Prepare
Opening Prayer
Thank God for the day and his effective Word, and ask the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts so we see, love, and praise him.
Read
Scripture Passage
Psalms 149
A — About
What Is This Passage About?
Psalm 149 calls God's assembled saints to rejoice in and praise their Maker and King because he takes pleasure in his people and beautifies the humble with salvation. It also celebrates the certainty that Christ the reigning King will return, judge his enemies, and make all things right.
B — Best Verse
A Verse That Summarizes the Passage
Psalm 149:4
Distilled from the devotional exposition; the speaker did not explicitly name a best verse.
The complete transcript asks the Best Verse question but does not provide a selection. Verse 4 captures the psalm's central gospel comfort: the Lord delights in his people and adorns the humble with salvation.
C — Called or Christ
C — Called to Do & Christ Connection
Glorify and enjoy the Lord, praise him with his gathered saints, rejoice that he graciously takes pleasure in his undeserving people, and rest in the certainty that Jesus Christ reigns now and will return to judge and restore all things.
Devotional Study
Transcript of the devotion. Minor transcription errors may remain.
There we go. Well, good evening. Good evening. Thank you so much for joining me tonight. I know we don't normally do coffee and devotions this late. Indeed, you probably shouldn't drink coffee this late at night, but it's been a busy day. I go to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church's General Assembly tomorrow, and so I'm going to be out of town, and there was a lot to get done today. as I get ready for that, and a funeral to go to. So anyways, excuses, excuses.
Thanks so much for joining me tonight. It's so good to see you. This is where every day we get together. We get into God's Word and we grow in our love for the Lord together. And this year, 2021, we'll make it through all the wisdom literature. Well, tonight we're at Psalm 149. Well, we'll go ahead and read. Well, we'll pray, we'll read, and we'll grow in our love for the Lord together. Let's pray.
Father, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for how it never returns void, but always hits the mark. Father, we pray that your Holy Spirit would work in our hearts tonight, that we might love you and see you and praise you.
In Jesus's name, amen. All right, here we go, Psalm 149. Praise the Lord. Sing 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 dance. Let them sing praises to Him with 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 on their beds.
Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetter irons, to execute on them the written judgment. This honor have all his saints. Praise The Lord.
Well, we need to ask ourselves, A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to this? Real quick, you know I don't ask you to do this very often, but if you are watching this, could you put a thumbs up on this so that way Facebook, YouTube, etc. knows that this is something that should go out and that you would like to see it more often in your feed.
Okay, so A, what is this about? well, sing to the Lord a new song in his praise in the assembly of the saints, right? God wants his praise. And the first part of the psalm is what God has done for his people, right? Who's supposed to worship him and such like that. The second part is his judgment, right? And so the first part, verses two through four, let Israel rejoice in their maker. Why should you rejoice in God? because he made you right uh let the children of zion be joyful in their king rejoice in the lord always and again i say rejoice rejoice in the lord find joy in the lord this is the beauty of the westminster shorter catechism question one what is the chief end of man that's a fancy way of saying what's your purpose in life the chief end of man is to glorify god and to enjoy him forever enjoy the lord Enjoy the Lord.
Let them praise His name with dance. Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and harp. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people. Oh, I love that. Oh, drag went off. For the Lord takes pleasure in His people. We rejoice in Him. He takes pleasure in us. He will beautify the humble with salvation. What a beautiful picture that is, isn't it? that God saves the humble in heart. He takes pleasure in his people. We rejoice and enjoy him.
And the second half here is about, let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud in their beds, let the high praises of God be in their mouth and two-edged sword in their hand. And then it speaks about that two-edged sword and God conquering the nations and tying up the rulers who are against him, right? It's saying that the church will be victorious. Brothers and sisters, Jesus Christ is going to come again to judge the living and the dead. And if you've read the book of Revelation, it describes Christ as one whose robes are dipped in blood, whose out of his mouth is a sharp two-edged sword. Jesus Christ will vanquish his foes. The day of crying, the day of mourning will be over. Jesus Christ is going to come back. He's king now. He's sitting on the throne. Oh, but he's going to make all things right again. We should praise him and enjoy him.
Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for your word. We pray that as we read your word, Father, we would rejoice in you, enjoy you. We thank you that you take pleasure in us. Lord, we don't deserve it. And yet your face smiles upon your people, and you're gracious to your people. Father, we don't understand it, but we praise you for it. We pray these things in Jesus's name, amen. May God bless you tonight with a great night's sleep and I'll catch you in the morning. Bye.