Latest / Reformed Thinking / Sing to the Lord a New Song (Psalm 149) | Charles Spurgeon

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Sing to the Lord a New Song (Psalm 149) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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You know, usually when we talk about a medical diagnosis, there
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is this expectation of absolute precision.
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Right. Yeah, like engineering.
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Yeah, like engineering. You break your arm.
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The X-ray shows that jagged white line and the doctor just
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points at it and says there it is.
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It is binary, you know, broken or not broken.
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We really like things to be visible and, well, neatly
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categorized. We do, but then you step into
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the world of biblical interpretation and suddenly that
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X-ray machine just stops working.
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Oh. Completely.
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We are looking at a textual landscape that is murky.
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I mean, you can take a single passage of Scripture, something
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beautiful and triumphant, and if you read it with the wrong lens,
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the results are not just confusing, they can be, well,
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catastrophic. Yeah, welcome to Reformed
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thinking. Today we are taking a deep dive
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into Charles Spurgeon's exposition of Psalm 149 from his
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renowned work The Treasury of David.
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And we have a massive stack of sources for you today.
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Really do. We've got Spurgeon's own
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commentary, plus his curated collection of explanatory notes
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and quaint sayings from all these historical theologians.
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And you know, when we talk about catastrophic misinterpretations,
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we're not speaking metaphorically.
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Here, no, not at all. Franz de Lich, who is one of the
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scholars cited in our sources. He gives his chilling warning
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about Psalm 149. He points out that this text,
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when stripped of its spiritual meaning, literally started wars.
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OK, I want to pause on that because it sounds like hyperbole
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wars like plural. Plural.
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Yeah. The Lich notes that Casper
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Sclopius used this very Psalm to incite the Roman Catholic
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Princess into the 30 years religious war.
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Sclopius wrote a tract called Classicum Belly Sacre and
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another writer, Bacchus, later said the tract was written not
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with ink but with blood. That is heavy.
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And it happened on the Protestant side too.
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Thomas Munzer uses exact same Psalm to stir up the War of the
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Peasants. People read words about A2 edged
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sword and you know, executing vengeance and they pick up
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literal weapons. Which just shows the terrifying
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danger of applying A carnal flesh and blood interpretation
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to a text that is meant for the soul.
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Spot on. So the aim for our deep dive
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today is to rescue this text from that historical misuse and
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to really understand the true spiritual triumph it describes
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for you, the modern believer. Let's get into it.
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Right. So verse one says, praise ye the
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Lord, sing unto the Lord a new song and his praise in the
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congregation of Saints. Spurgeon points out that we are
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almost at the end of the Psalter here and we are still dwelling
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among the hallelujahs. Is just a song of pure
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jubilation. Spurgeon notes that the tone is
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exceedingly exultant, and it's intended for the new creation
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and men who are of a new heart. OK, let's unpack this.
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Why a new song? I mean, let's think about the
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actual mechanism of a new heart. I used to think of it like an
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old computer getting an operating system update.
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Sure. Yeah, like a patch.
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Right, but an update just patches over existing code.
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Our theological framework suggests the original hardware
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is completely dead in sin. A new heart is an entirely new
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machine. The old interface takes in data
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from the world and processes everything into complaints and
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dirges. It outputs despair.
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That's a great way to put it. But the new creation processes
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that exact same reality and outputs hallelujahs.
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What's fascinating here is how Augustine viewed this phrase in
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a very similar way. He said the old man hath an old
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song, the new man a new song. Oh, I like that.
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Right. Augustine connected the output,
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the song, directly to the affections.
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He argued that whoever loves earthly things sings an old
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song. Because earthly things decay.
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Precisely. They rust, they break, they die.
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O. If your affections are tied to
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decaying things, your song will naturally reflect that decay in
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anxiety. O The mechanism of the new song
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is essentially a complete reorientation of what you love.
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Yes, let the person who desires to sing a new song love the
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things of eternity, because love itself, when directed at God, is
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eternal. It never grows old.
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So the song possesses this perpetual, vibrant quality.
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And Spurgeon adds to this by observing that we have new
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knowledge of God every single day.
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His mercies are new every morning.
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His deliverances are new, and every night of sorrow.
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Right. So our gratitude should be
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constantly generating new material.
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And Spurgeon makes this sharp little observation.
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It says men are fonder of making new complaints, the new psalms.
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Ouch. Yeah, that hits home, which
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brings up Thomas Goodwin's notes on the word Saints.
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In this verse he makes a fascinating argument about
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divine workmanship. He really does.
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Goodwin argues that St. is a common title for all who are
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saved. Not just super Christians.
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Right. Not just the elite, he says.
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The name St. puts mere morality and formal profession out of
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countenance, just as the sun out shines a glow worm.
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A glow worm. That's such a great visual.
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Saintship is a matter of divine workmanship.
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It is God creating something entirely new.
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A congregation of Saints is a treasure, House of jewels, as
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Spurging calls it, because God is in the midst of them.
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So for you listening, evaluate your own spiritual vocabulary
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for a second. Are you fonder of inventing new
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complaints, or are you discovering new reasons for
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gratitude? It's.
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A tough question. It is.
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Let's move to the tension of verse 2.
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Let Israel rejoice in him that made him.
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Let the children of Zion be joyful in their king.
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Yeah, that word king is heavy it.
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Is we readily embrace God as a savior who rescues us from
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trouble, right. But the idea of God as a king
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who exercises absolute sovereignty over us?
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That grates against human nature.
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We want the rescue, but we definitely want to retain our
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autonomy. If we connect this to the bigger
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picture, Herman Venema provides some critical historical context
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for the word maker here. Oh, right.
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Because Jehovah's called maker. Not in the general Genesis
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sense, where God made all human beings.
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OK, so how is he the maker here? He is called Maker because he
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took a disorganized race of slaves in Egypt and formed them
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into a settled nation and a Kingdom.
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The making of Israel was the actual establishment of his rule
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over them. Oh, I see.
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So the structure, the law, the covenant that is the making.
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That is correct, yeah. And then Robert Hawker makes a
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massive theological distinction regarding the object of this
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joy. What does he say?
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He notes the text does not say Israel should be joyful in what
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their king has done for them. It says they should be joyful in
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the king himself. Hawker writes The Lord is
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gracious in his gifts, but Jesus's gifts are not himself.
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That is so convicting. If God gives you everything you
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need, but you do not have Him, you are missing the center.
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Yeah, if he himself is all you need, then in him you have all
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things. If Hawker is right, that totally
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flips modern consumer Christianity on its head.
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I mean, we usually treat God as a vending machine, not the prize
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itself. We really do, but acknowledging
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God's absolute rule, which is a core Reformed concept of
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sovereignty, this actually the source of true gladness.
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We are happy to be ruled as a people, as Spurgeon puts it,
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because the ruler is perfectly good.
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And that joy, it cannot be contained quietly.
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It spills over into the physical world in verse three.
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Let them praise His name in the dance.
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Let them sing praises unto him with a timbrel and harp.
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Here's where it gets really interesting.
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Modern religion often suppresses physical expressions of joy.
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Oh, absolutely. Sit still, be quiet.
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You sit still, you fold your hands.
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But early believers utilized every possible channel to
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express gratitude for liberation.
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Yes, Spurgeon connects this verse to Miriam.
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Right after the Red Sea. After the triumph at the Red
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Sea, when Egypt was vanquished and the tribes were free, Miriam
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led the daughters of Israel in a dance.
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Every mode of expressing delight was called into requisition,
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leaping, playing, singing, and the.
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Sources provide some wild archaeological details about
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these instruments, right? They do.
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John Kiddo describes the Timbrel or the toff.
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This was an ancient tambourine used mostly by females in Egypt
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and the East on joyful occasions.
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So like a tambourine? Yeah, he notes from Egyptian
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monuments that there were circular, square and oblong
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versions beaten by the hand. Square tambourines.
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That's hard to picture. And then Jay Steiner discusses
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the harp or the kinner. He says it was likely a liar or
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a guitar played with a hand or a plectrum.
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These were instruments designed for festive rhythmic
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celebration. The word dance always carries
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baggage and religious contexts. Though the sources address that
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head on, William Swan Plummer clarifies that the ancient
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sacred dances of devout joy provide no excuse for frivolous
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or lewd modern dancing. The context was liberation and
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gratitude to God, not self display.
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Matthew Henry notes that too. Right, yeah, Henry notes that
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while the New Testament keeps up singing as an ordinance, it
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doesn't mandate the keeping up of music and dancing in the same
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literal way, urging that we sing with the spirit and with the
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understanding. The underlying principle is the
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sheer irrepressible nature of the joy, Spurgeon says.
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Let us give the utmost liberty to joy.
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Let us never attempt its suppression.
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Which is beautiful. He says if a man does not loop
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or play, at any rate, he praises God and wishes for 1000 tongues
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to magnify his Savior. Thomas Carlisle offers a really
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beautiful insight on the sheer force of this kind of joy.
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He talks about the endurance of cheerfulness.
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What does he say? He says give us, oh, give us,
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the man who sings at his work. A person who marches to music,
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who has a spiritual sunshine about them, will do more in the
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same time. Do it better and persevere
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longer than someone working in silent sulleness.
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I love that a man who sings at his work, but I'm stuck on verse
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4. What's the verse?
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For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people.
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He will beautify the meek with salvation.
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OK, Yeah. God takes pleasure in these
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people, but we just established their flawed If God is perfectly
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holy, how does he physically tolerate, let alone take
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pleasure in imperfection? That feels like a theological
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contradiction. It is a mystery, but Spurgeon
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tackles it by using a family analogy.
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He says God takes pleasure in all his children, just as Jacob
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loved all his sons. OK, but the meek are his
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Joseph's, and upon these he puts the coat of many colors.
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So the beautifying with salvation is like the coat of
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many colors. It is a special mark of favor
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and adorning. Precisely.
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And to understand why God takes pleasure in them, we have to
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look at the Hebrew word for the meek.
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Which is. John Calvin notes that the word
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is anavim, which means the poor and afflicted ones.
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Great afflicted. Ones.
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Yeah, it came to be applied to merciful persons because bodily
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reflections have a tendency to subdue pride.
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And Edward Cooper in his 1826 sermon Notes Included in the
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Treasury, answers your question about God tolerating
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imperfection. What does Cooper say?
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He says God does not take pleasure in his people because
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of any intrinsic merit of their own.
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Then what is the mechanism? Why does he look at them
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favorably? Cooper says God takes pleasure
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in them for his own name's sake, for his truth's sake.
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He takes pleasure in them because he sees in them the
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travail of Christ's soul. He sees the fruit of Christ's
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suffering. OK, let's translate that for a
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second. Travail implies the agony of
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childbirth or intense labor. So God looks at a believer and
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does not see their flaws. He sees the agonizing effort
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Christ put in to save them, much like a parent looking at a child
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they suffered to bring into the world.
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That is a highly accurate way to frame it.
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He takes pleasure in the work He has already begun in them
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because they are starting to reflect the image of the One who
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is meek and lowly in heart. So for you listening, think
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about what true scriptural meekness actually looks like
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based on these sources. Cooper outlines it really
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clearly. He breaks it down Well, yeah.
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Toward God it implies poverty of spirit, humiliation of heart,
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submission to His will, and silence under His rod.
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And toward men. Toward men, it means lowliness
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of mind, readiness to prefer others, forbearance under
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provocations, and forgiveness of injuries.
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That is not weakness. That is an incredible amount of
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spiritual strength. It really is.
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And that meekness is what God chooses to beautify.
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Cooper explains that God beautifies them with salvation
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in two phases. OK.
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What's the first phase? In the present life He adorns
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them with the beauty of holiness.
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He gives them a meek and quiet spirit which is an ornament.
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He gives them peace and content. And the second phase?
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In the future world, at the resurrection, this beauty
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reaches perfection. The body itself is raised in
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honor and glory, made like unto Christ's glorious body.
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It is a complete alteration, I mean from the poor and afflicted
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Anavim to a people wearing the coat of many colors beautified
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with absolute salvation. Which leads to one of the most
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surprising verses in the whole text.
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Verse 5 Let the Saints be joyful in glory.
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Let them sing aloud upon their beds.
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This raises an important question.
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Because the bed is usually a place of rest, but so often it
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is a place of anxiety. It is where the distractions of
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the day fade away and your mind just starts racing in the
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midnight hours. You worry about tomorrow, you
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regret yesterday. It here the psalmist commands,
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shouting and singing upon the bed.
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So what does it take to turn a bed of affliction or bed of
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anxiety into a throne of triumph?
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Spurgeon writes. What a blessing to have our beds
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made into Thrones and our retirements turned into
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triumphs. And the commentators provide
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some stunning perspectives on this.
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William Blois, writing in 1632, compares the Watchful St. to the
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Nightingale. Nightingale.
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Yeah, he says. The Nightingale is an excellent
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bird that charms the midnight hours and never grows weary of
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its delightful notes. He points out that David didn't
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just praise God in public, he continued his song of God's
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mercy in the night, abridging his time of rest to seek Him.
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Boys mentions that when we are sick or our bones are vexed, we
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pray for healing, but when we are healed, we often forget to
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give thanks in the night, becoming overtaken with
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heaviness and security. We just go right to sleep.
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Right. The call here is to chase away
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the spirit of slumber with cheerful devotion.
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If you are listening right now, think about the last time you
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were kept awake at 3:00 AM. Your mind probably went straight
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to your mortgage, your relationships or your mistakes.
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We have a touching piece of evidence for a different kind of
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response. In the sources.
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There is a private letter from 1870 by a man named Bapa
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Padmanji. I loved this part.
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It's incredible, he writes, how I long for my bed.
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Not that I may sleep, I lie awake often and long, but to
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hold sweet communion with my God.
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He says that even if there were no historical evidence for
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Christianity, even if there were no established miracles, he
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would still believe the religion of Galilee is divine.
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Because of his experience in the dark.
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Exactly. I mean, yeah, spot on.
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Because of the holy joy it brings to him in the dark, he
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says. The holy joy it brings to me
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must be from. Heaven Padmonji is suggesting A
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biological and psychological override here, his ability to
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lie awake in the pitch black and feel overwhelming gratitude and
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joy, that is his ultimate proof of the divine.
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Natural human behavior in the dark is fear or sleep.
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Joy in the Dark is a supernatural insertion.
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And Thomas Le Blanc makes an observation that takes this even
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further. He says this verse is fulfilled
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in the most solemn crises of saintly life on beds of death.
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Yeah, where you would expect the ultimate despair, joy and glory
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have been kindled in the hearts of faithful witnesses.
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And then verse 6 presents a jarring contrast to everything
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we just discussed about beds and nightingales and meekness.
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It really does. Verse 6 says let the high
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praises of God be in their mouth and A2 edged sword in their
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hand. I am stuck on how you harmonize
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the meekness of verse 4 withholding A2 edged sword in
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verse 6. It sounds completely
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contradictory. This sounds like a clash.
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Think about the human immune system.
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A healthy body has to do 2 things simultaneously.
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It has to perfectly nourish and sustain its own cells.
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That is the life giving chorister sight of praise.
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OK, follow you. But it also has to maintain
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lethal, aggressive antibodies that ruthlessly hunt down and
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destroy foreign invaders. That is the crusader side
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wielding the sword. That's a fascinating analogy.
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If the immune system stops nourishing, the body dies.
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If it stops fighting, the body is overrun.
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The believer is asked to maintain that same dual posture.
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Spurgeon notes that the meek are very hard to overcome.
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They are a steady and conflict as they are steadfast in
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patience. He calls it a happy blending of
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the Chorister and the Crusader. I love that phrase.
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To really grasp the weight of the high praises, we should look
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at Samuel Faircloth 1650 sermon titled The Prisoners Praise.
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OK, what does Faircloth say? He breaks down four ways that
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these praises are high. First, he says they are
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objective. The praises are high because
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they are directed to the most High God.
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They are peculiarly appropriated to His transcendent height and
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sublimity. Directing speech to the Most
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High forces the human mind to look up, breaking the cycle of
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inward focus. Second, they are effective by
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praising God. His infinite majesty is
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glorified and His name is magnified.
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The duty of praise actually adds height to the High God in the
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eyes of the world. Wait, how does our tiny praise
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magnify an infinite God? It comes down to the psychology
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of human witness. If bystanders see a creature
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expressing absolute reverence, their perception of the
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creator's scale increases. Ah, so the praise acts as a
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magnifying glass. Yes, exactly.
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Right on 3rd they are appreciative.
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This means God places a high value or price on these praises.
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Why does he value it so highly? Because of the cost, Fairclough
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argues that all the wisdom put into creation, all the care in
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Providence, and even the precious blood of His own Son in
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redemption was given freely and intentionally for the purchase
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of high praises to God. So God delights in the praises
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of a believing heart because he paid for them.
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Yes, and the fourth way is perfective.
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This means high praise requires an immense measure of grace to
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perform. It requires Scripture, light,
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effectual faith, and a high proportion of practical
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holiness. Singing a nice melody is easy,
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but maintaining holy joy requires massive spiritual
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maturity and illumination. It does, and while they are
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singing these high praises, they have a 2 edged sword in their
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hand. William Taylor brings up a
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fantastic historical note here about Oliver Cromwell's
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Ironsides. Oh right, the soldiers.
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He says they were sneeringly called Psalm singers by their
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enemies. But Taylor points out that God's
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Psalm singers are always Ironsides.
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He says the person who has a new song in their mouth has the
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greatest force to suffer and labor.
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Praise and strength go hand in hand, but we must be absolutely
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clear, especially considering the warning we discussed at the
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beginning of the show regarding the 30 Years War.
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The two edged sword for the modern believer is not made of
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steel. No, absolutely not, Spurgeon
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says. We do not copy Israel in making
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literal war, but we fulfill the emblem by carrying on spiritual
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war. The two edged sword is the word
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of God. Believers praise God, and they
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contend with their own inward corruptions.
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They strike deadly blows at falsehood and wickedness.
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And Spurgeon gives a brilliant warning about the balance.
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He says if we do not praise, we will grow sad in our conflict.
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If we do not fight, we will become presumptuous in our song.
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You need both. The song fuels the fight, and
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the fight keeps the song grounded in reality.
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And this spiritual interpretation is the only
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Safeway to approach the final intense verses of the Psalm.
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Let's look at verses 7 through 9.
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To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon
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the people. To bind their kings with chains,
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and their nobles with fetters of iron.
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To execute upon them the judgement written.
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This honor have all his Saints. Yeah, that is intense.
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So what does this all mean? Let's to go back to Casper
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Scopias and Thomas Munser. They read Execute Vengeance and
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bind their kings with chains and they literally started
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massacring people. How is the modern Christian
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supposed to execute vengeance and bind kings without repeating
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the horrors of history? We have to understand the
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fundamental shift from the Old Testament to the New Testament
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fronts. Delich explains that the New
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Testament spiritual church cannot pray exactly as the Old
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Testament national church prayed.
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Because they were a physical nation.
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Right. Israel, as a physical nation had
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a literal Commission to execute the righteous sentence of the
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Lord upon guilty nations in Canaan.
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But Christians are operating under a gentler dispensation of
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grace. As the Apostle Paul says, we
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wrestle not with flesh and blood.
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Spurgeon states it bluntly. He says we have received no
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warrant of execution against our fellow men.
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Christians have no Commission of vengeance.
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It is theirs to execute the command of mercy and that alone.
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So the execution we perform is wielding the Word of God against
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spiritual darkness. There is a phenomenal example of
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how this binding of kings works practically in the New
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Testament. Henry Smith makes a striking
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observation about the Apostle Paul standing trial before King
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Agrippa. Paul was the one literally in
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chains standing before the king. But Smith points out that the
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word of God in Paul's mouth acted like a chain upon Agrippa.
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The truth bound Agrippa, making him confess against himself
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almost out persuaded me to be a Christian.
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That is incredible. The prisoner was actually the
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one doing the binding. The word had the king in bands.
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The invincible truth of the Gospel is the fetter of iron.
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It restricts the force of evil, it convicts the conscience of
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leaders, and it restrains the enemies of God without a single
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sword being drawn from a scabbard.
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And this duty, this immense privilege of spiritual warfare,
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is not reserved for an elite strike force.
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No, the text says. This honor have all his Saints.
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This is not for an elite clergy. It is the calling of every
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believer. Every single believer is called
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to this mark. Frank notes that all other
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glories and honors are weak compared to this.
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God is their glory. They are honored with His
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presence, whether in promise or in possession.
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This honor belongs to the entire family of Grace.
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Spurgeon highlights that the duties appointed by the Lord are
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to be undertaken by everyone without exception.
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Looking back over the arc of this song, we see a massive
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progression. We really do.
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It moves from the joyful new song of the new creation to
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resting in the absolute sovereign rule of God our King.
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It calls for an overflow of physical gladness.
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Right. Recognizing that God beautifies
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the meek because He sees the travail of Christ's soul within
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them, it challenges us to turn our midnight beds of anxiety
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into places of triumphant praise through a supernatural override.
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And finally, it arms us with A2 edged sword of the Word, calling
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every single St. to vigorous spiritual warfare, binding the
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forces of darkness with the truth of the Gospel.
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It is a complete picture of the Christian life, Joyful adoration
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blended perfectly with unyielding spiritual resilience.
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It's beautiful. I want to leave you with a final
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thought to Mull over. It is drawn from Thomas Fuller
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in a work called Abel Ridvivis, which is found in our sources.
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OK. He notes that throughout history
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the world has often persecuted, reviled, and executed godly
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people. But a strange thing happens once
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they are gone. The very people who curse them
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often end up confessing their sincerity and faithfulness after
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they have passed the purgation of death.
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Fuller points out that the greatest honor of the Saints is
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that out of the ashes of dead Saints, many living ones spring
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and sprout, inspired by their virtuous examples.
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We started today by talking about the danger of reading a
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text the wrong way, of letting a misinterpretation start physical
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wars. But when you read it the right
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way, when you sing the new song, when you endure affliction with
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meekness, when you sing aloud upon your bed in the darkest
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hours of your life, you are doing more than just comforting
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yourself. You are.
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Leaving a legacy? You are leaving ashes from which
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new faith will sprout. So what kind of seeds are your
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Midnight songs planting for the next generation?