Psalm 149 "The Song of the Sword"

Psalm for Tomorrow = 149:5-9
Yesterday I posted on Facebook, “In posting on this psalm six times since 2009, I have included verse 4 in all six. I wonder if I can avoid it this time? Tune in tomorrow when I decide!”

Well I decided to take a decidedly difficult section, which to borrow a phrase from John Phillips, I call, “The Song of the Sword.” [Warning: this is a longer post than normal]

⁵ Let the godly exult in glory;
    let them sing for joy on their beds.
⁶ Let the high praises of God be in their throats
    and two-edged swords in their hands,

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 judgment written!

    This is honor for all his godly ones.
Praise the Lord!

Comments:

We all understand the singing of praises in the psalms…the turning of our beds from a place of mourning and crying out to God in our distress into a place of praise to God for our deliverance. This has been a major theme in the psalms.

But what about the two-edged sword and vengeance and all that?

How can a Christian pray this psalm in light of the ethic of the New Covenant where we are told to “love your enemies”, encouraged that “the meek shall inherit the earth”, and warned that, “vengeance is mine says the Lord”? In an attempt to treat this passage fairly and bring contemporary clarity, this post will use a few more commentary quotes than normal. Hopefully it will be helpful.

There is great wisdom in Keil & Delitzsch (the classic 10 volume Old Testament Commentary, circa 1880) as they admit the sordid history of this passage and the need for proper interpretation.

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, Psalm 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’s Thomas Münzer stirred up the War of the Peasants by means of this Psalm [which Luther motivated the German princes to crush]. 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.

Let me interpret this quote—People have used this passage to incite bloodshed for their pet causes, we should not do so; the New Testament does not sanction such actions; and further we must understand what it meant to the original reader before trying to apply it to our own situation.

So what did this mean to the original hearer? Did it look forward to the soon coming Maccabean victories over the Greek oppressors? Possibly. Did they understand it in terms of the Day of the Lord, that eschatological day when the Lord would set everything right? This is most likely their understanding, in which case it is the Lord himself who will bring it to pass not some sort of eschatological hurry-up offense on the part of God’s people. Leslie Allen writes,

The religious community meeting in Zion’s temple are bidden to look forward to the time when he will intervene in a new, dynamic way in their experience and so give cause for a new song of praise (cf. Isa 42:10). It is the destiny to which the covenant points, a covenant marked by the loyal love of Yahweh for his people. To him they owe their existence and so their allegiance; thus they await an event that will spell the culmination of their role in the world, the manifestation of his kingship and their royal service. [1]

Because God is so closely tied to his covenant people, his victory becomes their victory.

Because the God who thus vindicates Himself is Israel's God, this subjugation of the world is… splendor and glory to all who are in love devoted to Him. The glorifying of Yahweh is also the glorifying of Israel. (Keil & Delitzsch)

However, his people should not presume that God has put them here to judge the world in advance of his coming. Instead he has put us here as witnesses to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. So, to what or whom do our lives point? 

Do we look forward to the Lord’s return with such strong expectation that we sing his praises for what he is going to do in the future…or is our faith limited to what he has done in the past? Do we get up in the morning thinking this may be the day of his glorious return? Do we fall asleep at night singing praise for what God is doing or do we lie awake filled with anxiety in anticipation of tomorrow's tasks?

Back to the sword idea for a moment. How do we combat the works of the devil? Do we fight against men using worldly weapons, or do we take up the sword of the Spirit to do battle in the spiritual realm? I like John Phillips’ comments in this regard, especially in light of current events and the significance of the date [originally published on the anniversary of 9/11]. 

"This, then, is the song of the sword. The world places its confidence in the secular sword, the sword of the conqueror, the empire builder. The world settles its disputes with the sword. The sword will become more and more prominent in world affairs as the end of the age of grace draws near and the judgment age begins.

The people of God place their confidence in the spiritual sword, the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. The world may despise that weapon but the world will learn to fear it, as Satan does, with a terror that defies description." [2]

This talk of the “sword of the Spirit” is from Ephesians 6:17 (part of a larger section 6:10-20 talking about this spiritual warfare) where it is defined as “the Word of God”. Also in Hebrews 4:12 the Word of God is described as a two-edged sword that surprisingly is used to deal with the deception in one’s own heart.

Could it be that we can live lives of watchful, expectant, overcoming praise because we cling tightly to the Word of God, letting the Spirit apply it to the thoughts and intentions of our hearts and those of others? I think so, don't you?

P.S. I didn't talk about verse 4, though it is an awesome truth!

---

[1] Leslie C. Allen, Word Biblical Commentary Vol. 21: Psalms 101-150, Word, 1983. 321.

[2] John Phillips, Exploring Psalms, Volume 2 (John Phillips Commentary Series) (The John Phillips Commentary Series), 696.