, “Yea, He is altogether lovely”. Take Christ, this Pearl of great price, and from whichever angle you look at Him, He is altogether, through and through, loveliness – nothing but desires, nothing but delights. It should not surprise us that Christ is so commended by the people who are saved by faith in His blood. He has done all for them, so it should not surprise us that they take pleasure in Him.
But what a surprise it is that Christ takes pleasure in them! In the Song, He piles up commendations one after another, to show His delight in His bride the Church. The heavenly Bridegroom delights in the operations of His own grace in them, as He sees His own image being more and more reflected in them, the Holy Spirit in sanctification increasingly conforming them to His own image. All this is gathered up into this statement: “For the Lord taketh pleasure in His people”.
When we see how His people are described in this Psalm, then we see why He takes pleasure in them. Firstly, it is because they are His saints. Again and again they are described as His saints – “the congregation of saints” (v1). The second reason is that they sing His praise. They are the singers in Zion; they are the Israel that, rejoicing in Him, “sing praises unto Him”; they even sing unto the Lord “a new song” (v1). There is a third reason: they are His soldiers. Like the dry bones in the valley of Ezekiel’s vision, they were spiritually dead and dry; but when they were brought to life by the Lord’s Word and Spirit, they rose up to be an exceeding great army. They are an army of soldiers, with a two-edged sword in their hand, as well as the high praises of God in their mouth (v6). With the Lord’s help, we shall look at these three reasons why the Lord takes pleasure in His people.
1. The Lord takes pleasure in His people because they are saints.
Three times in this Psalm we have the word saints: in verses 1, 5 and 9. There are two Psalms where the word appears twice – Psalms 89 and 132 – but this is the only one where it appears three times. It must therefore be emphatic. We should ask ourselves whether we are numbered among these saints.
They are saints because they have been saved. Their salvation is spoken of in our text: “He will beautify the meek with salvation”. In their salvation they were separated from the world, and so the Lord made them to be saints – “Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him” (v2). Israel signifies the Church of God as a whole. These saints did not turn themselves into saints. It was the doing of the Lord, and it is wondrous in their eyes, if not wondrous in the world’s eyes, and it is wondrous in His eyes.
The Lord takes pleasure in His own work when He beholds His saints, for He sees them as a people He has saved, a people saved by the shed blood, obedience and perfect righteousness of His own Son. Christ offered Himself in their place as the sacrifice to satisfy Divine justice and reconcile them to God. They are made saints by a new creation. When verse 2 says that the Lord “made” them, it is not talking about the physical formation of their body, or the creation of the soul in the womb at conception. Rather, it is the new creation by the Holy Spirit, making a new man and creating new spiritual life in those who previously had no such life whatsoever. They are saved, they are saints as a result of a new birth, a new creation that made old things pass away and all things become new.
In their effectual calling they meet the King: “Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King” (v2). When they first lay hold upon Christ, it is His priestly office that is their focus of attention. They think of Christ in His sacrifice, finding forgiveness with God through His blood. If there was no priestly office, no cross, no blood, then the Lord would be marking iniquity and there would be no salvation. There would be no saints, and no people for the Lord to take pleasure in.
Although on their side the priestly office is especially in view, on the Lord’s side it is Christ coming forth in His kingly office, subduing them to Himself. In that moment of being born again, when all is made new, they lay hold on Christ, a whole Christ. Yes, what He has done as priest is uppermost in their view, yet He is also a prophet, teaching them by His Word and Spirit. He is also a king, drawing them to Himself, persuading and enabling them to embrace Himself, as He is freely offered to them in the gospel.
They are saints, and the Lord takes pleasure in that: a people that belong to Him, a people who do not belong to the world or the flesh or the devil any longer. They have been rescued; Christ has taken them for His own. He has gone forth, conquering and to conquer, in a mighty work of salvation that is all of grace. He has separated them to Himself to be His own possession. He belongs to Him; He has bought them with a price and they are not their own. They are Christ’s; they are His property; He has taken possession of them. He values the saints, for He purchased them with His blood.
The word for saints in the Old Testament is rooted in the word often translated lovingkindness. The saints have received the love, kindness and mercy of the Lord, and this is what they will be saying: It was only enmity and sin and wretchedness and death on my side, but on His side it is all grace; it is only mercy; it is all lovingkindness.
He will beautify His saints. He will sanctify them. He will deal with their sin. He will add grace to grace. He will make the saints saintly. He will make them increasingly saintly. Although they will not feel like it in themselves, He will produce in them that which He can delight in, especially in the grace of meekness: “He will beautify the meek” (v4). They came into the yoke with the meek and lowly Saviour, and He is making them like Himself. “The Lord taketh pleasure in His people” because they are His saints.
2. The Lord takes pleasure in His people because they sing.
They are His singers as well as His saints. The thought appears in the Psalm once and again: “Sing unto the Lord” (v1); “Let them sing praises unto Him” (v3); “Let them sing aloud” (v5). These saints, the Lord’s new creatures, are being sanctified by the Holy Spirit applying the Word, being made more and more like Christ. They are a people who sing, and they sing the praises of the Lord. He who inhabits the praises of Israel loves to dwell in the hearts of these meek and contrite ones who sing to His praise and honour.
What do they sing? They sing a new song – “Sing unto the Lord a new song” (v1). This is not speaking of new words. This is not giving authority for men to make up their own uninspired compositions and intrude them into the holy worship of God. Rather, it means that even when you sing a psalm like this Psalm 149, which perhaps you have sung hundreds of times before, you sing it as a new song. It is not singing new words, but singing the words that are already there with a new meaning, with a new understanding, with a freshness that makes them feel new.
We sang in Psalm 40 at the outset this evening. When the Lord takes a soul from the miry clay and from the fearful pit of sin and misery, and sets the feet of that soul upon the Rock that is Christ, what else does the Lord do? He puts a new song in that person’s mouth, his God to magnify. He does not sing new words, but he sings the same words in a new way, singing the songs of salvation as a saved soul, who can now enter into the reality of them. The Lord takes pleasure in seeing the words of praise enter the heart.
The Lord looks not only on the outward appearance; the Lord looks into the heart. When the lips are singing the songs of the Psalter, it is good, but it is not enough. The Lord looks into the heart, searching for a soul singing the new song. Have you ever sung a Psalm in that new way? The unregenerate sing God’s praise in one way, but the Lord’s people have come to sing it in a new way. Can you make that contrast in your own experience? Does the Lord sometimes help you to sing His praise in this new way, as refreshingly new? It can be new over and over and over, again and again. That is when the Lord takes pleasure in the singing of His people.
Singing the new song is joyful to the singers: “Let Israel rejoice in Him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King” (v2). That is how they sing this new song: with spiritual, not carnal, joy. The Ethiopian eunuch had it. Even though Philip, the instrument of his conversion, had been removed, the Lord was still with him, and therefore the Ethiopian “went on his way rejoicing” (Ac 8:39). When souls are rejoicing in the gospel, the Lord’s appointed way of expressing it is singing: “Is any merry? Let him sing psalms” (Jas 5:13). The Lord takes pleasure in this.
When their delight in Christ flows out in joyful singing of His praise, then they understand the images used in the third verse: “Let them praise His name in the dance: let them sing praises unto Him with the timbrel and harp”. Just as we would not expect Christian congregations to use literal dancing, so we would not expect them to use any musical instrument in their worship. That is not what this is speaking of. This is talking about the spiritual joy when the new song abounds within the soul, either when it first comes or when it is restored. Then let them sing as if they were dancing before the Lord; let them express their joy as if their singing was accompanied with instruments.
This song is a glorious song: “Let the saints be joyful in glory” (v5). There is nothing in it to be ashamed of. You cannot go too far in this. Michal despised David for his super-abounding delight when he leapt and danced before the Lord. She took no pleasure in what she saw in her godly husband, thinking he had brought shame on himself. But the Lord viewed David dancing before Him with all his might in a very different way. “The Lord taketh pleasure in His people” when they rejoice in Him.
The Lord’s people, of course, have much that grieves them, especially in their own wretched hearts. That does not give them any right to exclude themselves from seeking this joy in the Lord. They should be learning that spiritual skill of being able to sorrow and rejoice at the same time: sorrowing in themselves for their sin, rejoicing in Christ for His salvation. O what a mass of complexity the child of God is to the world, and what a mass of complexity he is to himself! But what a wonder he is in the eyes of the Lord who takes pleasure in his rejoicing!
These are high praises: “Let the high praises of God be in their mouth” (v6). Singing is a heavenly occupation. This is what heaven is busy with. In glory, their theme over and over is: “Worthy is the Lamb”. Their singing is unstoppable. The Psalm begins with praise and that is how it ends.
When the saints meet together “in the congregation” (v1), they sing. When they are alone, they sing: “Let them sing aloud upon their beds” (v5). From beginning to end, and all the way through, in public and in private, they are singing the praise of God. The more His people live as described in the Psalm, the more the Lord takes pleasure in them, who are not only His saints, but also His singers.
3. The Lord takes pleasure in His people because they are soldiers.
They are sent out to wage war, to engage in battle for the Lord. From the middle of verse 6 onwards, we read of a two-edged sword being in their hand. They are soldiers, engaged in a holy war. Not only are they to have the Lord’s praises in their mouth; they are to have the Lord’s sword in their hand.
Clearly, it is a spiritual warfare that they are engaged in. Like the dancing, it is not physical, but spiritual. This sword is no carnal weapon, but a spiritual one. Paul told the Corinthians: “Though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh” (2 Cor 10:3). Though we go up and down in this world in the body – that is the way he is using the word flesh – yet the war that we wage, the battles that we engage in, are not conducted in a fleshly, carnal, physical way. We war according to the Spirit. It is a spiritual warfare using spiritual weapons. “The weapons of our warfare”, Paul continued, “are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds” (v4).
Paul told the Ephesians: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood” (Eph 6:12). In our day, flesh and blood are so opposed to God’s people. In the land and in the professing Church, our fellow human beings are engaged in the most pernicious endeavours to dismantle anything left of Christianity. Using them as instruments are the principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and the spiritual wickedness that is in high places. There is a spiritual warfare between truth and error, between righteousness and unrighteousness, between the knowledge of God and atheism, between God’s Word and everything set up against it.
Paul continued addressing the Corinthians: “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” (2 Cor 10:5). It is not the people so much as the philosophies; it is not the teachers themselves, but the things they teach. It is their practices, their laws, their ideas, their attitudes, their blasphemies against the Lord and His anointed, as they plot against Him with their abominations. Casting down these imaginations that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God; that is what is in view in this warfare.
The education system and the media – so much of it is against God. All the proud things that men say against the Word of God, against Christianity, against real religion and the power of godliness – all of this is to be cast down, and every thought captured for Christ. Every thought! Not just every law on the statute book, not just every lesson in the schools, not just every activity of the people, but every thought of every person is to be held captive to the Lord Jesus Christ speaking in His Word. That is the aim of this warfare. Where the Lord sees His people caring about that and praying for that, and in their own calling doing what they can towards that, the Lord takes pleasure in them.
The Lord equips His soldiers with the two-edged sword in their hand, that is, in the hand of faith. This sword is the Word of God. Compared to physical weapons, it is “sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow” (Heb 4:12). It is “quick” – that is, it is living – and it is “powerful”. When the Lord puts His Word into the hand of His people to go forth to battle, with Him as their Leader and Commander, the great Lord of hosts at their head, then they are a force, an army indeed. How He takes pleasure in them then! To illustrate, think of the two-edged sword like this: one edge dealing with lusts, and the other edge dealing with lies.
God’s people see that sin and lust still dwell within them: “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 Jn 2:16). What can they do about it? Let them go to war against it, armed with the sword of God’s Word. Let them cry for the Holy Spirit, and cry to Christ, to aid them to cut off this wickedness still at war with the Lord.
The Psalm says that they “execute vengeance upon the heathen” (v7) – that is, upon these heathenish, ungodly and idolatrous thoughts that still live within them; these heathenish desires and habits that they have brought with them from their unconverted days. They are soldiers – they are to be at war; they are to execute vengeance upon these things. What kind of vengeance? Not vengeance upon those who have wronged them – that kind of vengeance belongs to the Lord and they leave it with Him. But as for vengeance upon their own sin, the Lord’s soldiers should never restrain themselves. In 2 Corinthians 7:11, “revenge” is included in godly sorrow. The Lord takes pleasure in His people when they avenge their own sins, using the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. When through grace they mortify their lusts, showing themselves no mercy, the Lord takes pleasure in them.
If we personalise the rest of verse 7, we find the Lord’s soldiers bringing “punishments upon the people”. Like Mansoul in John Bunyan’s Holy War, the Babylonians of indwelling sin come out of their hiding places and give the soul no rest. These sins that remain are not merely to be chastised, but to be punished to destruction. Nothing can be done to improve them; they will never learn. They can only be destroyed, using the Word.
The saints have their king sins, the ones that would rule over them, the sins which most easily beset them. As the Lord’s soldiers, they are to capture these leaders of sin; they are “to bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron” (v8). Unbelief is a king sin in all the saints, but it is not the only one. Each saint has others as well. They all need to be bound, clamped with the chains of God’s Word. There are “nobles” among them – the sins that have been given a chief place, the sins that they have allowed, revelled in and were proud of. Now that they are the Lord’s soldiers, they would have these sins bound in fetters of iron. This pleases the Lord.
They are to “execute the judgement that is written” (v9). All sin has been judged already in the written Word of God; it has been condemned; the sentence upon it has been passed. The Lord’s people execute the sentence against their own sin. When the Word comes with power, it has a withering effect upon remaining sin. Then they resist the devil, who flees from them. Sin no more has dominion over them. The world no longer captivates them with its alluring attractions, nor silences them with its malicious enmity.
The Lord’s soldiers “have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts” (Gal 5:24). In Christ’s death, sin was dealt with. It was condemned when divine judgement was executed upon Him. That condemnation of sin in Christ’s death is a “judgement that is written” – the record of it is written down in inspired Scripture. The saints are to “execute the judgement” themselves by dying to sin – by mortifying the workings of the flesh, with its affections and lusts. They are to put sin away, motivated by the Saviour’s constraining love. How can sin live any longer, in the loving presence of Christ, who died for it?
Let the Lord’s soldiers use the other edge of the sword against lies: the lies of heresy and error, of unbiblical worship and church government, and of anything else that does not conform to Christ’s will revealed in His Word. According to Psalm 40, he who has the new song in his mouth also “respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies” (v4). The Lord gives them some understanding of His truth, and puts some zeal in their souls and some love for His name. Whether in a private way or in a more public capacity, they are to contend earnestly for the faith once delivered unto the saints. They are to use the two-edged sword of Scripture against everything contrary to Christ’s mind for His Church.
The sword is not to be aimed at people. Some of the Lord’s people do not see eye to eye with us on various things. Where we see the root of the matter in people, we seek to maintain brotherly fellowship with them. But that should never blunt the edge of a most fervent witness against every deviation from the mind of Christ in His Word. That should be as sharp as ever against all the distortions that have entered into the doctrine, worship, government and practice of the professing Church. This is pleasing to the Lord.
This two-edged sword is to be used by the Lord’s soldiers against anything that is unbiblical and mars the witness of biblical Christianity. What a witness was raised up in the Scottish Reformation! Was there anything like it? What a witness was made in the principles of the Second Reformation! This sword was firmly in the hand of those who in 1893 were involved in founding the Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Again it was in the hand of those who remained faithful in 1989. It will have to remain in the hand of the saints, now and always – this year, next year, and on into the future. We look for a generation to be raised up that will have the sword in their hand, who will fearlessly and fervently use the sword of God’s Word to maintain the truth.
Yes, it has to be done with the right spirit. But it has to be done, and the Lord takes pleasure in His people, not just because they are saints, not just because they are singers of His praise, but also because they are soldiers for His cause. At the end of the Psalm, we read, “This honour have all His saints”. They should look upon it as their honour to maintain, defend, promote and fight for the truth. According to their different callings, they are to discern anything that undermines or contradicts the truth, and to have an answer to refute the objectors. When the Lord’s soldiers are holding to the truth as it is in Jesus, they are decorated as it were with a medal of honour.
The Lord’s pleasure in His people – how pleasant that should be to us! The Lord takes pleasure in His saintly people; the Lord takes pleasure in His singing people; and the Lord takes pleasure in His soldiering people. As a branch of the Church, and as a Synod, may we be such a people by His grace!