Honour as concept is synonymous with privilege.
All the saints means each and everyone of them without exception. To all the saints out there we are here to tell or remind you that yours is a twofold honour or privilege according to Psalm 149.
First aspect.
Psalm 149:1-5, “Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their king. Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp. For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation. Let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds.”
Israel is the covenant name God gave Jacob as he pronounced the blessings of Abraham upon his life (Genesis 35:10). Significantly, we are told that “Jacob called the place where God had talked with him Bethel” (Genesis 35:15). We note that Bethel means house of God.
The saints are the people of Zion or the Lord’s holly mountain (Psalm 2:6) which is the symbol of the church or ekklesia (the called out ones and set apart) or God’s chosen people (Israel) -Apostle Peter writes: “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praise of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (1Peter 2:9)
The saints are the people of God, the people of Zion (the Church of God), who are further described as “the humble” who praise the name of the Lord with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp -the reference to dancing recalls king David who humbled himself by dancing before the Ark of the Covenant (2Samuel 6:12-16)….
The picture evoked in Psalm 149:1-5 recalls Miriam, Moses’ sister, leading the women of Israel into an improvised time of praise to the Lord immediately after the crossing of the Red Sea (Exodus 15:20-21). Here we understand that praise is in response to, and therefore based on, what the Lord has done.
In other words, praising is how God’s people respond to the manifestation of his goodness in regards to His specific saving acts. Another form of testifying, as it were. Please note, the reference to “a new song” implies that the Lord does new things (works) -see for example, Jeremiah 31:22 and Isaiah 43:19.
The revelation here is that the Lord honours the saints by crowning them with salvation. The saints respond to the Lord’s salvation with praise to His own delight. We need to understand that no saint is deprived of this honour which is conferred to him or her for a specific purpose , namely, to proclaim praises to the Lord in the world. Anyone who does not praise the Lord as he should limits the manifestation of the Lord’s saving power in her life….
See, the more we praise the Lord with musical instruments (tambourine and harp) for his salvation (healing, deliverance, protection, provision,…) the more he delights in us and the more he crowns us with his salvation. Praise is the key to seeing or experiencing more of God’s salvation or the manifestation of his glory on earth….
The Psalmist writes, “let the saints rejoice in this honour and sing for joy on their beds.” Will you take his invitation?
Second aspect.
Psalm 149:6-9, “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory [honour] of all his saints. Praise the Lord.”
The second honour or privilege that all saints (no exception) have is the power or prerogative to carry out the Lord’s sentence against the peoples, their kings and their nobles. How many saints avail themselves of it?
Most Bible commentators rightly remark that the OT shows how God uses Israel as instrument to carry out his judgments against the rebellious nations they dispossessed (Amalekites, Hittites, Jebusites,…). Similarly, the same Lord also used other nations, Babylon for example, as instruments to carry out his judgment against rebellious Israel and Judah. Here it is important to understand that God’s judgments safeguard his will on earth -thinking of “thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
In other words, the privilege of all the saints that Psalms 149 talks about is consistent with the Lord’s modus operandi, as it were. The Lord uses the saints to carry out the sentence he wrote against the peoples, their kings and their nobles.
Interestingly, the saints carry out the sentence by the praise of God in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands -the expression “double-edged sword” recalls the word of God which is the sword of the Spirit (Hebrews 4:12; Ephesians 6:17). Obviously, we are dealing with spiritual weapons and, therefore, spiritual warfare.
See, the real problem the world faces is the invasion of the kingdom of darkness. The root of all the crisis in the world is spiritual. Hence, apostle Paul rightly observes that our struggle is not against flesh and blood or fellow human beings (See Ephesians 6:12ff.) -it means the crusaders missed the point.
In the same vein Paul states in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons we fight with are not weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Spiritual strongholds, that is.
It is important to understand that the saints use both the praise of their God and the word of God to carry out God’s written sentence against spiritual entities represented by peoples, their kings and their nobles. The written sentence consist in inflicting vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, binding their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron -talking about spiritual warfare.
It is interesting to note that in Psalm 2:1-2 we read about the nations conspiring and the people plotting in vain, the kings of the earth taking their stand and the rulers gathering together against the Lord and against his Anointed One…. The nations plot in vain because the Lord is Sovereign and as such the last word always belongs to Him.
It is important to understand that there is a spiritual entity behind every power and authority on earth (cf. Daniel 10:20; Ephesians 6:12ff.). The good news is that all the saints, meaning all without exception, have the honour or privilege to carry out the sentence written against them.
The question is: How often and how many saints use the twofold honour on earth daily for the sake of the kingdom of God?
Here we discover God’s answer to what we ask in the Lord’s Prayer, namely, “your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The role of all the saints is critical in this regard….
We hope this meditation stirs up all the saints to appreciate the twofold honour of (1) being crown with salvation in order to praise the Lord’s name (your kingdom come) and (2) carrying out the sentence written against spiritual forces of darkness by God’s praise in their mouths and the word of God in their hands (your will be done).
May God help us all.
