¹Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.

Superlative praise, extolling God ‘to the max,’ is the theme of this psalm. There is nothing meager about this kind of praise. It is the antidote to an old and tired faith. The invitation here to sing a “new song” (vs. 1) is a call experienced by many Christians who desire a freshness of spirit to counter the spiritual atrophy that so easily overtakes even the godliest of believers. The ‘Ephesian syndrome’ of lost love for Christ (Rev. 2:4) warns us to take steps to forestall a spiritual slide into a callous heart. Sing a new song to the Lord!

This new song is the music of salvation, an expression of renewed rejoicing when God saves His people from their various difficulties. We can praise the Lord when He saves a soul through Christ’s death on the cross. Rejoicing abounds over a new life no longer imprisoned by sin. We thank the Lord for songwriters and musicians who help us articulate praise with an increasing variety of melodies and expressions of joy in the Lord.

In the context of this psalm, the return of God’s people from Babylonian exile was their most salient memory. The Lord had banished them from their land and had sent them into seventy years of captivity. During that time, they could not even sing to the Lord: “We hung up our harps … How can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:2-4). Their salvation from captivity brought rejoicing and praise to the Lord.

The psalm makes repeated calls to praise the Lord using emotive language. It tells us to be glad and rejoice (vs. 2), and even to praise the Lord with dancing (vs. 3)! The Lord enjoys engaging with us when we praise exuberantly: “For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation” (vs. 4). Even amid the hardships of life, God desires our company and the fellowship of joy that comes as we praise Him.

The Hebrew word translated “dancing” in verse 3 conveys the sense of twirling, and the reference to musical instruments completes the picture of a joyful celebration of praise. The Hebrews were holistic in their outlook. They did not separate the inner thought life from the outward engagement of the body and emotions. If we jump for joy and celebrate with loud voices when our favorite sports team wins a championship, or our children receive a reward, should we not also praise the Lord with a certain amount of gusto? Let this thought dwell in our hearts for a moment: “The Lord takes pleasure in His people”! As commentator William MacDonald puts it, “As an expression of true spiritual joy and worship, the dance is acceptable to God” (BBC).

God is the author of beauty—”He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation” (vs. 4). He is the artist par excellence. The crowning touch of His magnificence is salvation. Even the broken things are made whole! Salvation is not just forensic; it is life changing. Eternal life is knowing God and Christ (John 17:3). This is why we should join with the Lord, praising him in our exuberance, with and joy (vs. 5). And we should “Let the high praise of God be in [our] mouths” (vs. 6a). This kind of praise is not a meager activity that is satisfied with only a passing grade; it is superlative, an active magnifying of the Lord on His throne (Ps. 22:3). There is no upper limit to “high praise,” no outer boundaries in making His glory known.

Extolling the Lord like this includes a recognition of His righteousness, as the last verses of this psalm suggest:

“Let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written” (vss. 6-9a).

While some may recoil at what seems, at first glance, to be an awkward appendix to an otherwise lovely and warm song of praise, we cannot ignore the promise that God will bring justice against the evil doers of the world. We worship a God who makes good on His promises of righteous judgment.

The term “two-edged sword” does not convey here the sense of “cutting both ways” as the modern idiom would suggest. Nor are there opposite sides to God’s power or character, as though He had a dark side. Instead, it graphically portrays that God’s weapons in the hands of his warriors are effective and that He will be unrelenting in dispensing justice!

Ironically, the call for justice is commonly heard in contemporary socio-political rhetoric, yet the promise that God will bring about absolute justice sounds offensive to many contemporary ears. Nonetheless, we can’t afford to limit our praise to lessen the offense taken by the world. To say, “Don’t worry about the negative stuff; just praise the Lord in a nice way” is to be unfaithful to the truth of who God is. At the end of time as we know it, God will bring judgment, whether during the millennial period or at the Great White Throne judgment prophesied in Revelation 20.

Before its final Hallelujah (“Praise the Lord”), our psalm declares that it will be a great honor for believers to partner with God in bringing judgment on the unbelieving world (see also 1 Cor 6:2). What a contrast it reveals: God takes pleasure in His people (vs. 4), but He will judge and condemn those who defy Him. In our high praise, we remember and defend God’s whole character, and we are thereby fully assured that we are rightly related to the God who loves us.

Lord, I elevate You with the highest praise. Show me more of Yourself so that Your throne in my life will be lifted even higher. You alone are worthy of it all. Praise the Lord, Hallelujah!