Devotional: Psalms 149

Praise ye the LORD.
Sing unto the LORD a new song,
and his praise in the congregation
of the saints.
Let Israel
rejoice in their maker:
let the children of Zion
be joyful in their King.
Let them praise his name
in the dance:
let them sing praises to him
with the timbrel and harp.
For the LORD takes pleasure
in his people:
he will beautify the humble

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 twoedged sword
in their hand;
To execute vengeance on the nations,
and punishments on the people;
To bind their kings
with chains,
and their nobles
with fetters of iron;
To execute upon them
the judgment written:
this honour have all his saints.
Hallelujah.
Psalms 149:1-9

The Lord gave me the tune of an old chorus "I will sing unto the Lord with all of my strength, I will sing praises to God while I have my being...." If you remember it, you will see how the cadence of Psalm 149 can fit the tune. If not, well then you will just have to read it as a poem.

This is a psalm of praise. One is caught up immediately with joyous praise--singing and dancing with timbrels and instruments. It is like a parade going through the streets where those in the parade run to the onlookers and drag them into the celebration. What are they celebrating? Their King! Jesus, Yeshua the Messiah, in all his glory, is pleased with the celebration of His devoted, loyal worshippers.

But then the psalm takes on a new dimension. The worshippers are to continue being joyful--"ON THEIR BEDS". The Bible tells us we are to praise the Lord in the evening, in the morning, and at noon--but also while we are sleeping. It goes on: "Let the high praises of God be in their mouth and a twoedged sword in their hand". The high praises of God, what is that? These praises do spiritual warfare. It is NOT something that takes an orchestra or loud music in some large church to be the high praises of God. As we lift our sincere, joyous praise to God He apparently releases the angelic hosts to do warfare on behalf of the Kingdom of God. Yes, we have the Sword of the Lord, the Word of God, in our right hands. That means as we praise we declare His victories according to His Word. Read the rest of this psalm again.

It doesn't always take hours or days of prayer and fasting to execute God's divine judgements against the enemy. In this psalm we are instructed to praise the Lord and He fights our battles for us. I am reminded of the story in 2 Chronicles 20. The Lord instructed Jehoshaphat to send the singers and worshippers to go first into battle. The victory was all the Lord's. We can also do this on our beds--execute the written judgements, God's decrees against the wicked. The night does not belong to the enemy! It belongs to God. We just need to realize we can, and should, praise Him all the while we are awake and even while we are sleeping.

May each of us come to the place where our worship of our Lord Jesus is all consuming in our lives, that we worship him with our words, our deeds, our hearts and our consciousness--even when we are asleep.