DUNCAN/A new song

If you have your Bible, I’d invite you to turn with me to Psalm 149. This psalm is so clearly set in the context of some great, late, Old Testament victory that God has provided for His people, and it gives us, as believers, living under the glories of the new covenant, ample instruction for the praise of God. And I want to look at this psalm especially from the standpoint of the new covenant, especially from the standpoint of our privileges as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to do that without failing to pay close attention to the original context of the psalm. 

Sing a New Song

First, look at verses 1 to 3. We’re being taught here in this exhortation that we are to worship the Lord for His greatest deliverance with all that we have and are. They’re told to sing a new song. Secondly, notice to whom this exhortation is directed — The people of God. Specifically, what are they to do? They are to praise God as their Maker and as their King. He was the one who had led the great victory to save them from their enemies. Our Maker is our Savior.

Then, very interestingly, we’re told that we’re to do this “with dancing, singing, and musical instruments.” Now this is a very consternating verse to Presbyterians! And we may scratch our heads and wonder if we’ve been missing a vital element of worship! But it’s precisely this that I want to show to you shows that what is happening here is a victory song on a great occasion of deliverance. When you see tambourines and lyres and dancing in the Old Testament, they only occur on very specific — Very special occasions. Not in temple worship, not in tabernacle worship, not in the private worship or the public worship of the patriarchs, but in very specific national contexts. Exodus 15:20-21; Judges 11:34; and 1 Samuel 18:6 are just a few Old Testament examples of victorious occasions that called for this. 

So, you have to ask the question, “What is the new occasion that causes the children of Israel to sing this new song?” And you are not left without an answer in the Scriptures. We are told point blank by John in Revelation 5:9 and then again in Revelation 14:3, that the song of the redeemed to God, to the Lamb, is the new song. “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!” That is the new song. And so, this psalm anticipates that scene — The final victory of the Lamb over all the forces that are arrayed against God and against His people. 

Worship the Lord Because of the Gospel 

And the second thing is this, and you’ll see it in verse 4. The psalmist tells us why we’re to give ourselves to God this way. We’re to worship the Lord because He delights in us and because He has delivered us at the cost of His Son. Listen to what the psalmist says. “For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He adorns the humble with salvation.” Now in its original context, picture something like this. The people of God have been saved out of the long Babylonian exile. Over and over in that exile they had asked, “Has the Lord failed to fulfill His promise to His people that He would be their God, and they would be His people?” And the psalmist, here, says “The Lord takes pleasure in His people.” The picture is this — As the exiles have come out of the land of captivity and back to their own land, they say, “Lord, You remembered us and You brought us out of our trouble, and You brought us back home. Lord, now we know You take pleasure in Your people.”

And then they go on to say, “He adorns the humble with salvation.” Though they had been brought low, He brought them back out of captivity and He exalted them. How does the new covenant believer sing these verses? He sings these verses thinking about God’s delight. How is God’s delight manifested to the new covenant believer? That the One Who is offered in our place on the cross is God’s own beloved Son. Does the Lord delight in His people? Look Who He has given that His people might be saved, might be forgiven, might be spared the judgment due their sin. Look Who He has given that we might be welcomed back into His family. He has given His only begotten Son. He does not pour out the deserved condemnation on us that we ought to receive. 

Judgment and Worship 

And then there is this third and last and very serious thing that this psalm does. Many of the commentators spill much ink trying to explain what is going on in verses 5 to 9. Despite the apparent strangeness to some of these verses, this passage ultimately calls upon the people of God to worship by executing judgments on the nations which are arrayed against God. Why? Because those inhabitants are arrayed in wickedness against God and because they will corrupt the people of God if they are allowed to stay in the land. Do the children of Israel obey God? No, and the book of Judges records the sad spiritual consequences of the people of God not doing what they had been commanded in the book of Joshua. Now here we are, hundreds of years later at the end of Israel’s national history, and they have been sent into exile because for generation after generation, what had they been doing? They had been going after other gods. 

They must separate themselves from evil. How do we as new covenant believers follow this command? We follow it by worshiping the Lord via a new covenant holy war. Not by establishing a theocracy — Not by establishing laws of punishment for unbelievers in our nation states. No, our enemies are not flesh and blood, but the spiritual hosts of wickedness. And our weapons are not physical two-edged swords but the Word of God which is sharper than any two-edged sword. Our binding of kings with chains is taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And in the Revelation, in all of its picturing of the fiery final judgment of God, the church’s description of victory is this — They have conquered. By the killing of their enemies? No. They have conquered by government power? No. Revelation 12:11 — “They have conquered by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death.” Our battle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with the ruler of this world. He is the power behind the kings mentioned here in verse 8. And the warfare that we’re called to here is warfare against the world, the flesh, and the devil, to come out and be separate, to stand with the Lord, and to await His final judgment.