Psalm 149:1-9 NKJV
149 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!
“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand” (6). The saints of God praise Him continually because the Lord takes pleasure in them. The Lord is pleased with the saints because they love His Son, as Jesus says in John 14:21, “He who loves Me will be loved by My Father.” God loves those who humble themselves before Him and love His only begotten Son. He beautifies them with salvation. This is the chief reason the saints praise the Lord. He saves them from sin, eternal death, and the power of the devil.
The saints also have a two-edged sword in their hand “to execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples” (7). This is not a call to worldly warfare and physical violence against God’s enemies as some have imagined. The sword in the hand of the saints is not a literal sword, but what St. Paul calls “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:17). Hebrews 4:12 tells us that God’s word is “living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword” (Heb 4:12). One edge of the sword is the law which reveals and condemns all that is sin and contrary to God. The other is the gospel which reveals the salvation earned by Christ and received by faith.
Christians use the sword of the Spirit to cast down anything that sets itself against the knowledge of God. The law reveals the world’s sin and judges it so that the Christian avoids the world’s sins. The gospel reveals God’s salvation for the humble penitent and strikes down everything contrary to it as false and misleading so that we remain in the gospel with a pure conscience. In times of temptation and persecution, the saints use the double-edged sword of God’s word to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10:5) so that we do not fall to temptation or yield to the world’s pressure. With the praise of God on our lips for our salvation and the double-edged sword of God’s word in hand against our enemies, the saints will be victorious, not by their own strength, but by the strength of God who works in them through His Word.
Let us pray: Keep us ever mindful of Your Word, O God, that we always have Your praise on our lips and the sword of the Spirit in hand against all our foes. Amen.