01/09/2026
Dear Friends,
We hope this week's devotional will encourage you in your spiritual walk. We give thanks to Rev. Dr. Richard Giesken for writing this devotional.
You are welcome to share this and include it in your church newsletters if you wish; we just ask that you please give credit to NTC and the author. Thank you!
Psalm 149
1 Praise the Lord.
Sing to the Lord a new song,
his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker;
let the people of Zion be glad in their King.
3 Let them praise his name with dancing
and make music to him with timbrel and harp.
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people;
hecrowns the humble with victory.
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor
and sing for joy on their beds.
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths
and a double-edged sword in their hands,
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations
and punishment on the peoples,
8 to bind their kings with fetters,
their nobles with shackles of iron,
9 to carry out the sentence written against them—
this is the glory of all his faithful people.
Praise the Lord.
DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT
We are a singing people! Singing is one of the most recognisable practices of the Christian faith, and Wesleyans particularly love to sing. Hymns, choruses, contemporary worship, you name it, we’ll sing it!
Psalm 149 encourages us: “Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.” But a new song is more than simply a song we haven't sung before. In Scripture, new songs arise because God is still at work. New mercies demand new praise. Psalm 149 is full of this celebration. Sing! Rejoice! Dance! Make music! But then it takes a surprising turn: “May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands.”Wait, what? I am used to having a song in my mouth. I am considerably less comfortable carrying a double-edged sword in my hand, especially during worship!
Perhaps the image should jar us. Human history contains far too many examples of religious people praising God while taking up weapons against those they believed to be God's enemies. But look at where the Psalm takes us. Kings and powers that oppose God's justice are brought down, while the humble are lifted up. This is about the world being put right, about God's righteousness and justice being established.
When we sing that Christ is Lord, we declare that injustice is not. When we sing of God's kingdom, we declare that the powers of this world will not have the final word. And as followers of Jesus, we read even the sword through the cross. Jesus does not build his kingdom by destroying his enemies, but by loving them, even laying down his life for them.
So keep singing, but let our songs become more than a song. Let our worship become justice, our praise become mercy, and our hymns become lives of holiness. Praise becomes powerful when the song in our mouths is matched with the life of Christ in our hands.
May that be our new song until his kingdom reigns forever and ever. Amen.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, put a new song in our mouths and your love in our hands. May our worship become justice, our praise become mercy, and our lives make your kingdom visible. Amen.
