Monday April 22
“Let Them Praise His Name…”
Psalm 149:1-9
1 Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp.
4 For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand,
7 To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;
8 To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute on them the written judgment-- This honor have all His saints. Praise the LORD!
I first want to thank you for your prayers for us over this past weekend. I drove most of the night from New Life Baptist in White Marsh Maryland back to my home here in Sneads Ferry North Carolina. I arrived around 3:30am this morning and was of course quite tired, but I’m convinced that it was your prayers that kept us safe driving through the crazy traffic going around Baltimore and Washington DC on Interstate 95. Miraculously, I did not get sleepy or have a problem staying away the entire drive. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You!!!!!
The ordination service last night was a wonderful time of recognizing God’s call upon Adam Kord and his wife Julie for the Gospel Ministry. We are so thankful that the Lord is still “building His Church”, and He is always at work in doing so. We had the wonderful privilege of experiencing Him doing just that last night! Please continue to pray for Friendly Community Church as they go through this transition of receiving a new pastor over the next several months! Of course, please pray for Pastor Adam Kord and Julie has they begin this new journey in their lives!
Psalm 149 brings us almost to the end of the Psalms, and still among the Hallelujahs. This is "a new song", evidently intended for the new creation, and the men who are of new heart. It is such a song as may be sung at the coming of the Lord, when the new dispensation shall bring overthrow to the wicked and honor to all the saints. The tone is exceedingly jubilant and exultant. It is obvious as you read this psalm that it looks forward to end of the Seven Year Tribulation period when the Lord Jesus Christ comes back with His saints on a white horse to execute judgment on the earth just before He sets up His one-thousand-year reign from the Throne of David (Revelation 19-20).
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.
In verses 1-2 we learn we must worship the Lord intelligently. 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). 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" (Psalms 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!
As the old song goes, "Soon and very soon, We're going to see the King."
God bless!