We are looking at Psalm 149.
It begins as all of the last five psalms begin. Praise ye the Lord. Sing unto
the Lord a new song and his praise in the congregation of saints.
Let Israel rejoice in him that made them. Let the children of
Zion be joyful in their king. Let them praise his name in the
dance. Let them sing praises unto Him
with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord taketh pleasure
in His people. He will beautify the meek with
salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their
beds. Let the high praises of God be
in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute
vengeance upon the heathen and punishment upon the people. to bind their kings with chains,
and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them
the judgment written, This honor have all his saints. Praise ye
the Lord." Now, as you see in this psalm,
as in all of the last five, these psalms have what we might call
the bookends of praise. They begin, Praise ye the Lord.
and the end with praise ye the Lord. And that is really the
sum total of the lives of God's people. That's what we're called
to do is to praise the Lord. Now, there are many things that
religious men have devised that men are supposed to do in order
to serve the Lord. But this is the most critical
and the most important and it is the reason that the Lord has
called us out of darkness and into the light is not so that
we might do great things but that we might render praise unto
Him as we see Him as He is revealed in Jesus Christ. Now these Old
Testament saints and as David who we believe wrote these Psalms,
his understanding He knew that the Lord would provide a deliverer,
but he did not know who he was. We, by the grace of God, as the
Lord said concerning John the Baptist, He said, There hath
not arisen among men a greater prophet than John the Baptist,
but I tell you, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater
than John the Baptist. Now what he meant by that was
that any man who has a clear vision of who the deliverer is
and has seen what that deliverance is, is more greatly blessed than
the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets, even with greater understanding
than David had as he penned this psalm. Now David was a man after
God's own heart, but there were things that David was not given
to know and not given to see. And those things were given to
us in great privilege. Now we didn't do anything to
get them. It's not because we're smarter.
It's not because we figured it out. It just happened to be that
that was the way the Lord ordained it to be and in the time in which
we live. I mean, you know, if things could
just happen any way they could happen, we could have been born
any time, couldn't we? I mean, you know, things randomly
happen. I mean, we could have been born
back in cowboy days or we could have been born back in the Roman
Empire or whatever. But no, the reality is you couldn't
be born any time other than the time you were born. Because that
was the time that God ordained that you would be born, and you
were born at that time, and anybody that would argue against that
would have to be a fool. You know? I mean, you were born
when you were born. Now, men might argue whether
or not God ordained it, but that's because they're ignorant. Because
if they understood how things work, it would have to be according
to that purpose, or else it could not have occurred, as are all
things. He says, Praise ye the Lord.
What greater place can a man be called and be given the privilege
to praise the Lord? Now some people look at praising
the Lord as a duty. That's the way the carl man looks
at it. That's the way the religious man looks at it. He says we're
going to praise the Lord because we're supposed to praise the
Lord. And Sunday's the day we've set aside to praise the Lord
so we're going to all meet up at such and such a place and
we're going to praise the Lord. Now that's how the religious
man looks at this. But the reality is that the man
in whom the Spirit of God dwells says I desire to praise the Lord. And what better place to praise
the Lord than, as he says here, in the congregation of the saints? Where is a more glorious place
than to come together with God's people and lift up our voices
and praise the Lord? I mean, that's better than praising
God while you're plowing out in the field. The praise is not
any different. I mean, if a man is praising
God, he's praising God wherever he is. But how great and how
blessed it is to praise the Lord together with God's people. How
sweet it is, David said, for brethren to dwell together in
unity. What a blessed place that is.
And so we sing unto the Lord, he says, a new song. And a new
song can be an old song. because he's not talking about
writing new words each time we sing, although there's nothing
wrong with that. You understand that these hymn
books here were written by men down through the ages, and these
are just collections of hymns. That doesn't mean that God's
people are not still writing hymns. It doesn't mean that you
are not Perhaps call to write one. You can't say, well, you
know, here's the hymn book. It's done. We can't do any more.
No. I mean, the Lord moves His people
in all ages. Now, He doesn't give everybody
a calling to write, you know, a verse, a poem, or whatever.
But at the same time, I don't know of anybody that's prevented
from doing it. It's certainly, you know, an
open thing if the Lord so moves you to do it. There's certainly
nothing that would prevent you from doing that. But that's not
what he necessarily means here when he says, sing unto the Lord
a new song. But he means let the song be
that song of your heart, because it doesn't matter what the words
are per se if the song is in your heart. because we are to
sing and make melody unto the Lord in our hearts. That is what Paul says in one
of the epistles, singing and making melody in your hearts.
Now some have taken that verse to mean that it is improper to
sing in the congregation of the saints without musical instruments. Of course, that is not what that
means. It just simply means that the heart is the place where
the music ought to be made. And if the music is not made
in the heart, then it does not make any difference what other
music you might have. In other words, you cannot take
a musical instrument and make music in your heart. The music's
got to begin in your heart. Now, as we see here, as he goes
on to say, here he says, Let Israel rejoice in him that made
him. Now, that seems such a simple thing,
doesn't it? Let Israel rejoice in him that
made him. But yet, It is, while it's a
very simple thing, it's a very profound thing because it is
the Lord who has made us and not we ourselves is what David
said. That's not kind of how it is
today in the modern mindset. They don't necessarily think
God made them. They just kind of think things happen this way
and that way and there's all kinds of theories about how we
got here, but there's no question ever in the Scripture. that God
made all things. Now, you can adopt any theory
that you want, but in order to be in keeping with what the revelation
of God is, it is that He made it. And so, you know, men can
adopt any kind of thought that they want to have, but they can't
be obedient to the Word of God and believe anything else. that
Israel rejoice in him that made him. Let the children of Zion
be joyful in their king." And so the children of Zion, meaning
the elect of God, those who are chosen in Christ, let them rejoice
and be joyful in their king. We're glad that Christ is the
king. Now, some people are not glad
that Christ is the king because they don't want Christ to be
the king. They don't want to worship Him. They don't want
to fall down before Him. They don't want to give Him the
glory. But the children of Zion, that
is those who are the children of God, let them be joyful in
their King. Let them praise His name in the
dance. Now, does that mean, as David
said, get up and do the twist? Well, I don't even know the names
of dances or whatever. But he says, let them praise
His name in the dance. Then he says, let them sing praises
unto Him with the timbrel and the harp. Now, as we understand
the praises of God and the teaching that the Lord gave to Israel,
He demanded certain things of them. And the law says to praise
the Lord. And the Old Testament Scriptures
devised and commanded certain things to be done. He was to
be praised with lift up our hands to Him. He is to be praised in
the dance with the timbrel and the harp and all of these things.
Now those, while there is nothing prohibited in the New Testament
concerning those things, In other words, if a man or a woman is
moved in their heart with praise to God and no other purpose or
no other reason, and they are caused by the Spirit of God to
dance before the Lord, let them do it with all their might. Okay? Now, if I come along and say,
well, you know, it would be a good thing for you to dance before
the Lord, or let's get together and learn this dance so we can
dance before the Lord. What would that be? That would
be foolish, would it not? Because that's not what we're
taught to do. Because the Lord said to the
woman at the well, the Father seeketh such as worship Him,
how? In spirit and truth. And so spirit and truth must
always be the basis upon whatever we do in the measures of praising
and worshiping the Lord. Now again, The Scripture obviously
does not prevent a man or a woman from dancing. It does not prevent
a man or a woman from playing a musical instrument. But it
is not the basis or the New Testament understanding, the clear understanding
that we have about what praise is that it necessarily involves
these things. or that it involves these things
apart from a heart that desires to praise God in spirit and truth.
So you can't cause praise to come forth by musical instruments,
by dance, by anything that you do. You can't cause it by fasting. You can't cause it by praying.
You can't cause it by reading the Bible. You can't cause it
by anything. But it is that which is the work
of the Spirit of God in the people of God. And so is it possible
for a man to play a musical instrument under the glory of God? I believe
so. But it must first begin with that desire to praise Him with
the whole heart. And out of that, must come forth
all things, whatever they be. It doesn't make any difference
what it is, insofar as it's something that's not ridiculous. I mean,
whether therefore you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do
all to the glory of God. You see, that is what the psalmist
is getting at here. Let us praise the Lord with all
things. I mean, you know, but at the
same time not prescribe to somebody how that is to be done. Because the Lord and the Spirit
of God alone is that one that moves. Remember when David danced
before the Lord? Now, I believe David danced.
I believe he was moved by the Spirit of God to do that. Now,
his wife looked at him and said, You are a fool to get out there
and act the way you did. And he said, hey, you just don't
understand. He said, the Lord moved me and
I couldn't help it. It's like Jeremiah when he said,
I determined that I wasn't going to preach anymore. I've had it. I'm not going to say another
word. And he said that the Word of God was like a fire in his
bones and he could not be silent. And dear brethren, that's what
it is to praise the Lord. You see, it's that which is moved
in the heart to praise Him. And it's not all these external
things, although these external things are not prevented, I don't
believe, anywhere in the Scripture. I mean, there's certainly no
restriction that says you can't dance. But then at the same time,
it's not one that says to New Testament saints, understanding
what worship is, learn this new dance step and you can go do
this before the Lord. So may the Lord give us an understanding
of these things. For the Lord taketh pleasure,
where? In dancing, in playing instruments,
in singing songs, In doing things? Is that what
the Lord takes pleasure in? No. What's He say? He says He takes pleasure in
His people. You see, it's just like, you
know, your child can make a drawing and you might not even be able
to tell what it is. But you'll put that up on the
refrigerator And that's a thing you'll take
pleasure in. Why? Because your child did it. Not because he was a great artist. Other people come in, look at
it, and they say, well, what in the world did you put that
stuff up there? You know, I got some things on my office wall
down at the store that Austin colored and drew and stuff like
that. And, you know, I mean, anybody else come in and look
at that, they'd say, well, that's just trash. I mean, what's that
up there on the wall for? Well, you know, it is trash insofar
as the worth of it in natural things, is it not? But you see,
because we take pleasure in those whom we love, then those things
that they do, are those things that we are pleased with. And
so it is that the Lord taketh pleasure in His people and He
will beautify the meek with salvation. Now, you know, if a little child comes
and brings you an old, broke-up, dried-out flower, but he brings
it to you because he wants to present to you something and
a child in his meekness before you, he brings that because he
thinks that will make you happy. And that's a pleasing thing,
is it not? But he will beautify the meek
with salvation. You see, if that child is then
seventeen years old and you tell him to go pick you a flower,
he comes in and he brings you an old Broke up, dried up flower,
what are you going to do? You're not going to receive it,
Lord. You're going to say, You didn't do what I told you to
do. Why? Because He knows better and He's not coming to you in
meekness. And so it is that those who come to the Lord in meekness,
the Scripture says He'll beautify them with salvation. To those
that ask Him, to those that seek Him, to those that come to Him,
Not to those that come demanding. Not to those that say, well,
Lord, I've got you over the barrel now. Not to those that have any
demands, but to those who are needing something from the Lord. He will beautify the meat of
salvation. He makes what they have beautiful. You see, the little broke-up
flower is made beautiful because of the love that the Father has
for the child. And so it is that He beautifies
the meek with salvation. He gives His people that which
is beautiful, and He makes them beautiful in His own sight, though
they might not appear so to the world. Let the saints be joyful
in glory. Let them sing aloud upon their
bed. how great it is to praise the Lord in the sanctuary and
in the congregation of the saints. But he said, let them praise
Him aloud on their beds. I mean, when you've laid down
to sleep, praise the Lord. He's worthy to be praised. There's
no set time. Well, we've got to wait until
we go down to the meeting next Sunday To praise the Lord? No. Praise Him upon your bed. Praise
Him when you get up in the morning. Praise Him during the day when
you work. It doesn't matter. Let the people
of God, let them be joyful in glory. You see, that's the thing
that the children of God are caused to see that the world
cannot see. The world can see everything.
When a man stands up and he preaches the gospel to men, and he says
that Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners, every person
that is in that room can hear those words. I mean unless they're
deaf, obviously, but I mean they can hear those words. Even the
spiritually dead man can hear the words of the gospel that
says Jesus Christ died for sinners. But it is only by the grace of
God that a man is enabled to see the glory of what that is. Because you see, it's only a
sinner. that I have any respect under that. If a man knows he's
a sinner and he hears that Christ died for sinners, that's good
news, isn't it? I mean, he sees glory in that. When Christ is preached high
and lifted up, those who love Him, they see glory in that.
Now those that balk against it, those that fight against that,
they don't see the glory of it. They see a threat to their free
will. or a threat to their religion
or a threat to their own way. But the saints of God, they see
the glory, the glory of God revealed in Jesus Christ, and that is
the place they desire to be, is in that place of seeing the
glory. Oh Lord, we are like Moses, Lord
show us Thy glory. And you see, we have had a clearer
vision than Moses did. But we were hidden in the same
cliff of the rock, but we were able to see more than Moses because,
you see, we know who the cliff of the rock is. And we know that
He's risen from the dead. We know that He's ascended back
to the Father which is in heaven. And we know that He's coming
again for His people. And we see the glory that is
found in Jesus Christ. Remember what Peter said? The
Lord said, Peter, whom do men say that I am? He said, well,
some say that you're Elijah and some say that you're Moses. Some say you're one of the other
prophets. He said, but who do you say that
I am? He said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And in that, you see, he saw
the glory. Remember when the Ethiopian eunuch
was riding along, and he was wondering what the Scripture
said. And the Lord sent Philip to him, and Philip showed him
the gospel. And along the way they came upon
a body of water. And the Ethiopian eunuch said,
Hey, here's water. Why can't I be baptized? He wanted
to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Philip
said, If thou believest with all thine heart, that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God, thou mayest." He said, I believe. You see,
he saw the glory. He saw the glory in it. He said,
this is something I want. That's something I want to embrace. Oh, he wanted to be in the presence
of God. Let the high praises of God be
in their mouth. and a two-edged sword in their
hand, the high praises of God, not just the praises of God,
not just saying, praise the Lord, but the high praises of God,
high and lifted up, I mean, to magnify Him. You know, it's one
thing to say, praise the Lord, and it's another to fall on our
faces and say, praise the Lord, is it not? I mean, it's one thing
to praise Him just as we go through the day, but it's another thing
to lift our hands before Him and desire that He just control
us and move us and make us and use us unto His glory. That's
what it is to praise the Lord when the high praises of God
are in our mouth. It is that it rules out all other
praise. There is no other praise than
that. Let the high praise of God be
in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hand. Now what
is the two-edged sword? The Word of God. The Word of
God is sharper, the Scripture says, than any two-edged sword
piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit. Now do you
know what the difference between the soul and the spirit is? A
very fine line. I don't know that it's really
possible for men to define it, but there is a difference in
it, and the Word of God divides it. It is so sharp. And so it
is. He said, let the two-edged sword
be in their hand. For what reason? To execute vengeance
on the heathen and punishment upon the people. Now does that
mean that we are to go out here and breathe out threatenings
and slaughters against people? Does that mean we are to go out
and judge people? Not at all, because you see,
the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ is exactly what
this is right here. To execute vengeance upon the
heathen and punishment upon the people, to bind their kings with
chains, their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute upon them
the judgment written, this honor have all the saints. Now Paul
said that if a man mistreat you, he said, do good to him. He said,
because by doing so you will heap coals of fire upon his head. Now the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. Whenever we hear about executing
judgment and justice, we say, buddy, that is right down my
alley. I want to get out there and really
lay them out. I want to get some folks straightened out here.
But that is not what it is. We execute judgment in the earth
when the Spirit of God dwells in us, when we love people, and
there is nothing they can do about it. See, you can love somebody
and there isn't anything in the world they can do about it. Now,
if you slap them, there is something they can do about that. But if
you love them, there is nothing they can do. There is no remedy
for that, is there? That's how we execute judgment
and vengeance, by the Word of God, by the power of the Spirit
of God in us. And sometimes that might be in
the form of a rebuke. It will be in the form of declaring
the Word of God to bind their kings with chains. The Lord bound Pilate with chains,
didn't He? Pilate said, Well, don't you
know that I have power to let you go? The Lord said, You don't
have any power at all, except I give it to you. He says, I've
got power to lay it down and take it up again. Now, dear brethren,
the people of God know and understand that there is no weapon that
is formed against us that can prosper. And we bind kings in
that fashion. We don't bind kings by taking
up a carnal sword, but we bind kings by understanding what the
truth of God is. They can't do a thing to us.
Oh, they can chop your head off. You know, they could do something
like that if the Lord allows them to do it, but I mean, they
can't do anything to you. They can't take your faith away.
extract the Word of God from you. They cannot keep you from
believing. You know, all the uproar about
having public prayers in school and all that stuff, you can't
keep a man from praying. I mean, a man whom the Spirit
of God works in, I defy you to keep him from praying. It can't
be done. You can shoot him. He might die,
but you can't keep him from praying. I mean, you might throw Him in
the lions' den. You might put Him in the furnace.
You might do all those things, but you cannot in any wise overcome
the power of the Spirit of the living God sent forth in the
earth in His people. And that is the means by which
they bind kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of
iron, because there is no weapon that is formed against them that
can prosper. There's nothing on earth that a man can do to
overturn the work of God. This judgment is written, this
honor have all His saints. You see, whatever, whatever we're
called to do, whether it's to execute judgment in rebuke or
whether it's to execute judgment in showing forth love that a
man just can't He just throws up his hands and quits and says,
I don't know what to do. He just takes away all of his
excuses. It doesn't matter what the method
is. This is an honor given to the
people of God. You remember when the disciples
had been beaten and they had been turned loose, and as they
went back, it says they conversed with one another. and they rejoiced
that they had been counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake.
Now, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense to the carnal man,
does it? It doesn't make any sense to
our flesh. I mean, we say, well, that can't
be it. I mean, the Lord Jesus said, how do you bind judgment
on men? The Lord Jesus said, He said,
if a man compels you to go with him a mile, go with him two.
If He sues you at the law to take away your coat, give Him
your cloak also. See, you just overcome evil with
good. That's the power of the Spirit
of God. See, there's no weapon that can
stand against such as that. This is impossible in the flesh.
You can't do that in the flesh, neither can I, because I want
to get back at somebody if they do something to me. But by the
grace of God, you see, it's an honor that's given to the people
of God to suffer for Him, to magnify His name in His Word,
praise ye the Lord. I mean, isn't it a glorious thing
to be numbered among the disciples of Jesus Christ? I mean, what
greater place is there to be, whatever happens to us, than
to find ourselves numbered among the saints of God? Is there a
higher honor than that? I can't think of it. And that's
what Scripture says. This honor has all the saints. All the saints in all the ages
join in the same honor. It's not an honor that the world
has any desire for. You know, they're always talking
about conquering this and conquering that, but they're talking about
something you can see. Oh, you know, we've got this
drive going on, and we've got this goal, and we're going to
get so and so, and when we get it, we'll all sit back and say,
Man, look what we did. No, it's not in that. It's not
in anything that a man can see. But it is that it can be seen
in the power of God. Only those to whom that blessing
is given can see it. When Paul stood in a Roman court
as a condemned man, he was triumphant. Now, his followers looked and
they said, well, they are going to kill him. He said, I am ready
to be offered. The time of my departure is at
hand. He said, I have fought a good
fight. I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for
me a crown of rejoicing that fadeth not away. Dear brethren,
he said, I count it all joy to serve the Lord Jesus Christ because
it is an honor that is bestowed upon the saints of God. May the
Lord give us such a mind and a heart that we might praise
in all things, and that we might demonstrate our praise to Him,
not so that men might see it, but so that it might be a thing
blessed in the courts of heaven, because He's pleased with His
children.