Psalm 149: He Crowns Us!

• Read Psalm 149 from the ESV.
• Read my Psalm 149 poem from A New Song.

Let’s take a quick look back at the reasons given for why we praise the Lord in Psalms 146-148 before we move forward to Psalm 149.

Psalm 146 declares God’s eternal faithfulness in upholding the oppressed. He feeds the hungry, sets the prisoner free, gives sight to the blind, lifts up those bowed low, and loves the righteous. He watches over the foreigner, sustains the fatherless and the widow, and frustrates the ways of the wicked.

Psalm 147 proclaims that the LORD gathers Israel’s exiles. He heals their broken hearts and binds their wounds. He sustains the humble and casts the wicked to the ground. God delights in those who fear him and hope in him. He grants peace to his people and satisfies their needs. He rules the natural universe and provides spiritual laws to those who love him.

Psalm 148 tells of how every creature praises him because he created them all. God brought to them life and he will raise up a king to rule and protect all of creation.

Psalm 149 continues the reasons for praising the Lord by telling how God chooses to reward his people. Psalm 149 begins with a call to praise the LORD. We sing him a new song because he is our king. And, like David in front of the ark of the covenant, we dance before him and make music to him. It is a time of rejoicing as we sing for joy because the LORD is delighted with his people and honors them by crowning them.

For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. – Psalm 149:4 (NIV)

Yes, you read that correctly. HE CROWNS US! I thought we were supposed to crown him with many crowns, and we are, but Psalm 149 declares that THE LORD WILL CROWN US. But he doesn’t crown us with a tiara or golden helmet, he crowns us with victory. The psalmist describes this crown of victory in Psalm 149 in this way,

Let the high praises of God be in their throats
and two-edged swords in their hands,
to execute vengeance 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 judgment written!
This is honor for all his godly ones.

Psalm 149:6-9

Our crown of victory is that we, the ones whom God has rescued and lifted up, are used by God to punish the wicked nations. In Psalms 146-148 we praise God for all that he has done for us, but then in Psalm 149 we praise him because we become his tools to punish the wicked. He puts swords in our hands to execute judgment.

I’m fairly sure some people (let’s call them “Group One”) read this and say we must go out and judge the world right now. These people may even say that we should take power on earth and force God’s will upon all the wicked. But I think those people are horribly wrong.

I’m fairly sure there is another group of people (let’s call them “Group Two”) who read these verses and say it is only using poetic language. “Obviously,” they say “the “two-edged swords in their hands” is the word of God.” For proof, they might point to Hebrews 4:12 which says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.” While I think Group Two is closer to the truth than Group One, I think they still don’t capture the true meaning of this passage.

Paul, while responding to the fact that some Christians were taking other Christians to secular courts, says in his first letter to the Corinthians, “Do you not know that the saints will judge the world?” (I Corinthians 6:2) Reading that chapter for context we find that Paul is describing the believer’s role at the end of time. He says that the followers of the LORD will be the ones to judge the nations with the Word of God. But Paul is not talking about The Word as written on tablets and paper but he is describing The Incarnate Word of God, Jesus Christ.

In the 19th chapter of John’s Revelation of Jesus Christ, he writes,

“Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war…and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron.”

Revelation 19:11-15

Do you see what John is saying? Jesus, the one sitting on the white horse, is followed into battle by the armies of heaven to judge the nations. And the army of heaven, as John writes in Revelation 19:7-8, is the Lamb’s bride, the church.

Imagine that! Jesus—God’s appointed king, the LORD—leads his bride—his people—into battle against the nations. But, note this Group One, he does not do this now. And, note this Group Two, he does not merely do this in an allegorical way. The LORD we read of in Psalm 2 breaks the nations with a rod of iron and leads his people in battle in Psalm 149, executing justice upon the wicked nations.

We praise the LORD, not only because of who he is and what he does (Psalm 146-148), but also because he involves his people in his work (Psalm 149). He takes the sinner, the broken-hearted, the downcast, the prisoner, the orphan, the widow—the rejects of this world—and builds of them an army through whom he will judge and rule the nations of the earth.

Coming from one who, as Paul would say, counts himself as the greatest of all sinners, I find these words to be full of hope and optimism. God, our LORD, has a use for us that extends beyond the life of this world and is “the glory of all his faithful people.”

And for this, we Praise the LORD!