Sermon: Praise the Lord! Let the Children of Zion Rejoice in Their King!

I invite you to take a Bible and turn with me to Psalm 149, Psalm 149. If you are using a Pew Bible, you can find that on page 5 26 this morning. We're returning to the Halel Psalms, uh, an occasional periodic series that we've been going through for a number of months. And these are the five concluding psalms in the book of the Salter.

I don't consider myself to be a grammar guy. I did not do well in middle school English. I don't know all the rules and I don't keep all the rules,

and I also don't consider myself to be a great writer either.

So with all that being said, there's maybe one thing I know about writing and that is in a conclusion, you never put more information that you never covered before in it. It's gotta be reinforcing the main point. And you are meant to draw together everything that you've covered to press home, that main point that you've been making throughout. I tell you that because that's what these last five Psalms do. They're the conclusion to the Book of Psalms.

And here in Psalm 1 49, again, the main point of the book is Pressed Home. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. And then the Psalm writer here effectively draws together, pulls together that which he's already covered throughout the book. And so you're gonna see some of the, the themes that have already been expounded on in the book. God is the king of kings. Zion is special because it is the earthly place associated with the presence of God.

God's people are his favored possession. God is a great savior and God will judge the ungodly nations. So before we read the Psalm together, let's pray and ask for God's blessing upon it.

Oh Lord, our God. It is a blessing, a blessing of all blessings to be numbered among your people through your son, and to enjoy all the privileges that belong to us as your children. We praise you a Lord for declaring your word to us, for teaching us through it and exhorting us, for rebuking us and encouraging us and for sanctifying us, we pray, oh Lord, that you would do this work in us again through the proclamation of your word.

And I pray, oh Lord, for each person who listens that this word would fall on fertile soil in their heart. Oh Lord, did you do that work that only you can do to prepare that soil to receive the word that it might bear fruit? Do this, oh, holy Spirit, for we ask it in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Psalm 149, hear the word of the Lord. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. His praise in the assembly of the Godly.

Let Israel be glad in his maker. Let the children of Zion rejoice in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and liar. For the Lord takes pleasure in his people. He adorns the humble with salvation. Let the Godly exalt and glory let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two edged swords in their hands to execute vengeance on the nations

and punishments on the peoples to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron to execute on them. The judgment written. This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord. Amen. Well, dear friends and the Lord Jesus Christ, in 1943, the song that reached the top of the billboard charts was a song entitled Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.

The song has a lot of details that the the origin of the song has a lot of details that many think are probably not true. They're, they've become legendary. But this much is true that the title of the song was a phrase that a Navy chaplain fighting in World War II on a fleet vessel was using to encourage those who were fighting. And some man capitalizing on this very catchy phrase entitled this song, praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition.

He wrote it in part to inspire the nation, the United States and World War ii, to inspire them to fight and see victory. This song Praise the Lord and Pass the ammunition fits in a very unique genre of songs, war and victory songs. And this Psalm fits into that very genre. This psalm is a song of deliverance. You don't need me to tell you this. As we read through, you can see for yourself that Psalm 1 49 has to be set in the context of

Old Testament victory, a great deliverance for the people of God. It resembles other Israelite songs of military victory. Now, the context to us today might feel very distant, but the instruction that Psalm 1 49 provides for us as new covenant believers living on this side of the cross is very instructive. It's very instructive. We see here the church rejoicing and fighting. So I'm gonna borrow heading titles from Derrick Kenner's

commentary to help you with your outline. We're gonna see the church jubilant in verses one through four, and the church militant in verses five through nine. So first, the church jubilant in the first verses of the Psalm, God's people are called to praise him with everything they have and everything they are. The first thing that stands out here in verses one through three is the who that is to be praised. The who, the living God.

He's called by his covenant name in verse one, Yahweh. He's identified in verse two as Israel's maker. Now this word maker here is probably meant to be pretty specific. Sometimes the word maker speaking about God refers to how God is the creator of all things. He's made the heavens and the earth. But here this word maker is meant to convey God's special, particular act of making for himself a nation from the seed of one man, from Abraham, calling him out,

and then making the nation of Israel from just one family on the earth. This God is Israel's maker. He is their king. Verse two, he is their ruler and their defender. And in verse four, the living God is identified as their savior. This God is the God that Israel is to praise. Now I know if you've been here for some of these other uh, sermons over the Halel psalms, you're probably thinking, we got it by now. You keep going back to the who.

Why do you keep giving so much attention to the who in each of these praise Psalms may feel repetitive. That's the point. That's the point. It's the point of these psalms, these concluding psalms direct our praise to God and to him alone. You see, Israel is like my car.

My car veers very badly to the right. I get in alignment, I drive it out of the garage, it veers to the right, bring it back for an alignment. It veers to the right. My car needs recalibration, it needs redirecting. And Israel needed to be redirected regularly as they went after foreign gods. And we need it too. We need regular redirecting away from the world and back to God. The Psalm directs the church's praise to God

for he is our maker and our king, and he is our savior. So the first thing that stands out is the who is to be praised. The second thing is how Israel is to praise God. You see that they are to sing and dance and make music. They are to sing a new song. They're to use tambourines and liars. They are to sing. Verse one says, publicly, corporately, together, all of this is meant to enhance and express the joy and gladness

and thanksgiving of God's people to God their king. With everything they have, with everything they are, they praise God. Now, sometimes we Presbyterians get called the frozen chosen.

People think we're maybe a little bit formal and reserved in our style of worship. It's a joke. Well, we might wonder as we come to Psalm 1 49, as we see Israel, God's people singing and dancing, joyfully jubilantly making music. Have we missed something as there some essential part of our worship service that we're not doing that we ought to be doing? Well, if that's the thought in your mind, it's the question you're asking in your heart,

that's a, that's a good thought. It's a good question. But you see the the manner in which Israel is celebrating here in Psalm 1 49 and praising God here actually reflects the su, the type of celebration that occurred after a great military victory. So all it was common for such an occasion to do these things. It was rather occasional for Israel to praise God. In this way we can search the scriptures and we don't find Israel typically

engaging in this form of worship. As we look at how they practiced worship in the temple, we don't find them worshiping and praising God in this way. This sort of praise is meant to be celebration for a special occasion of deliverance. So let me give you a couple of examples. Okay? First, Exodus 15, Exodus 14. You'll remember how the Israelites were brought out of Egypt and then they were brought through the Red Sea on dry ground.

But their enemies, the Egyptians, as they followed them through the Red Sea on dry ground were the waters came upon them and they were judged in the Red Sea. What Israel does when they get to the other side on dry ground is they begin to sing. They sing, I will sing unto the Lord. For he has triumphed gloriously the horse and his rider. He has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation.

This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. And then as they sing their song, Miriam Moses' sister and the Israelite women took tambourines and they danced while they sang

after a great deliverance. Here's a second example for you, first Samuel 18. For Samuel 17 is when David goes out to fight Goliath and he conquers him. He's the victor one Samuel 18 verse one says, as they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine, the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with songs of joy and with musical instruments,

we see that it was common for Israel to mark great victories and express their joy with songs and dancing in tambourines. It was also common for God, God's people to mark these special deliverances by singing a new song as we find in verse one, a new song in response to a new work of God, A, an act of great deliverance and redemption. So you can make note of these, Psalm 33, Psalm 40, Psalm 96, 98 and 1 44, Israel is singing a new song

in association with redemption being redeemed. And we even find one example in the Old Testament of Israel singing a new song in response to a prophecy of future redemption. So in Isaiah 42, the the servant of God is prophesied about and how he will redeem God's people. And in response, God's people sing. They sing a new song.

URCI hope you know this. I love this church. My family loves this church. There's lots to love about this church. One of the things that I love most about you is that you sing and you love to sing. It's something that stands out about you. One thing I'll often do as I meet visitors is I'll ask them, what, what sort of impressions do you have? Did you have of the service that you, uh, were just in? What stood out to you? I especially like to ask this

of new believers that you all invite. What stood out to you? What, what did you see? What did you notice? Usually there's a couple things that are said. First, there's a lot of kids. Yes, very true. Second, they like to sing. The singing was wonderful. It's been pointed out by others. And I think the assessment is right from my own experience that one of the most primary ways that the church is different from the world is that we sing.

We sing. If you've been in church for a while, especially if you've been in this church for a while, you might not realize how extraordinary it is to sing. It could seem rather ordinary to you. It might seem rather normal to you, but this is something that sets you apart from the world.

You think about when people sing outside of church, the list is pretty short. They might sing together at a, at a ball game. Maybe they might not sing. They'll let the performer sing for them as they stand idly on, uh, maybe a concert. Try and sing with the performer.

Uh, singing is not that commonplace in the world, but God's people sing. As we look all throughout the scriptures, we find God's people singing. Why? Well, I'm glad you asked. Verse four tells us, we have reason to sing as is common in praise. Psalms reasons are often supplied for why we ought to praise God. And we find that in verse four. Two reasons for first, the Lord takes pleasure in his people. God's people are to delight in God

because God delights in them. He takes pleasure in them. It's the proper response that you would return with the light to God. Reason number two, God adorns them with salvation. That word adorned can mean something like beautifying. We have a picture here of God, beautifying the humble. Some translations call them the afflicted, beautifying his afflicted ones. He closed them. In garments of victory, God's people are to sing because God has saved them.

It's the proper response.

Israel herein Psalm 1 49 is celebrating that God has taken pleasure in them and that he has delivered them in salvation. They have reason to praise God. And how much more so do we o church? How much more so do we have reason to praise God? The gospel of Jesus Christ is true. God takes pleasure in his church and adorns her with salvation. The eternal son of God in whom the Father is well pleased, laid down his life to purchase our salvation.

Listen to one Peter two says, once you are not a people, but now you are God's people. You are a chosen race, a holy priesthood, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession.

God takes pleasure in his church. He loves her. Christ has adorned his church with his own garments of salvation, with robes, washed and made white in his blood.

Blood usually stains clothes, but the blood of the lamb purifies them. This is a holy people. His church, he beautifies her. God's church has reason to sing. So it's right and good. You are see that you are known for your singing. It's right and good that you sing Corporately together.

We've seen here in the Old Testament how God's people gathered to sing jubilantly in response to salvation. I wanna give you one example from the New Testament, this one being Revelation chapter 14.

There in Revelation 14, we find the 144,000 before the throne praising God. The 144,000 are called the Redeemed. They are the true church of God, redeemed from all the nations, redeemed from every age. They're the true church. And what do we find them doing? They are singing a new song to God and to the Lamb on Mount Zion. They are singing because God has redeemed them. God has brought his final judgment and they have stood in the judgment.

This is the church's final. This is the church's response to God's final act of redemption. The redemption of our bodies and our souls. On the judgment day, God's people sing. They sang. The church sang of old, and the church in glory sings. And so we sing. We sing joyfully. We sing with everything we have and everything we are. We sing because of him. We sing to him and we sing for him. Most importantly, dear church,

when we gather together on Sundays and Sunday after Sunday, we are not gathering to check a box. We are gathering to celebrate that the gospel is true. Christ died and Christ has risen. He has conquered.

We gather to sing praises joyfully in response to him and to be redirected away from the things of the world. And back to God. We sing because God has taken pleasure in his church and to saved her. So we find in verses one through four that the church is jubilant. The second half of the Psalm starts somewhat like an encore performance to the first half of the Psalm. More jubilant. Praise to God. In verse five, the Godly exalt in glory.

They sing for joy in their beds. The praises don't stop.

When I hop in bed at the end of the day and my head hits the pillow, I am out. For some of you, when you lay your head down on the pillow, that becomes a place of silence and reflection. You can imagine that if you're an Israelite and you had been away from your home for years in exile and now you've returned home, you're back in your house, your bed is made waiting for you, you hop in bed the feelings of relief,

Joy, thankfulness to God. And so the Israelites are to keep praising God from the comforts of their bed. And so too are we The praises do not stop. But then the setting changes. No longer praise from the comforts of your bed, but praising God by executing judgments on the nations and on kings.

What is going on here? That's a drastic change. Well, what's going on here is a, a holy war. Remember that when Israel entered into the promised land, they were to wipe out the inhabitants of the land because the nations stood against God. Their iniquity had filled up and God was going to execute judgment simultaneously. Two things were happening when Israel was entering the promised land in their conquest. First is that the Lord was judging the nations for their wickedness.

Through Israel's conquest, Israel became instruments of judgment. But secondly, God was protecting Israel from the corruption of the nations and their wicked practices that would bring about judgment upon them if they were to adopt them.

God was doing something similar to like what you might do when you start your garden out for the year. The first thing you do is you pluck up all the weeds, the things that don't belong. And then you plant the vegetables. Because if those weeds remain, they will, they'll choke out the plant.

Israel was saved from bondage in Egypt to worship the holy God as a holy people in a holy land.

But they did not clear out the nations. And what they did was adopt the foreign gods of the foreign nations and made them their own. They praised them and worshiped them as their own gods. And so God expelled them from the land.

So here back to Psalm 1 49. As the people of Israel are marking out a new act of God's deliverance, they're reminded of Holy War. They're reminded that they are to be God's people in a holy land worshiping the holy God.

Now, ultimately Israel will experience this through Christ, through the Messiah, the Promised one. They were never meant to independently execute judgments on the nations. They were the instrument of judgment. You think of some of those Messianic Psalms, Psalm two, Psalm 110 in particular, the Messiah is said to do these things, to execute these judgments on the nations.

So the Messiah would be the one through whom Israel would experience this.

Now, I wanna address one concern that I suppose some of you may have. This language is serious. Perhaps you're alarmed. This language is alarming. You should be alarmed and you should especially be alarmed if you like the nations, set yourself against the Lord and against his anointed because Christ will come and when he comes, he will come to execute the just judgments of God upon all people and all nations.

So let this be a warning to you. This Psalm. Be a warning to you. But let it also be an invitation. If it's alarming you and you feel that you are being warned, let it also be an invitation. You go to Psalm two and you see the Messiah executing this judgment, and there's a promise. If you look across the page, you see that there's an invitation in Psalm 1 48 verses 11 and 12, to the kings of the earth and all peoples princes

and all rulers of the earth. Praise the Lord, you are invited to come submit yourself to Christ, the king of kings and the Lord of Lords come make peace with God through Christ the Messiah.

So how should we understand this psalm today as the church of God? Can we even sing this psalm? Can we sing the song together? We can. And I think the the words in five, uh, verses five and six, six provide helpful imagery for us. A helpful frame of reference for how we as the church of God in this present age are to think about where we are at in this world and in God's history. You see in verse five, the people of God are resting,

the resting in their beds and praising God for the deliverance that he has brought. But in verse six, they hold the sword in their hands. They are fighting. They are at war. And you see, dear people of God, we live in the already not yet. God has secured victory through Christ against his enemies, but we have not yet fully experienced the final rest that will be ours when Christ returns. And so we are still engaged in a holy war.

We are in this present age as some have said the church militant,

but we both fight for Christ and rest in Christ.

See brothers and sisters, it's really important that you get this straight. It's Christ who conquers and we are made conquerors in him. We win the Holy War that we're engaged in, not by the shedding of blood, but by the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Because our enemies are not flesh and blood. They are the rulers, the authorities, the cosmic powers, the spiritual forces of evil in this present age. And so our weapons are not of the flesh either.

Instead, we bear the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God. And don't you remember, as Hebrews four tells us, the word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword. It can pierce and divide joint from marrow. So we are to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God to take every thought captive, to obey Christ. That's the holy War that we are engaged in.

Now if you look around, you might feel this is a losing enterprise. Really? These weapons, really, those are enemies. I don't see them. Really. The church seems to be squeezed on every side.

Psalm 1 49 seems like victory is inevitable.

And it is. But we've only experienced a measure of victory. Makes me think back to an MSU hockey game I was at with a friend earlier this spring.

During one of the breaks in action, the pet band started playing the fight song. And so all the fans are joined together singing, rah rah, rah, Victory for MSU. But the Spartans were losing. So I nudged my friend just to joke him. Dude, they're losing. Don't they know that they're losing. They're singing victory for MSU.

He had a good retort for me. But isn't that true of our experience? Dear church, isn't that true of our experience as a church of God? We are singing victory songs even when it feels like we are losing or even when it looks like we might be losing. This is the psalm is an anticipatory,

and we sing it as such because we know the victory is ours already now in some measure, but fully. And finally, when Christ has put every enemy of his and ours under his foot as a footstool,

brothers and sisters, the church will not always be militant. There will be a time when the church has peace on every side. Christ will fully and finally conquer all his enemies and our enemies. We're about to sing this. The church victorious will be the church at rest that will be true of us in our future. The war will be over. Satan's accusations will stop. No more attacks will come. The fighting will be done. We will be the church at rest. The church triumphant.

We'll not always be the church militant, but we will always be the church jubilant.

Always. Because when Christ returns, we will sing that new song that all the redeemed of the earth from every tribe, nation, tongue, people, group, that new song that only the redeemed, no. And we will never cease singing for joy, celebrating with thanksgiving and giving praise to God and to the lamb. I think we should sing. But first, let's pray. Will you join me? Oh Lord, we are so thankful that we have reason to sing.

You have given us reason to sing. You've taken pleasure in your church. You've adorned her with the garments of salvation. We know that this is not because of us or something in us. We trace it back to your own good pleasure. And so we thank you. We praise you, oh God, that you have saved us in Christ. And we praise you oh God. And thank you that you will save us fully in finally in Christ. We look forward to that day

when we shall see you face to face. And we will gather with all your elect on around the throne, singing praise to the lamb. Oh God, would you bring that day? Would you return for us? And come quickly. And until you come, will you make us faithful, faithful to keep singing, faithful, to keep fighting until you return. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.