Tucked in at the end of the Psalms is a collection of praise songs that is often forgotten. I suppose as one ends the 150 psalms that there is a bit of fatigue for many readers and people tend to pass quickly over the last few chapters of the book of Psalms and not recognize their serious importance. Psalm 150, for example, deals with the tricky issue of what instruments are acceptable for the praise and worship of God [1] (short answer: all of them), and Psalm 149, even more obscure than Psalm 150, deals with the question of the role of the saints (believers) in judging the world.

It is a shame, in many ways, that this psalm is anonymous, or else we would have a specific person to thank for this excellent and illuminating psalm. Even so, Psalm 149 gives support to the viewpoint of other passages that speak of the responsibility and capacity of believers for judgment both in this world and in the world to come, passages that directly speak against the pietism that threatens to overwhelm our development of our God-given roles in discernment and judgment. Tucked unobtrusively at the end of the fifth book of Psalms, Psalm 149 provides us with an authoritative statement of the responsibilities of believers to judge based on the standards of the Eternal.

Pslam 149 is divided neatly into two halves. The first half of Psalm 149 tells us how and where God is to be praised in ways that are much like Psalm 150 (as might be expected), and in ways that are traditional to the Psalms and to the biblical practice as a whole. Psalm 149:1-4 reads: “Praise the Lord! Sin to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the assembly of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with the dance; let them sin praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation.”

On the surface this psalm seems rather typical as a praise song of God. There is the initial call to praise (echoed, of course, in the closing, as is typical). Then there is the call to “sing a new song” to Yahweh for believers. An unusual note (that reminds us that the Psalms are not merely hymns of individual devotion but also songs of collective worship) is that the psalmist reminds us to sing the Eternal’s praise in the assembly of saints–in the congregation of God. As believers we are part of a larger body and are not solitary adherents to God’s ways. We are then called to rejoice in our Maker, pointing to the need to show appreciation to our Creator for His acts of creation, and finally called as the children of Zion (children of our Heavenly Father) to be joyful in our King. What these calls to praise share (with typical Hebrew parallelism) is an appreciation to Yahweh for His various roles in our lives as believers–as the body of Jesus Christ which we are a part and of which our Savior is head, as the Creator of a universe in which we live and move as His creation, and as the children of God in His family, over which our Lord is King. In all cases the honor and glory of believers is connected to the even greater glory of our Heavenly Father and of His Christ, whom we follow and whom we praise.

Next the psalmist points to how we are to give praise to our Maker and to our Savior, again using fairly standard language and form typical of the Hebrew poets. Again, using standard Hebrew parallelism, the psalmist calls on us to praise the name of the Eternal with dance, and to sing praises to Him with the timbrel (percussion instruments) as well as the harp (string instruments). Psalm 150 continues this call for instrumental worship of God and spells in greater detail, so it need not be repeated here, but here again we see song and dance commanded as part of our worship of God, which ought to remind us that biblical culture is not something that we automatically possess, or that has been well preserved in our own cultures, some of which actually frown upon the sort of dance that is commanded by the Bible and viewing it as somehow undignified in the same manner that the fussy Michal thought of concerning her husband David, king over Israel and a man after God’s own heart.

The first section of Psalm 149 closes with a reminder of why we should rejoice in God in the ways commanded by the psalmist (under divine inspiration). We are reminded that our Father, the Eternal, takes pleasure in us, His believers, and that he will adorn His believers with salvation as the bride of Christ. This is beautiful imagery, though rather brief, and it reminds us of other passages of the Bible where the imagery is spelled out with greater detail. As is typical in Psalm 149, the psalmist compresses these rather larger concepts and ideas in language that is brief and in parallel with other references, reminding the congregation of Israel (and us) of the salvation work of God in history and in our lives, and reminding us that God will bless the humble (who show God His proper praise).

In many ways, the bifid organization of Psalm 149 is a deliberate contrast between the behavior and the ultimate fate of believers and those who reject God’s ways. The nested parallels within parallels are a sign of the skillful organization of the anonymous psalmist, and should point us to the deeper logical point he is making through the use of a somewhat complex organization and structure. Poems, of course, are not written as logical arguments, but the organization and structure of a poem, especially a short poem that is written with such elegance and beauty, ought to alert us to the points that the poet is making in a subtle way. By showing ourselves alert to this subtlety, we see the doctrinal importance of the poetry even of obscure songs.

The second half of Psalm 149 looks at the honor of the saints in terms of their role as the divinely appointed judges over rebellious mankind. Psalm 149:5-9 reads: “Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute judgment 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 written judgment–this honor have all His saints. Praise the Lord!”

The second half of Psalm 149 begins where the first half leaves off, calling on the saints of God to be joyful in glory, given glory now as the unborn children of God and even more glory in the world to come being clothed with immortality and part of the the royal family of our Heavenly Father. We are not only to sing the praises of Yahweh in our congregations, but also on our beds, in our private praise to God. Again, our praise of God and our pursuit of His ways is both a matter of public and private virtue, of collective and personal worship. No sphere of human activity is autonomous from the direction of the commandments of God. All people and all areas of our lives are accountable to Him, something that some human beings need to be reminded of.

The theme of judgment is not long to arise, though, as we are not only called to sing the praises of God in our mouths, but to wield the two-edged sword (of the Word) to execute judgment in our hands. Sometimes, pietists claim that our role as ambassadors means that we are limited to the power of the word, and not the coercion of deeds, but the Bible clearly dispels this notion, pointing to the power of our words and deeds as God’s viceroys in a rebellious planet that is largely hostile to His ways. The sword of the Word of God is the only offensive weapon we have as believers (Ephesians 6:10-18), and we must be vigilant in ensuring that any judgment we provide is the judgment of God as written in His holy scriptures, and not our own personal or partisan judgment, but we also must not shrink from providing this warning and judgment in a stubbornly rebellious world, as that is part of the job responsibility of the saints.

And what sort of judgment does Yahweh command? He commands vengeance to be executed on the nations of the heathen for their oppression of the righteous and for their rejection of God’s ways, and punishments on the Gentiles for the corruption of their ways (as defined by God’s word). This reminds us both of the standard of judgment (The Bible) as well as the role of believers both now and in the world to come as the judges of the world, calling mankind to repentance now and executing God’s wrath upon those who will not repent later on. This is a solemn responsibility that we must take seriously, not being afraid of the governments of the wicked but remaining faithful to God and rebuking those rulers and peoples who govern and live contrary to the ways of God.

Included in these punishments is binding kings with chains and punishing nobles with iron fetters. This was done very literally in the times of ancient Israel when they punished the corrupt Canaanite city-states (see Judges 1:1-7 for a very literal example) and it will be done by believers in the world to come as well when the rulers of the nations face the government of Jesus Christ up close and personally, and when wicked rulers and selfish elites are condemned for their oppression of the common people and for their refusal to speedily submit to God’s ways. Just like the rulers of this world imprison their godly critics and try to bind their people in cruel and unjust domination, so they will be treated themselves by the righteous people of God when that justice is meted out to them as they have done so to others. I long for the execution of that judgment, and to play my part in it.

Here in Psalm 149, the psalmist closes by pointing out to us the standard of judgment–the written judgment of scripture (and not our own personal wishes or selfish opinions), and by pointing out that the honor of judgment according to scripture belongs to all believers. This is an important point that should not be passed over quickly. All too often the congregations that claim to be God’s church place great distances between corrupt and worldly elites and the ordinary body of believers, believing that only those who are ordained with special and privileged offices possess the authority to interpret and judge according to scripture. Here the psalmist claims that both in this world and in the world to come, the honor of judgment belongs to all believers without exception. There is no privileged place of supposed ordained leadership to judge according to scripture that is denied completely to every believer who possesses the Spirit of God within them. And it is for this respect and honor of executing His judgment that we are called upon to praise the Eternal. And I do!

We ought to remember that Psalm 149 draws the same conclusions about judgments that Paul states in 1 Corinthians 6:1-11. 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 points out the sins that God’s scripture condemns, a wide selection of sins that includes personal immorality, economic sins, disrespect of God’s authority, and idolatry, while Psalm 149 states them as broadly as possible–pointing to the whole written standard of God’s word, every single law and commandment and statute within it. And both Psalm 149 and 1 Corinthians 6 draw from the premise of the role of ordinary believers in executing eternal judgment for both rebellious angels and rebellious human beings as granting that responsibility for believers here and now in this life. Psalm 149 focuses on civil judgments of corrupt political leaders and 1 Corinthians 6 focuses on the spiritual judgments of believers within the congregation, but ultimately as both church and state (and all other institutions) are subject to the written commandments of God as the standard that all are under, believers have the competence and responsibility of providing judgment in all spheres of life according to the written standard of God’s word. Let us learn and practice this responsibility here and now and develop the capacity to rule according to God’s ways both now and in the world to come.

Psalm 149 is obscure and its parallels are largely unrecognized and unappreciated, even by those who claim to be believers. Of the greatest importance, Psalm 149 reminds us (if such a reminder was necessary) that the honor of judgment against evil according to the standard of God’s word belongs to all believers. This is counted as one of the main reasons we praise God, for giving us glory and honor both now and in even more in the world to come when we will be glorified with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The totality of our praise to the Eternal is based on the totality of the honor that Yahweh has given us as those who execute His judgment according to His scripture on those who refuse to repent to Him and follow His ways, in whatever institution or office they may be in. Let us not rebel against God by rejecting the God-given responsibilities He has given us both now and in the world to come. Rather, let us both praise Him and fulfill our role to live by God’s standards and to judge a corrupt world and its corrupt leaders according to those same standards.

[1] https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/psalm-150-let-everything-that-has-breath/