1 Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp.
4 For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.
5 Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand;
7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people;
8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD.
1 Praise H1984 ye the LORD. H3050 Sing H7891 unto the LORD H3068 a new H2319 song, H7892 and his praise H8416 in the congregation H6951 of saints. H2623
2 Let Israel H3478 rejoice H8055 in him that made H6213 him: let the children H1121 of Zion H6726 be joyful H1523 in their King. H4428
3 Let them praise H1984 his name H8034 in the dance: H4234 let them sing praises H2167 unto him with the timbrel H8596 and harp. H3658
4 For the LORD H3068 taketh pleasure H7521 in his people: H5971 he will beautify H6286 the meek H6035 with salvation. H3444
5 Let the saints H2623 be joyful H5937 in glory: H3519 let them sing aloud H7442 upon their beds. H4904
6 Let the high H7319 praises of God H410 be in their mouth, H1627 and a twoedged H6374 sword H2719 in their hand; H3027
7 To execute H6213 vengeance H5360 upon the heathen, H1471 and punishments H8433 upon the people; H3816
8 To bind H631 their kings H4428 with chains, H2131 and their nobles H3513 with fetters H3525 of iron; H1270
9 To execute H6213 upon them the judgment H4941 written: H3789 this honour H1926 have all his saints. H2623 Praise H1984 ye the LORD. H3050
1 Praise ye Jehovah. Sing unto Jehovah a new song, And his praise in the assembly of the saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance: Let them sing praises unto him with timbrel and harp.
4 For Jehovah taketh pleasure in his people: He will beautify the meek with salvation.
5 Let the saints exult in glory: Let them sing for joy upon their beds.
6 `Let' the high praises of God `be' in their mouth, And a two-edged sword in their hand;
7 To execute vengeance upon the nations, And punishments upon the peoples;
8 To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute upon them the judgment written: This honor have all his saints. Praise ye Jehovah.
1 Praise ye Jah! Sing ye to Jehovah a new song, His praise in an assembly of saints.
2 Israel doth rejoice in his Maker, Sons of Zion do joy in their king.
3 They praise His name in a dance, With timbrel and harp sing praise to Him.
4 For Jehovah is pleased with His people, He beautifieth the humble with salvation.
5 Exult do saints in honour, They sing aloud on their beds.
6 The exaltation of God `is' in their throat, And a two-edged sword in their hand.
7 To do vengeance among nations, Punishments among the peoples.
8 To bind their kings with chains, And their honoured ones with fetters of iron,
9 To do among them the judgment written, An honour it `is' for all his saints. Praise ye Jah!
1 Hallelujah! Sing unto Jehovah a new song; [sing] his praise in the congregation of the godly.
2 Let Israel rejoice in his Maker; let the sons of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance; let them sing psalms unto him with the tambour and harp.
4 For Jehovah taketh pleasure in his people; he beautifieth the meek with salvation.
5 Let the godly exult in glory; let them shout for joy upon their beds.
6 Let the high praises of ùGod be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand:
7 To execute vengeance against the nations, [and] punishment among the peoples;
8 To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute upon them the judgment written. This honour have all his saints. Hallelujah!
1 Praise Yahweh! Sing to Yahweh a new song, His praise in the assembly of the saints.
2 Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.
3 Let them praise his name in the dance! Let them sing praises to him with tambourine and harp!
4 For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints rejoice in honor. Let them sing for joy on their beds.
6 May the high praises of God be in their mouths, And a two-edged sword in their hand;
7 To execute vengeance on the nations, And punishments on the peoples;
8 To bind their kings with chains, And their nobles with fetters of iron;
9 To execute on them the written judgment. All his saints have this honor. Praise Yah!
1 Let the Lord be praised. Make a new song to the Lord, let his praise be in the meeting of his saints.
2 Let Israel have joy in his maker; let the children of Zion be glad in their King.
3 Let them give praise to his name in the dance: let them make melody to him with instruments of brass and corded instruments of music.
4 For the Lord has pleasure in his people: he gives the poor in spirit a crown of salvation.
5 Let the saints have joy and glory: let them give cries of joy on their beds.
6 Let the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hands;
7 To give the nations the reward of their sins, and the peoples their punishment;
8 To put their kings in chains, and their rulers in bands of iron;
9 To give them the punishment which is in the holy writings: this honour is given to all his saints. Praise be to the Lord.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 149
Commentary on Psalms 149 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Hallelujah to the God of Victory of His People
This Psalm is also explained, as we have already seen on Psalms 147, from the time of the restoration under Ezra and Nehemiah. The new song to which it summons has the supreme power which Israel has attained over the world of nations for its substance. As in Psalms 148:14 the fact that Jahve has raised up a horn for His people is called תּהלּה לכל־חסדיו , so here in Psalms 149:9 the fact that Israel takes vengeance upon the nations and their rulers is called הדר לכל־חסדיו . The writer of the two Psalms is one and the same. The fathers are of opinion that it is the wars and victories of the Maccabees that are here prophetically spoken of. But the Psalm is sufficiently explicable from the newly strengthened national self-consciousness of the period after Cyrus. The stand-point is somewhere about the stand-point of the Book of Esther. The New Testament spiritual church cannot pray as the Old Testament national church here prays. Under the illusion that it might be used as a prayer without any spiritual transmutation, Psalms 149:1-9 has become the watchword of the most horrible errors. It was by means of this Psalm that Caspar Scloppius in his Classicum Belli Sacri , which, as Bakius says, is written not with ink, but with blood, inflamed the Roman Catholic princes to the Thirty Years' religious War. And in the Protestant Church Thomas Münzer stirred up the War of the Peasants by means of this Psalm. We see that the Christian cannot make such a Psalm directly his own without disavowing the apostolic warning, “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal” (2 Corinthians 10:4). The praying Christian must there transpose the letter of this Psalm into the spirit of the New Covenant; the Christian expositor, however, has to ascertain the literal meaning of this portion of the Scriptures of the Old Testament in its relation to contemporary history.
A period, in which the church is renewing its youth and drawing nearer to the form it is finally to assume, also of inward necessity puts forth new songs. Such a new era has now dawned for the church of the saints, the Israel that has remained faithful to its God and the faith of its fathers. The Creator of Israel ( עשׂיו , plural, with the plural suffix, like עשׂי in Job 35:10, עשׂיך in Isaiah 54:5, cf. עשׂו in Job 40:19; according to Hupfeld and Hitzig, cf. Ew. §256, b , Ges. §93, 9, singular; but aj , ajich , aw , are always really plural suffixes) has shown that He is also Israel's Preserver and the King of Zion, that He cannot leave the children of Zion for any length of time under foreign dominion, and has heard the sighing of the exiles (Isaiah 63:19; Isaiah 26:13). Therefore the church newly appropriated by its God and King is to celebrate Him, whose Name shines forth anew out of its history, with festive dance, timbrel, and cithern. For (as the occasion, hitherto only hinted at, is now expressly stated) Jahve takes a pleasure in His people; His wrath in comparison with His mercy is only like a swiftly passing moment (Isaiah 54:7.). The futures that follow state that which is going on at the present time. ענוים is, as frequently, a designation of the ecclesia pressa , which has hitherto, amidst patient endurance of suffering, waited for God's own act of redemption. He now adorns them with ישׁוּעה , help against the victory over the hostile world; now the saints, hitherto enslaved and contemned, exult בכבוד , in honour, or on account of the honour which vindicates them before the world and is anew bestowed upon them ( בּ of the reason, or, which is more probable in connection with the boldness of the expression, of the state and mood);
(Note: Such, too (with pomp, not “with an army”), is the meaning of μετὰ δόξης in 1 Macc. 10:60; 14:4, 5, vid., Grimm in loc. ))
they shout for joy upon their beds, upon which they have hitherto poured forth their complaints over the present (cf. Hosea 7:14), and ardently longed for a better future (Isaiah 26:8); for the bed is the place of soliloquy (Psalms 4:5), and the tears shed there (Psalms 6:7) are turned into shouts of joy in the case of Israel.
The glance is here directed to the future. The people of the present have again, in their God, attained to a lofty self-consciousness, the consciousness of their destiny, viz., to subjugate the whole world of nations to the God of Israel. In the presence of the re-exaltation which they have experienced their throat is full of words and songs exalting Jahve ( רוממות , plural of רומם , or, according to another reading, רומם , Psalms 56:1-13 :17), and as servants of this God, the rightful Lord of all the heathen (Psalms 82:8), they hold in their hand a many-mouthed, i.e., many edged sword (vid., supra , p. 580), in order to take the field on behalf of the true religion, as the Maccabees actually did, not long after: ταῖς μὲν χερσὶν ἀγωνιζόμενοι ταῖς δὲ καρδίαις πρὸς τὸν Θεόν εὐχόμενοι (2 Macc. 15:27). The meaning of Psalms 149:9 becomes a different one, according as we take this line as co-ordinate or subordinate to what goes before. Subordinated, it would imply the execution of a penal jurisdiction over those whom they carried away, and כּתוּב would refer to prescriptive facts such as are recorded in Numbers 31:8; 1 Samuel 15:32. (Hitzig). But it would become the religious lyric poet least of all to entertain such an unconditional prospect of the execution of the conquered worldly rulers. There is just as little ground for thinking of the judgment of extermination pronounced upon the nations of Canaan, which was pronounced upon them for an especial reason. If Psalms 149:9 is taken as co-ordinate, the “written judgment” ( Recht ) consists in the complete carrying out of the subjugation; and this is commended by the perfectly valid parallel, Isaiah 45:14. The poet, however, in connection with the expression “written,” has neither this nor that passage of Scripture in his mind, but the testimony of the Law and of prophecy in general, that all kingdoms shall become God's and His Christ's. Subjugation (and certainly not without bloodshed) is the scriptural משׁפּט for the execution of which Jahve makes use of His own nation. Because the God who thus vindicates Himself is Israel's God, this subjugation of the world is הדר , splendour and glory, to all who are in love devoted to Him. The glorifying of Jahve is also the glorifying of Israel.