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Psalm 149 reads as follows in the King James Bible: [1] Praise ye the LORD. Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise in the congregation of saints. [2] Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. [3] Let them praise his name in the dance: let them sing praises unto him with the timbrel and harp. [4] For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation. [5] Let the saints be joyful in glory: let them sing aloud upon their beds. [6] Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a twoedged sword in their hand; [7] To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people; [8] To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron; [9] To execute upon them the judgment written: this honour have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This psalm is rather haunting in what it is saying. The barriers, whether they be time, space, present difficulties, or distant hopes, are transcended in this moment, when the psalmist calls to God his maker. The presence of the Lord is quite apparent, but the crossing is two way. The Lord takest pleasure in his people in this case means that he is bringing forth the highest, the grandest, the ultimate. If you could imagine a New Testament scene, where you would standing face to face with Jesus and just breathing and being conscience of your breadth and having his wondrous face before you. Verse 6 refers to the high praises and this again reverberates to what this psalm is saying, that highest levels are in the relationship is being reached, even if it’s a glimpse, it’s not a secondary glimpse but a glimpse to the highest realms. Verse 4 talks about the beautifying the meek with salvation. This beauty, as awesome as it is and maybe as faraway as it seems to be, actually breaks through into the presence of an individual who is in the beautifying presence of the Lord. This is a type of beauty that borders on the unimaginable. The later verses refer to judgment of the heathen, but the gist of this also is that the position is one of being higher, above, even the noble kings who are outside the realm of this relationship with the Lord. It says, let them sing aloud on their beds, this signifying that the Lord recognizes your voice, your particular voice and maybe even your special voice either in song or prayer. And then in pondering prayer, we might think sometimes that prayer is just giving us a faint hope of getting the smallest breakthrough. But this psalm does talk of high praises, and the prayer itself can reach the highest heights of the Lord’s presence, whether it be an individual prayer for yourself, or an intercessory prayer of any degree or magnitude. That prayer doesn’t just brush against the sky but reaches the highest realms of heaven. This is why say a prayer for a distant land or country as an example, can have the fullest magnitude in its effect, even though we don't quite see it that way. Our view, does not necessarily contemplate the reality that a prayer can reach the highest realms, and from these highest realms proceeds unimaginable power and effect because it comes from the highest realms. This is why a relatively simple prayer, from even one individual can have far reaching power and effect. One key to this psalm it to possibly rethink the reality of where prayer and praise can go. In a natural sense and a spiritual sense we may believe we could never get that far in our prayer efforts. But high praises is not low praises and from this psalm there are prayer capacities that are boundless and that can be crossed into with faith.
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