I first want to thank you for your prayers for us over this
past weekend. I drove most of the night from New Life Baptist in White Marsh Maryland
back to my home here in Sneads Ferry North Carolina. I arrived around 3:30am this
morning and was of course quite tired, but I’m convinced that it was your prayers
that kept us safe driving through the crazy traffic going around Baltimore and
Washington DC on Interstate 95. Miraculously, I did not get sleepy or have a
problem staying away the entire drive. Thank you, Thank you, Thank You!!!!!
Psalm 149 brings us almost to the end of the Psalms, and
still among the Hallelujahs. This is "a new song", evidently intended
for the new creation, and the men who are of new heart. It is such a song as
may be sung at the coming of the Lord, when the new dispensation shall bring
overthrow to the wicked and honor to all the saints. The tone is exceedingly
jubilant and exultant. It is obvious as you read this psalm that it looks
forward to end of the Seven Year Tribulation period when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes back with His saints on a white horse to execute judgment on the earth
just before He sets up His one-thousand-year reign from the Throne of David
(Revelation 19-20).
Everything that God's people do in serving and glorifying
the Lord must flow out of worship, for without Him we can do nothing (John
15:5). The most important activity of the local church is the worship of God,
for this is the activity we will continue in heaven for all eternity. This
psalm is a primer on worship and gives us the basic instructions we need.
In verses 1-2 we learn we must worship the Lord intelligently.
Worship is something that we must learn to do, and we will be learning all of
our lives. In times of corporate worship, the saints do minister to one another
(Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16), but the primary focus must be on the Lord, glorifying
and extolling Him. Yes, we may worship the Lord in solitude, and we should (v.
5), but we must not forsake the assembly of the saints (Heb. 10:25). As members
of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-13, 27), we belong to each other, affect
each other, and need each other. We need both the old songs and the new songs
(see on 33:3), which suggests an intelligent balance in worship. The church
family has young and old, new believers, and seasoned saints (1 Tim. 5:1-2;
Titus 2:1-8; 1 John 2:12-14), and nobody should be ignored. The old songs bear
witness to our steadfastness in keeping the faith, but the new songs give
evidence that we are maturing in the faith as we grow in the knowledge of His
Word and His grace (2 Peter 3:18).
A maturing faith demands mature expressions of worship,
just as a maturing marriage demands new expressions of devotion, but we do not
abandon the old and major only on the new. "Let us press on to
maturity" (Heb. 6:1). The old and the new must be integrated or we
will not be balanced believers (Matt. 13:51-52). We must walk in the Spirit
(Eph. 5:18-21) and grow in knowledge of the Word (Col. 3:16), learning new
truths about the old truths and having new experiences of blessing from both.
The church today can join with Israel in saying, "God
is our Maker and our King" (Psalms 95:6; 100:3; 10:16; 24:7-10; Eph.
2:10; Rev. 15:3; 19:16). How He has made us is His gift to us, and what we do
with it is our gift to Him. We must remind ourselves that we came from the
dust, but because of God's grace, we are destined for glory!
As the old song goes, "Soon and very soon, We're going
to see the King."
God bless!
