Bible Commentaries
Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible
Psalms 149
CXLIX. A Song of Triumph and Messianic Expectation.—Obviously this Ps. depicts a stage in the Maccabean war. It is addressed to "the assembly of the saints," the Hasidim of Psalms 4:3. The heroes whom the Ps. celebrates are "meek" (Psalms 149:4) towards God, but they fight fiercely. "The praises of God are in their mouth and a two-edged sword in their hands"—an admirable description of the Maccabean times, but unsuitable to any other period in Jewish history known to us. Maccabean also, though not exclusively Maccabean, is the confident belief that Israel will rule over all the world: it is the same belief which finds impressive utterance in the Book of Daniel, though there the victory is given immediately by God, here it is to be won by the sword of the saints. The Ps. falls into two divisions. In Psalms 149:1-5 we hear the music and song, we see the dance after victory won. Such is the joy of the saints in Yahweh "their King." Even when the exhausting day is over and pious souls lie down to rest, the triumphal song is still on their lips. In Psalms 149:6-9 the vista of future conquest opens out before us. Israel is to punish and crush other nations. God has long ago set down in His book the vengeance which is to overtake the heathen: now He will carry it out. The Jewish notion of "meekness" is very different from that which Christians hold, or at least profess to hold.
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