Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb19990919.htm

PSALMS: DIARIES OF GODLY OLD TESTAMENT SAINTS
Psalm One Hundred And Forty-Nine - Call To APPLY Our Appreciation Of God To PROMOTE His CAUSE
(Psalm 149:1-9)
  1. Introduction
    1. It is a wonderful thing for God's saints to appreciate the Lord. God is certainly worthy of our appreciation not only for what He is, but also for the great salvation He has wrought, and for the benefits he continues to provide for His own in countless ways every day!
    2. Yet, just praising God for what He means to us is only part of what we should do in expressing our appreciation of Him. The other role is to APPLY our sense of appreciation to ACTION where we promote God's causes in our deeds. Psalm 149:1-9 expounds on this theme as follows:
  2. Call To APPLY Our Appreciation Of God To PROMOTE His CAUSE, Psalm 149:1-9.
    1. The Hebrew psalmist called on his hearers to praise Jahweh, Ps. 149:1a.
    2. He urged his listeners, the people of Israel, to sing a new song in the temple assembly, rejoicing in God her Maker through various art forms and use of accompanying musical instruments, Ps. 149:1b-3.
    3. The reasons for this call to praise were twofold as follows, Ps. 149:4:
      1. God was to be praised because He took delight in His people, Ps. 149:4a.
      2. God was to be praised because He crowned the humble with salvation, Ps. 149:4b.
    4. Accordingly, the saints of Israel were to rejoice in the honor of being loved and thus saved by God, and sing to God in truth from the heart as would be seen in their singing in private in their beds, Ps. 149:5!
    5. Such appreciation for God, however, can not rightfully end with mere words, but must translate into deeds of life that promote the cause of God, cf. 1 John 3:16-18. The psalmist makes this point in verses 6-9:
      1. When Israel verbally praised God, her people were also to have double-edged swords in their hands to inflict vengeance on the godless nations around them, and to bind their leaders for sentencing, 149:6-9a.
      2. In doing such action, the saints of God in Israel would be acting honorably in God's interests, 149:9b.
      3. Though such action would be contrary to God's plan today for the Church as seen in 1 Peter 2:13-17 and Romans 13:1-8, in the psalmist's era under the dispensation of the Law, Israel's assignment from God was for her to subjugate forcibly the evil Gentiles of the land for God's glory, cf. Joshua 1:1-9.
      4. By way of the application of Church era teachings, we would do honorably as God's servants to express our appreciation of God and His goodness to us in doing the following:
        1. We believers would do honorably to show our appreciation of God and His salvation by getting involved in the worldwide discipling of the nations to be followers of Christ, Matthew 28:19-20.
        2. We believers would do honorably to show our appreciation of God and His salvation by fanning into flame and using the spiritual enabling for Christian service that each of us has been assigned of God to further the fulfillment of this Great Commission of Matthew 28, 1 Peter 4:10-11; 2 Timothy 1:6-7.
        3. We believers would do honorably to show our appreciation of God and His salvation by relating in brotherly love to fellow believers as Jesus urged us to do, for this becomes an essential part of our worldwide testimony in fulfilling th at Great Commission, cf. John 13:34-35.
        4. We believers would do honorably to show our appreciation of God and His salvation by expressing that love in acts of meeting the needs of fellow believers that we can address, 1 John 3:17-18.
Lesson: If we believers in Christ really appreciate God and what He has done for us, we are obligated to TRANSLATE that appreciation into ACTION by promoting God's interests on earth! That action mainly involves using our God-given talents and res ources to further the worldwide discipling of the nations in real, loving, tangible actions that address needs and really disciple people!

Application: We need to move out of the pew where we learn to appreciate God's goodness and grace, and where we corporately praise God for these benefits to us, and let that appreciation for the Lord spill over into actions of service in His will! As John tells us in 1 John 3:18 NIV, "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."