Can the psalmist be serious? Should God’s people really worship Him by bringing vengeance and executing judgment upon the unbelieving rulers and nations around us (verses 7-9)? This sounds more like the sort of thing that modern jihadists or medieval crusaders did. So are we supposed to follow their example, imposing our beliefs on others with a “two-edged sword” (verse 6)?

In a word, no. Instead, we need to remember that, back in Old Testament times, salvation was a whole lot more wrapped up in ethnicity than it is today. God had, after all, made His covenant promises exclusively to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob because the promised Messiah would indeed come from among their descendants. So, if you were an Israelite you were supposed to keep that covenant by worshipping God alone.

But the problem was that every other ancient nation also had their own gods and goddesses. For example, the Sidonians worshipped Ashtoreth, the Moabites worshipped Chemosh and the Ammonites worshipped Milcom and Molech (see I Kings 11:5 and 7). So, the only way to fight against such false gods was to fight the people that worshipped them.

With the coming of Christ, Jesus broke the link between ethnicity and worship by inviting both “Jew and Greek” into the covenant community. Today, we become children of God “through faith in Christ Jesus” (see Galatians 3:26-29). As such, we are called to worship God by singing His praise, and perhaps even by dancing before Him with joy (verse 3; see David’s example in II Samuel 6:14).

But if we want to demonstrate our exclusively loyalty to God, we don’t do it by taking a sword to the worshippers of false gods. Instead, as Paul points out, our weapons are no longer “of the flesh.” Now we are called to destroy “speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (II Corinthians 10:3-6). In other words, we use the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17) to cut through the fog of deception which surrounds ourselves and others, proclaiming the truth of Christ to everyone.

So, will we worship God in that way? Will we speak out against the false idols that are all around us? Will we hold one another accountable to the profession of faith which we Christians have made? And when we discover any remnants of sin within ourselves, will we be ruthless in putting it to death? We will, if we want to experience the honor and join in the praise of the godly ones (verses 1 and 9).

Psalm 149 (NASB)

Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.
2 Let Israel be glad in his Maker; Let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King.
3 Let them praise His name with dancing; Let them sing praises to Him with timbrel and lyre.
4 For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation.
5 Let the godly ones exult in glory; Let them sing for joy on 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 on the nations, And punishment 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 an honor for all His godly ones. Praise the LORD!