Wednesday April 24
“A Two-Edged Sword in Their Hand”
Psalm 149:5-9
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!.
Psalm 149 is one of the five “Hallelujah Psalms” that concludes the Book of Psalms. This psalm is a primer on worship and gives us the basic instructions we need. Verses 1-2 tell us that we must worship the Lord intelligently. We rejoice and are joyful in our Maker and King! We are thankful for what the Lord has done for us, but we should worship and praise Him for Who He is! In verses 3-4, we learn that our worship should be accompanied on musical instruments and songs of praise and with spiritual fervency and with enthusiasm.
In verse 5, we find we have a great privilege and honor, and we should worship the LORD gratefully! “Let the saints be joyful in glory” has been also translated, “Let the saints rejoice in this honor”. The "honor" being the privilege of worshiping the true and living God. God gave His Word and His glory only to the nation of Israel (Psalm 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 bed can bring joy to the Lord. Instead of the bed "swimming" with tears (Psalm 6:6), it is filled with "songs in the night" (Psalms 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.
Finally in verses 6-9, we should worship the LORD with victory in mind. Worship and warfare go together, as the book of Revelation makes very clear. Satan has always wanted to be worshiped (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; and 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. 19:11-16). 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. 5:2-11), and then Christ will "gird His sword... and ride prosperously” (Psalm 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 worshiping warriors!
God bless!