Study Notes 

  

Worship! Psalm 148-150 - Read Passage: epmkg.com/Psalm148 

 

About Austin’s Study Notes 

This document contains information and resources Pastor Austin Rammell used to research                       and compile his weekly message. Resources are copyrighted by their respective authors and                         credited via footnotes. We encourage you to purchase the original resource materials to                         perform your own study. 

 

Notes 

C. The Praise of Creation (Ps 148)

This anonymous psalm certainly belongs to the period of the restoration of Jerusalem under Nehemiah. It consists of two divisions: (1) heavenly praise (vv. 1–6); and (2) earthly praise (vv. 7–14).

148:1–6. The psalmist calls for praise to ring out from the heavens. The angels and the “hosts”—here probably the stars—should join in that praise. “The heaven of heavens” is the highest heavens. The waters above the expanse in the clouds should praise God too. All that is in the heavens were created at the command of God. They owe their perpetual maintenance to his providence.

148:7–13. The earth should join the heavens in the praise of God. The sea monsters of the deep, the phenomena of weather, mountains, trees, beasts and fowl owe Yahweh their praise. Last of all man, as the crown of creation, is summoned to join the Hallelujah chorus without respect to station, age or sex.

148:14. Israel had special ground for praise. Yahweh had once more “lifted up the horn” of his people, i.e., given them dignity and power. Israel was a people near to Yahweh, i.e., they stood in a unique relationship to him. That relationship, which seemed to have been interrupted by the Exile, had now been restored. Yahweh once more dwelt in the midst of his people in the city of his choice.

D. The Praise of Saints (Ps 149)

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Like the other four members of the Hallelujah chorus, this psalm comes from an anonymous writer of the postexilic period. It has two divisions: (1) praise for what God has done in the past (vv. 1–4); and (2) praise for what he will do in the future (vv. 5–9).

149:1–2. The psalmist urges praise for the Lord in “the congregation of the godly ones.” Yahweh is Israel’s maker; to him it owes its existence as a nation, and the present restoration of its national life. Though they now have no earthly king, Yahweh is still their sovereign as in days of old. The “children of Zion” are the citizens of restored Jerusalem.

149:3–4. Dancing was a natural expression of joy among the Israelites, as among other nations of antiquity. Musical instruments also express the believer’s joy. This joy is occasioned by the fact that Yahweh “takes pleasure in his people.” The deliverance which they have experienced is proof of the renewal of his favor. In captivity Israel had learned humility; and now Yahweh has “adorned” (beautified) his people with “salvation,” i.e., with victory, welfare and prosperity.

149:5–6. The godly ones should exult in the “glory” of this renewed manifestation of God’s presence. Songs of the night now take the place of tears and sorrow.

149:7–8. While they give God the highest praise, they should have ready “a sword of mouths,” i.e., a devouring sword, to execute “vengeance” upon the Gentiles. These Gentiles will be made subject to Israel and to Israel’s divine king (cf. Ps 2). Such predictions find their fulfillment in the militant advance of the soldiers of the cross.

149:9. Yahweh had pronounced and recorded in his book of remembrance the sentence against nations which refuse to embrace him and his people. The New Testament links the judgment upon those who do not obey God to the Second Coming of Christ (2 Thess 1:8–10). The defeat of the enemies brings honor to Yahweh’s chosen people, the New Testament Israel.

E. Concluding Doxology (Ps 150)

The grand finale of the Hallelujah chorus is anonymous. No doubt it comes from the period of Ezra-Nehemiah. No outline is here discernible.

150:1–2. Yahweh is ’El, the God of sovereign power. He should receive praise in his heavenly sanctuary, which is located in the “mighty expanse” which is his handiwork. He deserves to be praised for his “mighty acts” of creation, providence and redemption as well as for “his excellent greatness,” i.e., his wondrous attributes.

150:3–5. Eight different musical instruments are named as appropriate to the praise of the Lord. The precise identification of some of these is uncertain. Praise though religious dance is also encouraged since that was common in ancient societies.

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150:6. The psalmist calls on everything that has “breath” (neshamah) to praise God. The Hebrew term is used of that which was uniquely given to man at his creation (Gen 2:7). Not just priests and Levites only, but all Israel; not Israel only, but all mankind are called upon to join the Hallelujah chorus.

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“All God’s children got a place in the choir,” goes an old song. The boundaries of Psalm 148 push even further to include places not only for all God’s children but for all creation. The choir of those praising here includes children and senior citizens but also creeping things and cattle, fire (see Frost’s poem, above) as well as hail and snow, and sun, moon, and stars!

The psalm begins by speaking of praise of the Lord from the heavens (vv. 1–6), continues with praise from the earth (vv. 7–12), and concludes with a call for all to join in (vv. 13–14).

Praise from the Heavens (148:1–6)

The opening segment provides an insight into the Old Testament view of the universe. Humans live on the earth, along with the variety of creatures God has created (vv. 7–12). Above the earth are the heavens, where the angels reside (vv. 1–2).

The “heavens” can also be called the “firmament” or “dome” (Ps. 19:1; Gen. 1:6–8). Above that solid dome are waters (Ps. 148:4). When it rains, windows in the dome slide open to allow water to come down. At the time of the great flood, “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened” (Gen. 7:11).

Verses 5–6 pick up on the creation story in Genesis 1. God gave the command and all was created (the Hebrew word bārā’, as used in Genesis 1): the sun and moon, the stars and planets, the waters above the heavens.

Praise from the Earth (148:7–12)

“In the beginning … God created the heavens and the earth,” the Bible begins. With this segment of Psalm 148, it is time to hear praises from the earth. First to be mentioned are those aspects of the created world that evoke fear: sea monsters, fire, hail and storm, all are called to praise the Lord (vv. 7–8). The words of the psalm break open the traditional compartments of our thinking. Not only kings and people but also humpback whales, hurricanes, and blizzard winds are called to join in praise (vv. 7–8)!

1 Smith, J. E. (1996). The wisdom literature and Psalms (Ps 148–150:6). Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

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The listing continues: again, the call to praise is inclusive, addressed to mountains and trees, wild and domestic animals, creeping things and flying birds (vv. 9–10). How do these creatures praise the Lord? It appears that praise need not be limited to words. According to Psalm 150, one can praise God with dance, with trumpets, stringed instruments, and percussion! If human dance can express praise, why not the dance of the loons on a Minnesota lake? If the sound of a trumpet can express praise, why not the sound of a trumpeter swan?

Verses 11 and 12 call on all human beings to praise by naming the extremes of the groups: from the political leaders in the world’s centers of power to the boys and girls playing in the streets of a village. All can praise the Lord, and this psalm calls them to do so.

Let the Praises Begin! (148:13–14)

The concluding words tie together the twin themes of the psalm, declaring that the Lord’s honor is higher than the earth and the heavens. To “raise up a horn” means to restore strength and honor (Pss. 75:4–5; 112:9). Claus Westermann once observed, “It is praise which binds humans with all other creatures.” According to this psalm, praise is the business of all that exists. Psalm 150 will carry this theme even further.

LET THE FAITHFUL DANCE!

Psalm 149

149:1–9 At the center of Psalm 149 is the people of God, identified at the beginning (v. 1), the middle (v. 5), and the end (v. 9) as “the faithful” or “faithful ones.” The Hebrew word in all three contexts is hasidim, which is sometimes translated as “saints” (NIV). In using this term for God’s people, the psalm is picking up a theme from the end of Psalm 148. There “his faithful” is further defined with the balancing expression “the people of Israel who are close to him” (148:14).

In Psalm 149, these faithful persons are the ones who assemble for worship (v. 1); they are invited to rejoice in their worship (v. 5), and they are promised that one day they shall live in splendor or glory (v. 9).

The psalm is made up of two parts that are built around the central call to the faithful in verse 5. Verses 1–4 consist of a call to praise (vv. 1–3), as well as a reason for praising (verse 4). Verses 6–9 again offer a third-person call to praise (v. 6), and the section closes with a declaration that the faithful ones are experiencing honor, or glory (v. 9).

These “faithful ones,” these “saints,” are at the center of this psalm, quite literally. Verse 5 reads, “Let the faithful exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their couches.” This is the central verse of the psalm, with four verses on either side. Even more interesting, the

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expression “faithful in glory” is precisely at the center of the Hebrew original of the psalm: there are twenty-six words leading up to it and twenty-six words that follow (see also the discussion on Psalm 23).

Let the People Dance and Sing! (149:1–5)

Once again, the call goes out for some new choir music (v. 1; see also Pss. 33:3; 40:3; the openings of Psalms 96 and 98; and the hymn in Isa. 42:10). While it is possible for a congregation in bad times to sing songs of lament, or even not to sing at all (Psalm 137), the call here is clearly for songs of rejoicing, in good times. Such rejoicing takes expression not only in songs of praise, even new songs of praise, but also in nonword form. The people are called to dance, to beat the tambourine, and to play the harp (NRSV, “lyre”), all to the honor of the Lord (vv. 4–5).

Let the People Praise! (149:6–9)

After the somewhat odd call to rejoice and sing while lying on couches (v. 5), the people are called to an action that involves having praises in their mouths and swords in their hands (v. 6). Is this some sort of call to war, to go into battle singing war songs and brandishing weapons and finally to capture the leaders of the enemy? This is the impression one gets when reading verses 6–9. The “call to battle” was well known in ancient Israel (see Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc.). Or is this the script for some sort of ritual celebration, recalling an actual victory or in anticipation of a future one? Since it is so near the end of the Psalter, Psalm 149 could be pointing ahead to an anticipated victory over all enemy nations in the distant future.

What about the King?

The psalm begins with a picture of the people of Israel celebrating with their King on Mount Zion. This language of Zion and of kingship in Psalm 149, the second-to-last psalm, is reminiscent of similar language in Psalm 2, the second psalm. In that liturgy used for the coronation of a new king, the Lord promises, “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill” (Ps. 2:6).

In Psalm 149:2, Israel is called to be glad as they look back to what their Maker has done. This verse, read in the light of Psalm 2, which precedes it, and the Gospels that follow, could well be looking toward the coming of the One who was greeted on a Sunday in Jerusalem as king (John 12:13, in the context of 12:12–19).

FROM KING DAVID TO DUKE ELLINGTON

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Psalm 150

150:1–6 The most remarkable exposition of this psalm in my memory took place neither from a lectern in a theological school nor from a pulpit in a church. Rather, it was in a college cafeteria, at one o’clock in the morning, after the annual spring formal dance. The band was packing up. Most of the students had left. A half dozen faculty members were standing around the piano, chatting with the leader of the band. His name was Duke Ellington.

The conversation turned to religion and Ellington’s recent sacred compositions. “Would you tell us about your recording of Psalm 150?” someone asked. “Oh, yeah,” said the bandleader, and he called to a singer walking by, “Toney Watkins, come over here!” He came, and they gave us their rendition of Psalm 150, Ellington on the piano and Toney Watkins singing the words: “Praise the Lord with the sound of the trumpet!” Ellington looked up from the keyboard and smiled: “And that, my friends, is where Cat Anderson takes off on a marvelous trumpet ride.” Psalm 1 introduces the book of Psalms as a collection suitable for meditation and identifies the Psalter as a prayer book. Psalm 150 suggests that the psalms be accompanied by instrumental music and dancing. The book of Psalms is not only a prayer book but also a hymnbook, or to use the Hebrew title, a book of “praises.”

Praise—that is what this psalm is about, and that is what the whole book of Psalms is about. The German theologian Ludwig Koehler once wrote, “The deeper one descends through the centuries into the breadth and depth of the Old Testament writings, the louder the praise and laud of God can be heard” (quoted in Westermann, Praise and Lament, p. 7).

Those words could be said for the book of Psalms: the deeper one descends into the collection, the louder one hears the praises of God. This psalm provides a primer for praising. It deals with the basic questions: the why, the how, and the who of praising God.

Those Mighty Acts (150:1–2)

The first word of the psalm is Hallelujah, which is the call “Praise Yahweh” (NRSV, “Praise the LORD”), the God of Israel. The sort of praise commended here is not just an appreciative “Oh, what a beautiful morning!” but rather a focused “Thank you, Lord, for this beautiful morning!” The psalm begins by locating the One who is to be praised in the heavenly holy place, the “firmament” high above the earth, where God dwells (see Gen. 1:6–8). Built on the typical pattern of a hymn (see on Psalm 113), the call to praise is followed by reasons for praising. Why praise God? The Lord has done “mighty deeds” and is great. (Psalm 106 provides a recital of those mighty deeds; Pss. 71:16 and 145:4, 12 refer to them.)

Strike Up the Band! (150:3–5)

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How should God be praised? This is the special concern of this final psalm. “Praise God with musical instruments,” Psalm 150 says. The exact shapes and sounds of these instruments continue to be debated among specialists. What is clear is that all classes of instruments are to be taken up in praise, including wind, strings, and percussion.

What is also quite clear is that this praise is not timid. It is to be done with enthusiasm. Here is a call not only for cymbals but for “loud clashing cymbals!”

Duke Ellington’s recording A Second Sacred Service includes his setting of Psalm 150, “Praise God and Dance,” featuring singer Alice Babs and trumpet player Cat Anderson. The album jacket reports on the reaction to the concert given in the ancient church of Santa Maria del Mar in Barcelona, Spain. With the finale, Psalm 150, the congregation took the words quite literally and burst into the aisles, dancing!

Who Is Invited to Praise? (150:6)

The final lines of this final psalm issue an invitation. And who is invited to this party? The answer is clear and could not be more inclusive. The invitation to praise goes out not only to Israel, not only to Israel and the church, not only to those participating in the world’s great religions, not only even to humans but to “everything that breathes.”

Psalm 104 indicates that those beings that God gives breath (v. 29) range from the tiniest creatures in the sea to birds and storks and wild asses and even sea monsters romping in the world’s oceans. If one could hear all the sounds of praise emanating from this blue planet, one would be able to detect not only the elegies of Ellington or the cantatas of Bach but also the gentle whir of a hummingbird’s wing or the sturdy cantus firmus and counterpoint of the humpback whale.

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Praise Him! Praise Him!

(Psalms 148–150)

Psalms 148–150 are too lengthy for me to include in the text of this meditation, and too important for any of us to ignore. So I encourage you to open your Bible and read them now. After you are finished, consider these four themes that emerge.

First, worship is a universal privilege. I could have said “obligation”, for worship is a duty we are commanded to fulfill. But I don’t want to give the impression that it is burdensome

2 Limburg, J. (2000). Psalms. (P. D. Miller & D. L. Bartlett, Eds.) (pp. 500–506). Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press.

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or oppressive. Exulting in the exaltation of God is an unparalleled privilege that is permeated by joy and satisfaction. But it is the universal dimension that I want you to note, especially as it is delineated in Psalm 148.

There are no people who are excluded, or a place where praise is not proper. In vv. 1–6 the whole of the celestial or heavenly universe is called on to praise God and in vv. 7–12 it extends to the whole of the terrestrial or earthly universe.

He is to be praised both “from the heavens” (v. 1) and “from the earth” (v. 7). “All his angels” (v. 2a) form an innumerable choir and join in the song (cf. Rev. 5:11). Even the “sun” by day and the “moon” by night (v. 3a) declare his power, never leaving their Creator without a witness.

All “shining stars” (v. 3b) add their voice to the chorus of praise! Billions and trillions and quadrillions of thriving heat and energy and blinding brightness testify to his immeasurable power and artistic skills. The Babylonians, from whose captivity these worshipping Israelites had recently been released, believed the stars were deities that controlled their destiny. But here we see that they are but one section in the celestial choir that echoes the glory of their Maker!

Every “creature” of the “sea” (v. 7) has a song to sing: whether diminutive perch or massive whale, be it the majestic dolphin or the ravenous shark. Stingrays and moray eels and starfish and barracudas and bass and trout and salmon together draw attention to him who is worthy of all worship.

As we saw in Psalm 147, so also in 148 “fire and hail, snow and mist,” even “stormy wind” fulfill his word (v. 8). “It is a grand orchestra which contains such wind-instruments as these! He is a great leader who can keep all these musicians in concert, and direct both time and tune” (Spurgeon, 3:B:439).

By means of “mountains and all hills,” whether the towering Himalayas or the foothills of central Kansas, be it Everest or an ant hill, God is glorified (v. 9a).

“Fruit trees and all cedars” (v. 9b) testify to his splendor: yes, apple trees and cheery trees and sycamores and oak and elm and sweet gum and weeping willow and sequoia and pine and, well, you get the idea.

Let us not forget the “beasts and all livestock” (v. 10a), both longhorn and lion, both jersey and jackal, even simbrah and stallion.

For some of us it’s hard to imagine that “creeping things” (v. 10b) such as tarantulas and ticks could praise God, but indeed they do; as also do all “flying birds”, both bluejay and buzzard, whether cardinal or crow.

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Of course, we mustn’t forget the human race! “Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers” (v. 11), “young men and maidens” together with “old men and children” (v. 12) are to praise the name of the Lord!

All that have “breath” (Ps. 150:6) should praise him with every breath until they are out of breath!

“We sing the greatness of our God that made the mountains rise,

That spread the flowing sea abroad and built the lofty skies.

We sing the wisdom that ordained the sun to rule the day,

The moon shines full at His command and all the stars obey.” (Isaac Watts)

Second, the focus of such adoration is always and ever God alone for who he is and what he’s done. We do not worship the world or revere the reflection. We fix our hearts on the Original, the Source, the First Cause of all subsequent causes (see Ps. 148:5–6, 13–14).

We are to “praise him for his mighty deeds” and “according to his excellent greatness” (Ps. 150:2). There is a limit to praise only if there is a limit to God. Ah, but there is an infinite plenitude to his greatness that our worship could never exhaust.

Third, worship is an exhilarating experience, both for God and us! We are to “be glad” in our Maker and to “rejoice” in our King (Ps. 149:2). We are to “exult in glory” and “sing for joy” (Ps. 149:5a), even while on our “beds” (Ps. 149:5b). Whether as we go to bed, or perhaps during seasons of sleeplessness, or as we rise up in the morning, or even when laid prostrate from affliction, let praise fill our hearts and mouths.

Why is worship so pleasing and satisfying? Because, as C. S. Lewis noted, “all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless … shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it.… Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible” (94). I think we delight to praise what we enjoy, said Lewis, “because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed” (95).

In worship we see and God is seen, and in both is unrivaled pleasure, ours and his! We enjoy him who is eternally enjoyable and he enjoys being exalted in our enjoyment!

God commands that we “praise his name with dancing” and make “melody to him with tambourine and lyre” (149:3) because he “takes pleasure” in his people when they do (149:4a).

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Fourth, and finally, there can be no mistaking the extravagant and exuberant nature of godly worship of God. It involves not only singing (149:1, 5) but also dancing (149:3; 150:4) and a wide array of musical instrumentation (149:3; 150:3–5). Said Spurgeon:

“Let the clash of the loudest music be the Lord’s; let the joyful clang of the loftiest notes be all for him. Praise has beaten the timbrel, swept the harp, and sounded the trumpet, and now for a last effort, awakening the most heavy of slumberers, and startling the most indifferent of onlookers, she dashes together the disks of brass, and with sounds both loud and high proclaims the glories of the Lord” (3:B:464).

As this series of meditations on the Psalms concludes, what might be said to have constituted the central and controlling theme throughout? I think the answer is obvious:

Big God! Beautiful God! Faithful God! Great God! Gracious God! Powerful God! Loving God! Loyal God! Righteous God! Merciful God! Majestic God! Enjoyable God! Joyful God! Judging God! Holy God! Happy God!

And to top it off, he’s our God! 3

Psalm 148

Praise is a universal privilege (Pss. 96:1; 100:1). “All nations, all peoples” (Ps. 117:1) are to praise God. “Let the sea roar and all it contains; the world and those who dwell in it; let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy” (Ps. 98:7–8). Indeed, “let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it; then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy” (Ps. 96:11–12).

In 148:1–12 we note that praise is pervasive, boundless, all-encompassing. There are no people who are excused from praise. There is no place where praise is not proper. In 148:1–6 the whole of the celestial or heavenly universe is called on to praise God. In 148:7–12 the whole of the terrestrial or earthly universe is called on to praise God. In other words, heaven and earth and everything they contain and all in between are to praise God.

3 Storms, S. (2016). Biblical Studies: Meditations on the Psalms (Ps 148–150). Edmond, OK: Sam Storms.

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(1) Praise is “from the heavens” (148:1) and “from the earth” (v. 7). Songs of praise originate in heaven and descend to the earth. Songs of praise originate on earth and ascend to heaven.

(2) “All His [God’s] angels” (148:2) are to praise God. How many are there? See Rev. 5:11; Dan. 7:10. What a choir!

(3) “Sun and moon” (148:3a) are to praise Him. Praise is unceasing in the heavens as the sun praises Him by day and the moon by night. God never leaves Himself without a testimony.

(4) “All stars of light” (148:3b) praise Him. People in the ancient world, especially the Babylonians, believed the stars were deities that controlled human destiny. But here the stars are but one section in the celestial choir that praises God.

(5) “Sea monsters” (148:7), i.e., perch, whales, dolphins, sharks, jelly-fish, stingrays, moray eels, starfish, barracudas, bass, trout, salmon, catfish, etc., all praise Him!

(6) See 148:8. “It is a grand orchestra which contains such wind instruments as these! He is a great leader who can keep all these musicians in concert, and direct both time and tune” (Spurgeon, 439).

(7) “Mountains and all hills” (148:9a), from the smallest ant hill to the pinnacle of Mt. Everest …

(8) “Fruit trees and cedars” (148:9b), including apple trees and cherry trees and sycamores and oaks and elms and cedars and sweet gums and weeping willows and sequoias and pine trees, all praise God.

(9) “Beasts and all cattle” (148:10a), such as longhorn and simbrah and jersey and every other animal, exist to praise God.

(10) “Creeping things and winged fowl” (148:10b), such as spiders and ants and bees and bullfrogs and gnats and sparrows and cardinals and bluejays and quail and eagles and even vultures, praise God.

(11) People too, praise God (148:11–12), whether rich or poor, young or old, male or female, powerful or weak. In light of 150:6, all that have breath should praise Him with every breath until they are out of breath.

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Imprecations in the Psalms

The following verses in the Psalms present us with a very real problem:

Pss. 5:10; 6:10; 7:6; 9:19–20; 10:2, 15; 17:13; 28:4; 31:17–18; 35:1, 4–8, 19, 24–26; 40:14–15; 41:10; 54:5; 55:9, 15; 56:7; 58:6–10; 59:5, 11–14; 63:9–10; 68:1–2; 69:22–28; 70:2–3; 71:13; 79:6, 10–12; 83:9–18 (cf. Judges 4:15–21; 5:25–27); 94:1–4; 97:7; 104:35; 109:6–19, 29; 119:84; 129:5–7; 137:7–9; 139:19–22; 140:8–11; 141:10; 143:12.

There are more than just a few who believe these “prayers” (if it is even legitimate to call them “prayers”) are beneath the dignity of the Christian and are not to be viewed as examples for us to follow. They are, rather, the expressions of man’s sinful desire for vengeance on his enemies. For example,

these “forms of expression are of such cold-blooded and malignant cruelty, as to preclude entertaining the idea for a moment that they were inspired of God” (John Owen [not the Puritan].

these psalms “are not God’s pronouncements of His wrath on the wicked; but are the prayers of a man for vengeance on his enemies, just the opposite of Jesus’ teaching that we should love our enemies” (Halley’s Bible Handbook).

“So with this [Ps. 35] and other imprecatory psalms, they give us, not God’s precept, but man’s defective prayers” (The Pulpit Commentary).

“The hatred is there—festering, gloating, undisguised—and also we should be wicked if we in any way condoned or approved it, or (worse still) used it to justify similar passions in ourselves” (C. S. Lewis).

These prayers of the psalmists “are indeed devilish” (C. S. Lewis).

Lewis’s opinion of Psalm 109 is even more to the point: “Psalm 109 is as unabashed a hymn of hate as was ever written. The poet has a detailed programme for his enemy which he hopes God will carry out.… What makes our blood run cold, even more than the unrestrained vindictiveness, is the writer’s untroubled conscience. He has no qualms, scruples, or reservations; no shame. He gives hatred free rein—encourages and spurs it on—in a sort of ghastly innocence. He offers these feelings, just as they are, to God, never doubting that they will be acceptable: turning straight from the

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maledictions to ‘Deal Thou with me, O Lord God, according unto Thy Name: for sweet is Thy mercy’ (v. 20).”

These passages are “the real and natural reactions to the experience of evil and pain, and though the sentiments are in themselves evil, they are a part of the life of the soul which is bared before God in worship and prayer” (Peter C. Craigie).

“The psalmist may hate his oppressor; God hates the oppression. Thus the words of the psalmist are often natural and spontaneous, not always pure and good” (Craigie).

In sum, Craigie states bluntly that “these Psalms are not the oracles of God.”

“Perhaps there is no part of the Bible that gives more perplexity and pain to its readers than this; perhaps nothing that constitutes a more plausible objection to the belief that the psalms are the productions of inspired men than the spirit of revenge which they sometimes seem to breathe and the spirit of cherished malice and implacableness which the writers seem to manifest” (Albert Barnes).

“To some minds, these imprecatory psalms and passages are perhaps a more difficult obstacle than any other in the way of a settled confidence in the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures” (J. Sidlow Baxter).

Don’t try to dismiss the problem by insisting such prayers are found only in the Old Testament or that they reflect a sub-standard morality inappropriate to the NT Christian. Both testaments present the same perfect and exalted standard for life (cf. Rom. 2:6–10; 3:31). God’s moral law is immutable and is everywhere the same. We must be careful never to pit Scripture against Scripture, as if to suggest that the OT calls for a different, perhaps inferior, ethical response to one’s enemies than does the NT. Furthermore, one must address the fact that in the NT similar “imprecations” on the enemies of God are found:

Luke 10:10–16

Galatians 1:8; 5:12

1 Corinthians 16:21–22

2 Thessalonians 1:6–10

2 Timothy 4:14

Revelation 6:10

Revelation 19:1–2

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And remember, to pray “Thy kingdom come” (Matthew 6:10) is to invoke divine judgment on all other kingdoms and all those who oppose the reign of God. “When we pray as Jesus taught us, we cry out to God for His blessings upon His church and for His curses upon the kingdom of the evil one” (James Adams, War Psalms of the Prince of Peace, 52).

Jesus used imprecatory language in Matthew 23:13, 15, 16, 23, 24, 27, 29, and especially 23:33. See also his use of Ps. 41:8–10 in Matthew 26:23–24 as a pronouncement of God’s judgment on Judas.

Harry Mennega pointed out that

“the New Testament appears not in the least embarrassed with the Old Testament imprecations; on the contrary, it quotes freely from them as authoritative statements with which to support an argument. The New Testament not only quotes passages which, though themselves not imprecations, are found in a Psalm with an imprecatory section; but also, and this is more remarkable, it quotes with approval the imprecations themselves” (“The Ethical Problem of the Imprecatory Psalms,” master’s thesis, Westminster Theological Seminary, 1959, p. 38).

One example of the latter is Peter’s citation of the imprecatory section in Pss. 69 and 109 in reference to Judas Iscariot: “For it is written in the book of Psalms, ‘Let his homestead be made desolate, and let no man dwell in it’; and, ‘His office let another man take’ ” (Acts 1:20). “Peter is here quoting an invocation of judgment and a curse against the betrayer of God’s Anointed One” (Adams, 12).

What we read in these OT Psalms are not emotionally uncontrolled outbursts by otherwise sane and compassionate people. Imprecations such as those listed above are found in high poetry and are the product of reasoned meditation (not to mention divine inspiration!). They are calculated petitions, not spontaneous explosions of a bad temper. Certainly there are examples in OT history and prose narrative of actions and attitudes that are sinful and not to be emulated. But the psalms are expressions of public worship to be modeled.

How, then, do we explain them? And how do we reconcile them with the command of Jesus to love our enemies (Matt. 5:44)? Let me make several suggestions that might help.

(1) We should remember that in Deut. 27–28 the Levites pronounce imprecations against Israel if she proves unfaithful to the covenant. Israel, in accepting the law, brought herself under its sanctions. She in essence pronounced curses upon herself should she break the covenant, and God looked on their response with favor. In other words, God’s people were commanded to pray for God’s curses upon themselves if they forsook Him! As Wenham has said, “The ‘jealous’ God of the OT is every bit as

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severe on His own covenant people when they are unfaithful to Him, as He is on the nations who have always served other gods.”

(2) These prayers are not expressions of personal vengeance. In fact, most imprecations are in psalms written by David, perhaps the least vengeful man in the OT (consider his dealings with Saul, Nabal, Absalom, Shimei, etc.; see especially 2 Sam. 24:12). David never asks that he be allowed to “get even” with or “pay back” his enemies. His prayer is that God would act justly in dealing with transgressors. There is a vast difference between vindication and vindictiveness. David’s passion was for the triumph of divine justice, not the satisfaction of personal malice. The OT was as much opposed to seeking personal vengeance against one’s personal enemies as is the NT (see Exod. 23:4–5; Lev. 19:17–18).

(3) We also must remember that imprecations are nothing more than human prayers based on divine promises. One is simply asking God to do what He has already said He will do (often repeatedly throughout the psalms themselves). For example, in Matthew 7:21–23 Jesus declares that on the day of judgment He will say to hypocrites, “I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!” Is it wrong for us to pray that Jesus do precisely that? Is it wrong for us to build a prayer on a promise? “Oh, Lord, cause those to depart from you who do evil,” appears to be a perfectly legitimate petition.

In this regard, compare Pss. 35:5 with 1:4; 58:6 with 3:7; 35:8 with 9:15; and 35:26 with 6:10.

(4) Imprecations are expressions provoked by the horror of sin. David prayed this way because of his deep sensitivity to the ugliness of evil. Perhaps the chief reason why he wasn’t bothered by prayers of imprecation and we are is that he was bothered by sin and we aren’t! It is frightening to think that we can stand in the presence of evil and not be moved to pray as David did.

(5) The motivation behind such prayers is zeal for God’s righteousness, God’s honor, God’s reputation, and the triumph of God’s kingdom. Is our willingness to ignore blasphemy and overlook evil due to a deficiency in our love for God and His name? Could our reaction to the imprecatory psalms be traced to the fact that we love men and their favor more than we love God and His?

(6) Another factor to keep in mind is that David, being king, was God’s representative on earth. Thus, an attack on David was, in effect, an attack on God. David’s enemies were not his private opponents but adversaries of God. David’s ire is aroused because they “speak of you [God] with evil intent; your adversaries misuse your name. Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord, and abhor those who rise up against you” (Psalm 139:20–21; cf. Psalm 5:10).

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(7) The prayers of imprecation are rarely, if ever, for the destruction of a specific individual but almost always of a class or group, namely, “the wicked” or “those who oppose Thee”.

(8) All such prayers assume that the wicked are hardened and unrepentant. In other words, the psalmist calls for divine judgment against them so long as they persist in their rebellion. We love our enemies by praying for their repentance. But if they callously and consistently refuse, our only recourse is to pray that God’s judgment be full and fair.

(9) It has also been argued that it is in fact the Lord Jesus Christ himself who is praying these psalms of imprecation. “David, by the Spirit of Christ in him, speaks far beyond his own understanding and experience. He anticipates the coming, suffering, deliverance, and exaltation of his Son and Lord—Jesus, the Christ” (Adams). But what about Christ’s prayer from the cross: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Lk. 23:34)? James Dick offers this explanation:

“There would, indeed be a great inconsistency if Christ had prayed in the same circumstances and concerning the same persons, ‘Destroy them,’ and ‘Forgive them.’ … It was fitting that when he was executing His great commission to give His life a ransom for sinners He should offer a prayer that would reveal His goodwill toward men, and would prove incontestably that He was long-suffering, slow to anger, willing to forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin. This, doubtless, and much more that cannot be dwelt on now may be found in the prayer for forgiveness. But there comes a time, and there come circumstances, when His long-suffering has an end, and when those who refuse to kiss the Son must perish from the way when His wrath is kindled but a little. It is equally fitting, then, that in His mediatorial character He should pray for their destruction. The Psalms themselves present both sides of His mediatorial character and work in these respects.”

David knows that he needs spiritual protection lest he “hate” God’s enemies for personal reasons. That is why he concludes Psalm 139 with the prayer that God purify his motive and protect his heart: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (vv. 23–24).

Therefore, when David speaks of “hatred” for those who oppose God’s kingdom he is neither malicious nor bitter nor vindictive, nor moved by self-centered resentment. But he most certainly is jealous for God’s name and firmly at odds with those who blaspheme.

Although it may sound contradictory, we are to “love” those whom we “hate”. We love our enemies by doing good to them (Luke 6:27). We love them by providing food when they are

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hungry and water when they thirst (Romans 12:20). We love our enemies by blessing them when they persecute and oppress us (Romans 12:14). We love them by responding to their mistreatment with prayers for their salvation (Luke 6:28).

And yes, we are to “hate” those whom we “love”. When they persistently oppose the kingdom of Christ and will not repent, our jealousy for the name of Jesus should prompt us to pray: “O, Lord, wilt Thou not slay the wicked? Vindicate your name, O Lord, and may justice prevail in the destruction of those who have hardened their hearts in showing spite to your glory.”

Our love is to be the sort that cannot be explained in purely human terms. It isn’t enough simply to refrain from retaliating. We are to bless and pray for those who do us harm. I don’t know who said it, but I agree: To return evil for evil is demonic. To return good for good is human. But to return good for evil is divine!

That sentiment is certainly Pauline! The apostle said as much when he told us not to seek vengeance on those who do us dirty. However, many have misunderstood Paul, as if he’s saying all vengeance is evil. But he says no such thing. The reason we are not to seek vengeance is because God has said He will (Romans 12:19), and He can do a much better job of it than we!

Enemy-love means that instead of responding to evil with evil of our own we are to do good. “In many cases,” says Dan Allender, “ ‘doing good’ is simply being thoughtful and kind. It boils down to nothing more glamorous than pouring a cup of coffee for someone or warmly greeting them at church and asking about their weekend. Kindness is the gift of thoughtfulness (‘Let me look for ways I can serve you’) and compassion (‘Let me know how I can enter your heart’).”

Paul tells us that in loving our enemies we shall “overcome evil”. Dan Allender has explained how this happens in his excellent book Bold Love. He points out that when your enemy receives good for evil it both surprises and shames him, both of which have the potential to transform his heart.

The enemy spews out his venom expecting you to respond in kind. Part of the wicked pleasure he derives from being an enemy comes from provoking you to act just as wickedly as he does. “Goodness,” though, “trips up the enemy by foiling his battle plans. The enemy anticipates compliance or defensive coldness, harshness, or withdrawal. The last thing he expects is sustained kindness and steadfast strength. Therefore, when evil is met with goodness, it is apt to respond with either exasperated fury or stunned incredulity. Goodness breaks the spell the enemy tries to cast and renders him powerless.”

Goodness, empowered by God’s grace, might even open a crack in his hard-shelled heart. Powerless to explain your response in terms of what he knows about human behavior, he is

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led to acknowledge the life-changing presence of divine love in and through you and your response to his malicious intent. Allender explains the impact of this “turning the other cheek”:

“The enemy’s real pleasure in striking out is the power he enjoys to intimidate and shame. He enjoys inflicting the harm, to some degree, because it gives him a sense of control and the fantasy of being like God. Turning one’s cheek to the assault of the enemy demonstrates, without question, that the first blow was impotent and shameful. What was meant to enslave is foiled. Like a boomerang, the harm swoops around and smacks the back of the head of the one who meant harm. A sorehead may, with the working of the Spirit of God, ask, ‘Why did I strike that man?’ and eventually ask of the one hit, ‘Why didn’t you retaliate?’ Again, a measure of astonishment and curiosity is stirred, and the path toward repentance becomes slightly less dim.”

Furthermore, goodness shames the enemy. It forces him to look at himself rather than you. When the light of kindness shines back in the face of darkness, the latter is exposed for what it really is. Attention is diverted from the abused to the abuser. The shame he feels upon being “found out” will either harden or soften his heart.

In the very early days of my ministry, I was interim pastor of a small church with a history of internal problems. The tiny congregation stood on the brink of yet another split. A congregational meeting was convened at which everyone was given an opportunity to speak his or her mind.

I was young and a bit uncertain of myself, but when the time came I rose to my feet and tried to speak words of encouragement and unity. Suddenly, quite literally in mid-sentence, I was loudly interrupted by a lady who proceeded to accuse me of trying to “steal” the church for my own selfish gain. Unknown to her, or to anyone else present, I had previously accepted an invitation to join the pastoral staff at another church in the same city.

Her words were sharp and cut deeply into my heart. I distinctly remember formulating in my mind a plan of attack, to be launched as soon as she quit speaking. Were it not for the grace of God I would have destroyed her (and perhaps, unwittingly, myself as well). But the Spirit silenced my youthful impetuosity. As soon as her verbal barrage ceased, I resumed my comments at precisely the point where I left off. I did not respond to her accusations. I made no attempt at self-defense. It was as if she had never said a word.

The outcome was stunning. My refusal to engage her in the verbal gutter (a decision I attribute wholly to God’s grace) served to both silence and shame her. By declining to respond in kind, her baseless attack was exposed for what it was. Goodness acted like a shield that caused her venom to ricochet back upon her own head. My intent was not to humiliate or harm her in any way, but to lovingly compel her to own up to the motivation of her heart. For the first time I understood what Paul meant when he said, “If your enemy is

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hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head” (Romans 12:20).

“But Sam, you don’t know who my enemies are. You have no idea how vile and vengeful and irritating they can be. They take advantage of my goodness, they are unfair, they exploit the fact that I’m a Christian, they constantly embarrass me in front of others and lie about me behind my back.”

I don’t doubt for a moment that what you say is true. I’ve still got a few enemies like that myself. But if Stephen could love those who viciously stoned him, what excuse do we have for not loving people whose attack on us is admittedly far less grievous?

And what of Jesus himself? Did He not lovingly pray for His executioners even as they drove iron spikes through His hands and feet? John Stott is surely on the mark: “If the cruel torture of crucifixion could not silence our Lord’s prayer for his enemies, what pain, pride, prejudice or sloth could justify the silencing of ours?”

So, the next time someone starts throwing stones in your direction, remember the words of Peter:

“For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing what is wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. ‘He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.’ When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:19–23).

Praise in the Psalms

A. C. S. Lewis on the Problem of Praise in the Psalms

Understanding the struggle with the concept of praise which C. S. Lewis had on his initial encounter with the Psalms will help us appreciate this central focus of the Psalter. The following passage is taken from Lewis’ book, Reflections on the Psalms.

“When I first began to draw near to belief in God and even for some time after it had been given to me, I found a stumbling block in the demand so clamorously made by all

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religious people that we should ‘praise’ God; still more in the suggestion that God Himself demanded it. We all despise the man who demands continued assurance of his own virtue, intelligence or delightfulness; we despise still more the crowd of people round every dictator, every millionaire, every celebrity, who gratify that demand. Thus a picture, at once ludicrous and horrible, both of God and His worshippers, threatened to appear in my mind. The Psalms were especially troublesome in this way—‘Praise the Lord,’ ‘O praise the Lord with me,’ ‘Praise Him.’ … Worse still was the statement put into God’s own mouth, ‘whoso offereth me thanks and praise, he honoureth me’ (50:23). It was hideously like saying, ‘What I most want is to be told that I am good and great.’ … [Furthermore], more than once the Psalmists seemed to be saying, ‘You like praise. Do this for me, and you shall have some.’ Thus in [Ps.] 54 the poet begins ‘save me’ (1), and in verse 6 adds an inducement, ‘An offering of a free heart will I give thee, and praise thy Name.’ Again and again the speaker asks to be saved from death on the ground that if God lets His suppliants die He will get no more praise from them, for the ghosts in Sheol cannot praise ([Pss.] 30:10; 88:10; 119:175). And mere quantity of praise seemed to count; ‘seven times a day do I praise thee’ (119:164). It was extremely distressing. It made one think what one least wanted to think. Gratitude to God, reverence to Him, obedience to Him, I thought I could understand; not this perpetual eulogy.…

[Part of my initial problem is that] I did not see that it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the ‘fair beauty of the Lord’ is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer—there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive. The miserable idea that God should in any sense need, or crave for, our worship like a vain woman wanting compliments, or a vain author presenting his new books to people who never met or heard him, is implicitly answered by the words, ‘If I be hungry I will not tell thee’ (50:12). Even if such an absurd Deity could be conceived, He would hardly come to us, the lowest of rational creatures, to gratify His appetite. I don’t want my dog to bark approval of my books[!].

But the most obvious fact about praise—whether of God or anything—strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honour. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless … shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favourite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favourite game—praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes

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politicians or scholars.… Except where intolerably adverse circumstances interfere, praise almost seems to be inner health made audible.… I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise whatever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: ‘Isn’t she lovely? Wasn’t it glorious? Don’t you think that magnificent?’ The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can’t help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with.…

If it were possible for a created soul fully … to ‘appreciate’, that is to love and delight in, the worthiest object of all, and simultaneously at every moment to give this delight perfect expression, then that soul would be in supreme beatitude.… To see what the doctrine really means, we must suppose ourselves to be in perfect love with God—drunk with, drowned in, dissolved by, that delight which, far from remaining pent up within ourselves as incommunicable, hence hardly tolerable, bliss, flows out from us incessantly again in effortless and perfect expression, our joy is no more separable from the praise in which it liberates and utters itself than the brightness a mirror receives is separable from the brightness it sheds. The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him” (pp. 90–98).

B. The Nature of Praise and Worship in the Psalms

The most effective way of defining praise/worship in the psalms is by examining the terminology used to describe it. There are approximately 45 different Hebrew words for praise and more than a dozen in Greek. We will focus on the OT terms.

(1) Halal (@100x)—It means “to be boastful,” “to brag,” “to shout with excitement and in triumph.” It is a word of excitement, exuberance, and exaltation. Cf. “Hallelujah” (praise the Lord!). “How blessed are those who dwell in Thy house. They are ever

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praising Thee” (Ps. 84:4). “This will be written for the generation to come; that a people yet to be created may praise the Lord” (Ps. 102:18). In sum,

“Halal is the Hebrew equivalent of whatever you say when you are watching a football game and your team has just scored the winning points. This word is what a nursing student says in coming out of an anatomy exam with an ‘A’ grade, when she had struggled very hard to complete the course. This is the word of any experience calling for excited boasting or joyful expression” (Ron Allen, 64).

(2) Yadah—This means “to acknowledge in public” (often translated in the psalms, “to give thanks”). “I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Thy wonders” (Ps. 9:1).

(3) Barak—This word means “to bless”, as in Ps. 96:2, “Sing to the Lord, bless his name.” See also Ps. 103:1–2.

(4) Tehillah—This is derived from halal and means “to sing halals” to God, to laud and to praise with song. “Yet Thou art holy, O Thou who art enthroned upon the praises of Israel” (Ps. 22:3).

(5) Zamar—This means “to pluck the strings of an instrument” or in some way “to praise with music.” “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, and to sing praises to Thy name, O Most High” (Ps. 92:1). Cf. Ps. 147:1; 1 Chron. 16:9. There are other Hebrew words with similar meaning (shir in Ps. 96:1 and ranan in 95:1).

(6) Shabah—This term means “to laud”, as in Ps. 117:1, “Praise the Lord, all nations; laud Him, all peoples!” It means to speak well of, to eulogize.

(7) Rua—This means “to shout in joy” as in Ps. 100:1, “Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth!” And again, “O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation.” Praise, therefore, is never silent. It is most often loud; but not clamorous or chaotic. We may adore God in silence, we may meditate on His majesty in silence, but we have not truly praised Him until we declare and announce, usually in song, His worth to others.

(8) Rum—This carries the force of “to extol,” “to lift high,” as in Ps. 145:1, “I will extol Thee, my God, O King.”

Praise, it would seem, is the joyful response of all that we are, in adoration and celebration, of all that God is. In praise we announce and declare the worth and majesty and marvel of who God is and what He has done. We ascribe glory and honor to His name. We extol His

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divine virtues, His incomparable attributes. In praise we brag on God! In praise we declare our satisfaction and joy with all that God is for us in Jesus.

Let us note several other factors about the nature of praise:

First, praise is a universal privilege (Pss. 96:1; 100:1). “All nations, all peoples” (Ps. 117:1) are to praise God. “Let the sea roar and all it contains; the world and those who dwell in it; let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy” (Ps. 98:7–8). Indeed, “let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all it contains; let the field exult, and all that is in it; then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy” (Ps. 96:11–12). See also Ps. 148:1–12 where we note that praise is pervasive, boundless, all-encompassing. There are no people who are excused from praise. There is no place where praise is not proper. In 148:1–6 the whole of the celestial or heavenly universe is called on to praise God. In 148:7–12 the whole of the terrestrial or earthly universe is called on to praise God. In other words, heaven and earth and everything they contain and all in between are to praise God. This emphasis on the extent of praise is especially evident in Psalm 148:

(1) Praise is “from the heavens” (148:1) and “from the earth” (v. 7). Songs of praise originate in heaven and descend to the earth. Songs of praise originate on earth and ascend to heaven.

(2) “All His [God’s] angels” (148:2) are to praise God. How many are there? See Rev. 5:11; Dan. 7:10. What a choir!

(3) “Sun and moon” (148:3a) are to praise Him. Praise is unceasing in the heavens as the sun praises Him by day and the moon by night. God never leaves Himself without a testimony.

(4) “All stars of light” (148:3b) praise Him. People in the ancient world, especially the Babylonians, believed the stars were deities that controlled human destiny. But here the stars are but one section in the celestial choir that praises God.

(5) “Sea monsters” (148:7), i.e., perch, whales, dolphins, sharks, jelly-fish, stingrays, moray eels, starfish, barracudas, bass, trout, salmon, catfish, etc., all praise Him!

(6) See 148:8. “It is a grand orchestra which contains such wind instruments as these! He is a great leader who can keep all these musicians in concert, and direct both time and tune” (Spurgeon, 439).

(7) “Mountains and all hills” (148:9a), from the smallest ant hill to the pinnacle of Mt. Everest …

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(8) “Fruit trees and cedars” (148:9b), including apple trees and cherry trees and sycamores and oaks and elms and cedars and sweet gums and weeping willows and sequoias and pine trees, all praise God.

(9) “Beasts and all cattle” (148:10a), such as longhorn and simbrah and jersey and every other animal, exist to praise God.

(10) “Creeping things and winged fowl” (148:10b), such as spiders and ants and bees and bullfrogs and gnats and sparrows and cardinals and bluejays and quail and eagles and even vultures, praise God.

(11) People too, praise God (148:11–12), whether rich or poor, young or old, male or female, powerful or weak. In light of 150:6, all that have breath should praise Him with every breath until they are out of breath.

Second, all of creation praises God for who He is and what He has done. (a) Nature praises God because He has created everything and He causes all things to continue in existence (148:5–6). His acts of both providence and preservation evoke the praise of His handiwork. (b) People praise Him because of who He is (148:13; “name” = a simple way of summarizing all that God is) and because of what He has done (148:14).

Third, praise is something we are to do all the time. “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Ps. 34:1). “And my tongue shall declare Thy righteousness and Thy praise all day long” (Ps. 35:28). “In God we have boasted all day long, and we will give thanks to Thy name forever” (Ps. 44:8). See also Pss. 71:6–8, 14–18, 24. Also, Pss. 89:1; 104:33; 113:1–4; 146:1–2.

Fourth, praise is something we are to do everywhere, but especially as a corporate celebration in the presence of all God’s people. See Pss. 9:11; 22:22–25; 34:2–3; 35:18; 40:9–10; 57:7–11; 78:4; 84:1–4, 10; 95:1–7; 105:1; 108:3; 135:1–3; 149:1.

Fifth, there is no more a limit to praise than there is a limit to God. According to Ps. 150:2, we are to praise Him “according to His excellent greatness,” i.e., in proportion to his greatness. To the degree that God is great, God is to be praised.

Sixth, we also see that praise is an exhilarating experience for both man and God. (a) As for man, see Ps. 149:2, 5. We are to praise God even upon our beds! Whether this means as we go to bed, or during times of sleeplessness, or before rising in the morning, or during times of illness, or at any time while prostrate, praise is a time of joy! (b) As for God, we read that “the Lord takes pleasure in His people” (149:4a). He enjoys us when we praise Him.

Seventh, praise is a powerful tool in spiritual warfare (Ps. 149:6–9). It is through praise that battles are won. One thinks of the victories of Moses over the Canaanites, Joshua over

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the Amalekites, Gideon over the Midianites, and David over the Philistines. See especially the experience of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chron. 20.

C. The Primacy of Singing

C. S. Lewis once wrote, “What must be said … is that the Psalms are poems, and poems intended to be sung; not doctrinal treatises, nor even sermons” (Reflections on the Psalms, 2). If this is true, one cannot separate the value of the Psalms as Scripture from the role of singing.

For the importance of singing in Scripture as a whole, see Exod. 15:1, 20–21; Job 38:7; Judges 5:2–5; 1 Chron. 16:9; 25; Nehemiah 12:27, 28, 31, 38, 45–47; 1 Cor. 14:15; Eph. 5:18–19; Col. 3:16; James 5:13.

For the centrality of singing in the Psalms, see Pss. 47:6–7; 66:2, 4; 68:24–25; 69:30–31; 96:1–2; 105:2. On no fewer than 85 occasions do we find in the OT alone a reference to people singing or being exhorted to sing praise.

Psalm 33:1–3 highlights several characteristics of singing:

(1) Joy—this is the mood or spirit in which we are to praise with singing. Cf. Ps. 9:1–2.

(2) Instrumental accompaniment—see 1 Chron. 16:5–6, 41–42; 2 Chron. 7:6; Ps. 98:4–6.

a) Lyre—33:2 (strings made of the intestines of sheep; similar to a guitar)

b) Harp—33:2 (cf. Ps. 71:22) (more strings and larger than a lyre)

c) Ten-stringed lute—cf. Ps. 92:3 (could be a reference to the “zither”, a rectangular instrument with 10 parallel strings)

d) Flute—cf. Ps. 87:7

e) Trumpets/Horns—cf. Pss. 98:6; 150:3

f) Timbrel—cf. Ps. 81:2 (some say it was a tambourine; others say a portable drum)

g) Pipe—cf. Ps. 150:4 (oboe?)

h) Stringed instruments—cf. Ps. 150:4 (not one instrument but an entire family)

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i) Cymbals—cf. Ps. 150:5 (two types (1) the smaller type, struck horizontally, and (2) the larger type, struck vertically).

j) Tambourine—cf. Ps. 68:24–25.

(3) New Song—See Pss. 40:3; 91:1; 98:1; 149:1; also Isa. 42:10; Rev. 5:9. These are fresh compositions in response to fresh, new works of God.

(4) Play Skillfully—33:3; 47:6–7. How do we evaluate the excellence of our music? a) Is its message faithful to the Scriptures? b) Does it reflect technical and aesthetic beauty. For example, a melody should be capable of giving expression to your highest thoughts and deepest feelings about God. c) What is the composer’s spiritual intent or motive? d) Is the music appropriate to the message?

(5) Shout of Joy—For a similar exhortation, see Pss. 66:1; 81:1–3; 95:1–2; 98:4–6

D. The Purpose of Singing

Music has a peculiar power. Music infuses words with a dynamic energy that merely speaking them could never achieve. Warren Wiersbe put it this way:

“I am convinced that congregations learn more theology (good and bad) from the songs they sing than from the sermons they hear. Many sermons are doctrinally sound and contain a fair amount of biblical information, but they lack that necessary emotional content that gets hold of the listener’s heart. Music, however, reaches the mind and the heart at the same time. It has power to touch and move the emotions, and for that reason can become a wonderful tool in the hands of the Spirit or a terrible weapon in the hands of the Adversary.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) is best known for his courageous defense of the doctrine of justification by faith, a truth God used to spark the Protestant Reformation. Yet, one of Luther’s enemies insisted that he “had damned more souls with his hymns than with all his sermons!” People of every age are compelled to acknowledge the undeniable power of song.

Luther was himself passionately committed to the primacy of music and song as a means both for spreading the gospel and for the worship of God. “I have no use for cranks who despise music,” said Luther, “because it is a gift of God. Music drives away the Devil and makes people gay; they forget thereby all wrath, unchastity, arrogance, and the like. Next after theology I give to music the highest place and the greatest honor.”

Some are surprised to hear what this great theologian thought about music. That a man with such indomitable courage and intellectual brilliance should place such a high premium on song is unexpected, to say the least. “Experience proves,” wrote Luther, “that next to the

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Word of God only music deserves to be extolled as the mistress and governess of the feelings of the human heart. We know that to the devils music is distasteful and insufferable. My heart bubbles up and overflows in response to music, which has so often refreshed me and delivered me from dire plagues.”

Luther was never one to mince his words. He had little patience for those who dismissed the power and primacy of singing. “He who does not find this [singing] an inexpressible miracle of the Lord is truly a clod and is not worthy to be considered a man.” Luther insisted that “the gift of language combined with the gift of song was only given to man to let him know that he should praise God with both word and music, namely by proclaiming [the Word of God] through music.” Whether you wish “to comfort the sad, to terrify the happy, to encourage the despairing, to humble the proud, to calm the passionate, or to appease those full of hate, name the emotions, inclinations, and affections that impel men to evil or good—what more effective means than music could you find?”

What Luther had discovered was that singing enables the soul to express deeply felt emotions that mere speaking cannot. Singing channels our spiritual energy in a way that nothing else can. Singing evokes an intensity of mind and spirit. It opens the door to ideas, feelings, and affections that otherwise might have remained forever imprisoned in the depths of one’s heart.

Singing gives focus and clarity to what words alone often only make fuzzy. It lifts our hearts to new heights of contemplation. It stirs our hope to unprecedented levels of expectancy and delight. Singing sensitizes. It softens the soul to hear God’s voice and quickens the will to obey. I can only speak for myself, but when I’m happy I sing. When my joy increases it cries for an outlet. So I sing. When I’m touched with a renewed sense of forgiveness, I sing. When God’s grace shines yet again on my darkened path, I sing. When I’m lonely and long for the intimacy of God’s presence, I sing. When I need respite from the chaos of a world run amok, I sing. Nothing else can do for me what music does. It bathes otherwise arid ideas in refreshing waters. It empowers my wandering mind to concentrate with energetic intensity. It stirs my heart to tell the Lord just how much I love Him, again and again and again, without the slightest tinge of repetitive boredom.]

In sum:

• Music should exalt God (Ps. 66:2)

• Music should edify Christians (Ps. 33:1)

• Music should evangelize the lost (Ps. 40:3)

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Prayer in the Psalms

It was Solomon who said, “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight” (Prov. 15:8). Although God is spirit, if he had a face he would display one of two looks when people pray. According to Prov. 15:8 God frowns in disgust when the wicked hypocritically try to manipulate him with their sacrifices. But he has a beaming, glowing smile of indescribable delight whenever his children pray. Why? It certainly isn’t because he learns something from them of which he had been previously unaware. Rather, God smiles when we pray because the God of the Bible

“is the kind of God who delights most deeply not in making demands but in meeting needs. Prayer is his delight because prayer shows the reaches of our poverty and the riches of his grace. Prayer is that wonderful transaction where the wealth of God’s glory is magnified and the wants of our soul are satisfied” (John Piper, Desiring God, 217).

When we pray, what do we offer God? Nothing but our need! And that is what makes him happy because it provides him with an opportunity to demonstrate the infinite resources of the riches of his grace. God issues this invitation: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble (i.e., pray to me, cry for help); I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me” (Ps. 50:15).

4

4 Storms, S. (2016). Biblical Studies: Psalms (Ps 148). Edmond, OK: Sam Storms.

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