Outline of Chapter 149:

An Introduction to Psalm 149

         Inscription            Psalm 149 Inscription

         vv.     1–

vv.

Psalm 149 Addendum

Charts, Short Doctrines and Maps:

         Introduction 

         Inscription 

         v.

         Addendum          A Complete Translation of Psalm 149

An Introduction to Psalm 149

I ntroduction: Psalm 149

On a personal note, I never know what is going to happen when I examine a psalm or this or that chapter of Scripture. For instance, because of some circumstances I was in, I read and reread this psalm and that one which follows several times. It just seemed thin. What could I say? It seemed like simply a devotional psalm, possibly one which would be sung at a coronation or a special event. When beginning a psalm such as this, one never knows where it is going to go. What I fear more than anything else is covering a chapter of Scripture and not having anything substantive to say. The second greatest worry is picking up a chapter like Psalm 68 and being almost completely baffled, verse after verse after verse.

Here is how others have handled this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Praise Yah!

Sing to Y^ehowah a song new;

His praise in an assembly of gracious ones.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              <<Alleluia.>> Sing to the Lord a new song: his praise is in the assembly of the saints.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Shout praises to the LORD! Sing him a new song of praise when his loyal people meet.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Praise the LORD! Sing a new song to the LORD; praise him in the assembly of his faithful people!

The Message                         .

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let the Lord be praised. Make a new song to the Lord, let his praise be in the meeting of his saints.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

Easy English (Churchyard)    Hallelujah!

Sing a new song to the LORD.

Praise him where his people meet together.

God’s Word™                         Hallelujah! Sing a new song to the LORD. Sing his praise in the assembly of godly people.

HCSB                                     .

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly!

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     Praise Jehovah! Sing to Jehovah a new song, His praise in the congregation of saints.

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      .

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young’s Updated LT             Praise you Jah! Sing you to Jehovah a new song, His praise in an assembly of saints.

What is the gist of this verse? There is a call to sing to Jehovah a new song, and one which would be sung in praise of Him in the midst of His assembled grace oriented types (that is, mature believers).

Translation: Praise Yah! Psalms 146–150 all begin with Praise Yah (Yah being an abbreviated form of YHWH in the Old Testament). The psalms previous to this were written by David and there is no reason to suppose that David did not write these as well.

I don’t know if David was, at some time or another, struck with the desire to write psalms which praise God for various things, but that is essentially what we have in these final 5 psalms. These 5 psalms begin and end with this phrase.

Translation: Sing a new song to Y^ehowah;... I must admit that I don’t know what this means to sing a new song to Jehovah, apart from this being a recently written song by David. I would guess that possibly we are entering into a new era of some sort.

Translation:...[sing] His praise within the [gathered] assembly of grace orientated types. We do not have a verb in this portion of the verse, although it appears to be separate from what has come before. For this reason, I have inserted to imperative sing, as this fits well with the gist of v. 1c.

The assembly here refers not to a mob, but a very well-organized assembly of believers. It is suggested that this psalm may have been written and sung at the time that the Ark was being carried into Jerusalem. In this case, it is clear by the historical account that the crowd was very well-organized.

The final term is pious ones, which conveys a lot of goofy principals ranging from self righteousness to monasticism. I believe that the thing which is being conveyed is, we are speaking of mature believers, which is well-represented with the term grace orientated types.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Rejoices Israel in your Makers;

sons of Zion leap for joy in their king.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; and let the children of Sion exult in their king.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       People of Israel, rejoice because of your Creator. People of Zion, celebrate because of your King.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Be glad, Israel, because of your Creator; rejoice, people of Zion, because of your king!.

The Message                         Let all Israel celebrate their Sovereign Creator, Zion's children exult in their King.

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let Israel have joy in his maker; let the children of Zion be glad in their King.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         Let Israel find joy in their creator. Let the people of Zion rejoice over their king.

HCSB                                     Let Israel celebrate its Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King.

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      Let Israel rejoice in him who made them. Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young's Updated LT              Israel rejoices in his Maker, Sons of Zion joy in their king.

What is the gist of this verse? Israel rejoices in her Creators [this is plural in the Hebrew] and the sons of Zion (essentially equivalent to Israel), dance to celebrate their king.

Translation: Israel rejoices in its Creators;... This is an unusal thing to find—maker, creator, the one who fashios or prepares is a masculine plural, Qal active participle. I don’t know that any translation so renders this participle (participles often function as nouns). The masculine singular suffix refers back to Israel. Just as Jesus Christ created the heavens and the earth along with God the Father and the Holy Spirit (Gen. 1:1–2, 26–27 John 1:3), we have the reference to the Triune Creator here as well.

Is there a masculine dual, Qal active participle?

Translation: ...the sons of Zion leap in joy in their King. I think that there is a certain poetry here; the previous portion of this verse had a masculine singular subject with a masculine plural indirect object. Here, we have a masculine plural subject followed by a masculine singular indirect object.

The sons of Zion certain refer to Israel, but I believe that they are the mature believers of Israel, connected with Zion in order to indicate their connection with Jesus Christ, Who will rule from Zion.

David seems to recognize the importance of Zion, because he mentions it so often in his psalms. Now, I have stayed at some very nice places from time to time, and enjoy where I live very much. However, you are not necessarily going to find these geographical areas mentioned periodically in what I write. David is different here; he mentions Zion often; and God the Holy Spirit allows this. Obviously, there is great significance with Mount Zion.

In covering previous psalms, I have pointed this out, but just in case you have not examined the my exegesis of a previous psalm, let me give you a brief rundown. David personally, as a man, selects Zion as a place from where God would rule forever (well, for the Millennium). Do you grasp how significant this is? God allows one of His creatures to choose the place from whence Jesus Christ would rule during the Millennium. Quite frankly, I do not even understand the full significance of this myself, but the idea that God will go along with the free will of one of His creatures to such a degree is mind-boggling to me.

The indirect object is their King. Quite obviously, David could be referring to himself (the capitalized King is my doing; there is no way to capitalize in the Hebrew, and the original Greek manuscripts were apparently written in all caps. Certainly, David was a very popular king, at least in the very beginning, and there was indeed some celebration concerning his becoming king. Furthermore, it is possible that this psalm is sung at the celebration of his coronation over all Israel. However, David, although his psalms can be quite personal, does not seem to toot his own horn all that much; he does not seem to glorify himself over and over again. Now, there are incidents in his life which were pretty impressive, and I suspect that David was the author who wrote down most of all of these incidents. His killing of Goliath was spectacular. However, it is presented factually, historically, without making a big deal out of David himself. Similarly, when the women celebrated David’s military victories, they sang about Saul killing his thousands, and David his tens of thousands. Again, this is not David tooting his own horn, because this was a set up to explain Saul’s jealousy and anger towards David.

Furthermore, David’s shortcomings are portrayed as objectively and unabashedly as his successes. At no time do we find him rationalizaing away his horrendous behavior; at no time are we given any sort of justification for David’s great sins. In fact, interestingly enough, one of David’s greatest sins is presented without even giving us a full explanation as to why it was a sin.

My point in all of this is, although we might want to interpret this as a reference to David being celebrated as the king over all Israel; I think that this better applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, Who will rule from Zion in the Millennium. Whatever celebration David enjoyed, it will pall in comparison between the celebration which will occur after the Tribulation and at the beginning of the Millennium, when our Lord rules over all mankind.

Again, let me remind you of the plural indirect object in the first part of our verse and the masculine singular indirect object in the second part of our verse. The Triune God is presented as the Creator; all members of the Trinity taking part in the creation and restoration of the earth. However, when it comes to God ruling over the earth in the Millennium, this particular task is always assigned to Jesus Christ. Obviously, there will be a knowledge of God throughout the earth and the function of the Holy Spirit will be clear and universal to all believers; but only one member of the Trinity is said to reign over this earth, and that is Jesus Christ; hence, the masculine singular indirect object.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       They will praise His name in dancing;

in a timbrel and a lyre, they sing to Him.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              .

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Praise his name by dancing and playing music on harps and tambourines.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Praise his name with dancing; play drums and harps in praise of him.

The Message                         Let them praise his name in dance; strike up the band and make great music!

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let them give praise to his name in the dance: let them make melody to him with instruments of brass and corded instruments of music.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         Let them praise his name with dancing. Let them make music to him with tambourines and lyres.

HCSB                                     .

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             Let them praise his name with dancing!

Let them sing praises to him to the accompaniment of the tambourine and harp!

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         Let them praise his name in the dance. Let them sing praises to him with timbrel and harp.

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!.

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             .

Young's Literal Translation     They praise His name in a dance, With timbrel and harp sing praise to Him.

Young's Updated LT              .

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: They praise His name with dancing;... This verse, in part, contributes to the idea that David wrote this psalm for the moving of the Ark. As you have seen in the previously-given translations, many translators render this as a 3^rd person imperative; however, this is an imperfect.

Now, the method of praising God is quite interesting: they dance in celebration to God. This I find fascinating. However, God designed our bodies to be able to do a number of things, and many people, when happy, like to move about to express this. I hesitate to call this dancing in some situations, but there are those who are skilled in this art and they are very pleasant to observe. They are able both to enjoy the movement of their own bodies and to praise God at the same time.

Translation: ...they will makr music [and sing] to Him with tambourines and hand-held harps. Celebrations to God also involve a variety of musical instruments and singing.

Application: Because of Paul’s remarks about our body of sin, this has been misinterpreted to mean that our physical bodies are somehow evil and that true joy and peace will be achieved when we are able to get rid of our physical bodies. This is an idea from Plato, but not from the Bible. Our bodies are surely corrupt; we have an old sin nature which corrupts our bodies and our thinking; however, our bodies apart from the sin nature are not corrupt or inherently evil. Nor does celebration of God and His character mandate that our bodies not be involved in any way. Dancing and singing and making music can be activities which we find to be very moving and exhilarating; this can be associated wtih praising God and with making music to Him (it, can like all other activities, be corrupted as well). Now, personally, I tend to be fairly cerebral; however, even in my cerebral nature, I recognize that over and over again, there are verses like this in Scripture which indicate that our bodies as well as our souls can be involved is the worship of Jesus Christ.

Application: God designed marriage, family and sex as well. It is legitimate to celebrate your marriage and love with sex; it is legitimate to enjoy this intimacy.

Application: You are a follower of Jesus Christ, Who created your body; you are not a follower of Plato who reviled the body as evil. Therefore, there are a number of activities which involve your body which are legitimate and glorify God. There are boundaries, and these are generally laid out in Scripture. For some, playing sports are tremendously enjoyable; and it is legitimate to be involved in sports and the function of your body in a sport can be both legitimate and it can glorify God. So, when you read Paul saying something about your body of sin; don’t forget that he also wrote, Glorify God in your body. God also tells us Our bodies are wonderfully made (see Psalm 139:14, in context).

Application: I keep taking this out on a tangent, but this is extremely important: God has gone to a great deal of trouble to design our bodies and to design the reproductive process. Even if our souls are not fully a part of our bodies when in the womb, this does not make the body of a fetus just a mass of cells like a tumor, which life can be terminated at any time for any reason. At the recommendation of an online friend, I recently studied a series of lessons on the origin of the soul by Robby Dean (Hebrews lessons #84–91; see www.deanbible.org), and he picks up, to some extent, where Bob Thieme Jr. left off. Although Bob taught correctly that God imputes life at birth, that concept, combined with Platonist thought, gives us the incorrect notion or incorrect application that abortion is no big deal. It is a big deal. The formation of the body within the body of the mother is by design of God. There is no indication in Scripture that God has given us the right to interfere with that process. God has also given us mandates concerning human life; so, this allows us to consider the life of the mother more to be more important than the life of the fetus; however, this does not give us the right to destroy the life of the fetus merely for the convenience of the life of the mother.

Now let’s come back to our topic: we can celebrate and praise God using our bodies; our bodies may be used in worship. This does not refer to mindless acts or to pagan rituals; the soul must be a part of the worship as well. A simple example: the Eucharist (the Lord’s Supper) is a tradition which may be followed without any thought. We can eat the bread and drink of the unfermented wine without a single thought in our heads; and such a ritual is meaningless. Our worship of God in our bodies also requires us to have our souls engaged. Music with lyrics which reinforces doctrine or teaches doctrine is what we need; music where we simply say, “Praise God” 50 times has much less spiritual impact (if any).

Application: A friend of mine once questioned the idea that we praise or glorify God, and that God demands such actions from us. He saw God as a megalomaniac who needed, somehow, this praise to feed His gigantic ego. Or, more accurately, God of the Bible did not necessarily exist and that this was somehow man projecting his own ego into Scripture and superimposing it upon God. When a fellow human being does something which we recognize as great or if we hear a fellow human being say something which stirs our soul, it is not uncommon for us to spontaneous clap, glorifying that person. I’ve watched inspiring movies, and I have observed those in the theater break out into spontaneous clapping at the end, in appreciation for the film and its message. Now think about the human body—what could be more deserving of praise than such a creation? We barely understand the most basic functions of the human body. We are not even able to determine the function of all of the organs (creationism tells us that all of our organs have a purpose; evolution tells us that many of our organs are vestigial; that is, they once had a purpose, but no longer do they have a real purpose in our bodies). As we learn more and more about our human bodies, those organs which we once classified as being vestigial are being understood to have real and important functions today in our bodies. Furthermore, our understanding of the body and all that it does is quite superficial, and we can only duplicate with any degree of equivalence, only the most basic parts of the body (such as the lens of the eye for a cataract patient). We cannot duplicate the hand or even a finger. The complex wiring between our brains and our hands is beyond our ability to completely understand or to duplicate. The most advanced and expensive artificial limbs are far removed from the actual thing. So, if you are going to heap praise upon a scientist who develops an artificial limb, how much more should you praise the God who made the real thing?

Application: The most important aspect of our life is the redemption of our bodies and souls. Personally, I have chosen again and again to disobey God, to sin, to know what is right, and then to do just the opposite, consciously and with full understanding of the bad choices which I would make. I deserve punishment and, if I was able to understand things from the viewpoint of God’s absolute clarity, I would fully understand that I deserve to be tossed into the Lake of Fire. I acknowledge my sin and my open rebellion; and just as I would thank a person who did the most minor thing to me (bring me a gallon of gas while stopped by my car at the side of the road), how much more should I recognize and acknowledge God and the redemptive work of His Son? How much more should I praise God for taking the penalty which I fully deserve for my arrogant and rebellious choices? Ho much more should I praise God for His plan, the incredible details of my life which He worked out in eternity past, anticipating my every mistake and the occasional spiritual victory which I enjoy?

Application: Therefore, it is not that I need to stroke God’s ego with my praise and recognition of what He has done; but that I should recognize and acknowledge what He has done through the doctrine in my soul; that if anyone deserves gratitude, recognition and appreciation for what he has done for me, no one is more deserving than God.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text 

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; and will exalt the meek with salvation.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       The LORD is pleased with his people, and he gives victory to those who are humble.

Good News Bible (TEV)         The LORD takes pleasure in his people; he honors the humble with victory.

The Message                         And why? Because GOD delights in his people, festoons plain folk with salvation garlands!.

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             For the Lord has pleasure in his people: he gives the poor in spirit a crown of salvation.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         ...because the LORD takes pleasure in his people. He crowns those who are oppressed with victory.

HCSB                                     .

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             For the LORD takes delight in his people;

he exalts the oppressed by delivering them.

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      For the LORD takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation.

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     For Jehovah takes pleasure in His people; He beautifies the meek with salvation.

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      For Yahweh takes pleasure in his people. He crowns the humble with salvation.

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young's Updated LT              For Jehovah is pleased with His people, He beautifies the humble with salvation.

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: For Y^ehowah is delighted with His people;... God love His own people. In the context of this psalm, we are probably referring to Jews who have believe in Him. However, by application, this surely applies to all believers. For those who have a child who does well in a play, a musical recital, a football game or a spelling bee, we take pride in this and we are delighted with our child. Now, although God does not necessarily have the same sort of emotions as we do, we are told here that He delights in His people. Quite frankly, I do not know exactly how far to take this understanding. I do not completely understand God’s emotional makeup, if He has such a thing. I have been recently working on the project of adding a few rooms to my house and some of the work I have done myself. Now, periodically, I enjoy and take pleasure in going up to see what I have done and the ideas which I have brought to fruition, either directly or through a friend who does the things which require skill. I do not know exactly how God’s emotional makeup works nor do I even know if He has an emotional makeup. However, I do know that we are made in God’s image and that we have emotions within our souls (corrupt as it is); I would assume that there is some similar counterpart in God, although I would find it difficult to categorize whatever emotion God has or how it functions. I would think that, in some way, He appreciates and enjoys His creation and what He has done, just as most of us, when creating something wonderful or doing something impressive, that we appreciate what we have done.

Translation: ...He bestows salvation upon the poor [and afflicted]. Although the direct object here appears to refer to those who are impoverished, I think this ought to be understood spiritually. When thinking about a person who is truly poor, in dire circumstances, we think of those who have no ability to change their circumstances; we think of those who are unable, for one reason or another, to change their lives from poverty to prosperity (increasingly, in American, a country greatly blessed by God, there are fewer and fewer of such types). God takes us, who are spiritually impoverished—who can do nothing ourselves to change our conditions, and He adorns us with His salvation; He takes us out of a place of great spiritual poverty and elevates us to eternal fellowship with Him, able to enjoy great riches in this life as well as in the next.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Rejoice gracious ones in glory;

they shout for joy upon their beds.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              The saints shall rejoice in glory; and shall exult on their beds.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       All of you faithful people, praise our glorious Lord! Celebrate and worship.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Let God's people rejoice in their triumph and sing joyfully all night long.

The Message                         Let true lovers break out in praise, sing out from wherever they're sitting.

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             Let the saints have joy and glory: let them give cries of joy on their beds.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     Let the godly celebrate in triumphal glory; let them shout for joy on their beds.

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             Let the godly rejoice because of their vindication!

Let them shout for joy upon their beds!

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     Let the saints be joyful in glory; let them sing aloud on their beds.

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      Let the saints rejoice in honor. Let them sing for joy on their beds.

Young's Literal Translation     Exult do saints in honour, They sing aloud on their beds.

Young's Updated LT              .

Now, my first reading of this verse threw me for a loop; what is the deal with us singing aloud or praising God from our beds? So there is no misunderstanding, I don’t read this verse in the English and immediately understand exactly what is being communicated; and, even after exegeting this verse in the Hebrew, I may not fully understand what the psalmist has in mind. However, from first glance, this strikes me as being an unusual thing to write.

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: Grace orientated types rejoice with honor [and prosperity?];... Those who are grace orientated are mature believers. We rejoice in honor and abundance in all that God does.

Translation: ...they shout for joy [when] upon their beds. We celebrate God’s great blessings from all places; even from our beds. Now, I do not know exactly how this fits into the context of this psalm or if this speaks of a man and a woman celebrating God blessing their marriage from their bed.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       Celebrations of God in their throat

and a sword of sharp-edges in their hand.

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              The high praises of God shall be in their throat, and two–edged swords in their hands;...

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Praise God with songs on your lips and a sword in your hand.

Good News Bible (TEV)         Let them shout aloud as they praise God, with their sharp swords in their hands...

The Message                         Shout the high praises of God, brandish their swords in the wild sword-dance--...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             .

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     .

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             May they praise God

while they hold a two-edged sword in their hand,...

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         The high praises of God [are] in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand.

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      May the high praises of God be in their mouths, and a two-edged sword in their hand;....

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young's Updated LT              The exaltation of God is in their throat, and a two-edged sword in their hand.

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: In their throat [is] a celebration of God... I am a little thrown by this. It is unclear to me whether this praise or celebration of God is shared with others or whether it is stuck in the throat? Most of the times when we find a statement like this, it is associated with the lips or the mouth; I don’t quite understand why the association here with the throat. It could simply be poetic license, referring to the vocal cords; and they are located closer to the throat than to the mouth.

Translation: ...and in their hand [is] a two-edged sword. We may desire to present this as the Word of God, as it is called a two-edge sword elsewhere, but this may possibly just mean a sharp sword. Furthermore, the next verse seems to indicate that we are speaking of an actual sword, and not the Word of God.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       ...to do vengeance in the Gentiles

chastening in the peoples;,..

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              ...to execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments among the peoples;...

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Take revenge and punish the nations...

Good News Bible (TEV)         .

The Message                         A portent of vengeance on the God-defying nations, a signal that punishment's coming,...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             To give the nations the reward of their sins, and the peoples their punishment;...

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         ...to take vengeance on the nations, to punish the people of the world,...

HCSB                                     ...inflicting vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,...

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             ...in order to take9 revenge on the nations,

and punish foreigners.

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      ...to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples,...

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                                      To execute vengeance on the nations, and punishments on the peoples;...

Young's Literal Translation     ...to do vengeance among nations, punishments among the peoples.

Young's Updated LT              .

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: ...to exact vengeance against the Gentiles,... People—particularly heathen who are opposed to God—despise passages like this. God used the nation Israel to chastise other nations, and, in some extreme cases, to completely destroy a nation or group. Such people even more despise the idea of applying this passage to today. However, God has used Godly nations, even in modern times, to chastise other nations today.

The kinds of nations which Israel destroyed in the past were those which were evil; such nations practiced child sacrifice on their own children. The Bible does not go into much depth when it comes to giving us rationalizations for Israel’s hand in such genocides; it often simply stated the facts and let it go at that. Archeology has told us that these nations practiced child sacrifice. They had statues of Molech which had its arms outstretched, and these arms would be heated to a very high temperature, and then these people who lay their very own infants—their babies—onto Molech’s arms, to suffer a horrible death, possibly at the hands of their very own parents. This is complete and total degeneracy when a nation is willing to sacrifice its own children to some heathen god or gods.

Application: We have nations like this today who practice their own form of child sacrifice. They strap bombs onto their very own children, to kill their children and to make a political statement. These Muslim groups particularly attack other Muslim people, intentionally killing other Muslim children. They broadcast cartoons with the intention of brainwashing their own children to hate Jews and to hate Americans; and to glorify suicide bombers. The result is, we have a generation of very young children who have been brainwashed to, at some point in their lives, to offer themselves up as human sacrifices in order to kill innocent people—often those who share their same faith. Our media, for the most part, ignores this, will not acknowledge that these things are occurring, and we have politicians who believe that we can talk to these enemies of ours and reason with them. When you are taught from age 2 or 3 that Jews comes from pigs and monkeys, and that the greatest thing that you can do is kill Jews or kill Americans, and that your purpose in life is to give your life in order to take out a number of Jews or Americans; there is no reasoning with that. When this next generation of Muslims grow up in the Middle East, they will make our present enemies look tame by comparison.

Application: God uses nations like America to deal with these nations which fall deeply into evil. This does not mean that various religious presidents pray to God and God speaks audibly to them and tells them to go kill some Arabs. Some foolish propagandists try to portray President Bush like this; and, at the same time, portray Islam as being simply a religion which is no better or no worse than Christianity. You point out acts of Islamic extremism to them, and they counter with what about the Crusades? They do not seem to grasp that, if you have to go back ten or so centuries to find any sort of an analogy, that means there is no true moral equivalence between Christianity and Islam. George W. Bush early on in his presidency recognized the violence and viciousness of our enemies, and understood that, since we are not attacked by specific nations that we must return fire to nations which support terrorism. He has approached both Afghanistan and Iraq very methodically, attempting to root out the evil within these two nations. History will decide whether this was prudent or whether we should have simply leveled one or two nations in the Middle East. However, he fully understood the importance of doing something, and, at least at the beginning, he had the support of Congress and of the American people. Now, on a bad day, some liberals (many of whom voted in favor of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan) refer to these wars as Bush’s war; but President Bush seems to be very single-minded in his approach, despite the inner conflicts he has no doubt felt. However, my point is, God has used the United States to deal with nations like this. God used the United States to deal with Adolf Hitler and with godless Communism.

Application: If you are concerned about the United States going down as a nation, look for these things: (1) a lack of support for Israel; (2) anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts; (3) reduced evangelism and missionary activity; and (4) fewer military conflicts (or, no military conflicts) with nations which represent evil to the world. With regards to the latter, you might be concerned that we wage war with other nations simply because of their religion. This is not the case. Nations who reject Jesus Christ will, in some way or another, become extremely antagonistic toward us. It is the nature of the beast. We, on the one hand, enjoy great prosperity and power; and if the world voted on where they wanted to live, the United States would win hands down, even by some of her enemies. But with this power and prosperity comes responsibility, as well as antagonism from those who hate Jesus Christ, the God Who made them.

Application: We have politicians who speak about peace in our time and world peace; and people who do so as well. However, we will never experience peace. If we were to withdraw out military troops and interests throughout the world, whatever remained would be attacked, and within a decade, we would be directly attacked. It is the nature of the beast and the nature of this world. Israel was a nation ruled by God; but this did not mean that Israel enjoyed a life without conflict and without receving hatred from other nations. Even today, the nation Israel is hated by dozens of nations around it, with some threatening to destroy it completely. Again, it is the nature of the beast; it is the reality of this life; it is how this world is. No matter what we do—and no matter what Israel does—there will be hatred and conflict.

Application: We are in the midst of the Angelic Conflict. We are being shown and the angels are being shown, the end results of disobeying God. God is allowing to play out, in a number of different historical settings, His allowing of sin to coexist in this world. God is allowing us to observe and the angels to observe what happens when sin is not immediately punished; when rebellion is tolerated; and how much pain and suffering results from rebellion against God. Satan sinned, was dealt with judiciously, but his sentence was not carried out. When Satan observed the restoration of the earth, it was not something he could simply let go. He could not simply retire to some other corner of the universe and let God create; Satan had to go on the offensive. All of the incredible pain and suffering in this world can be traced back to Satan and his tempting and deceiving of the woman. When human history is over, God’s justice, righteousness and love will be clear; the need to judge and punish sin will be clear.

Translation: ...a reproof [or, chastening] against the nations,... We continue with the same theme. God uses Israel as an instrument to judge the heathen nations. If we pay attention to current events, we will see that God will continue to use His people as instruments of His judgment and control.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       ...to bind their kings in chains

and their honored ones in shackles of iron;...

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              ...to bind their kings with fetters, and their nobles with manacles of iron;...

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Put chains of iron on their kings and rulers.

Good News Bible (TEV)         .

The Message                         Their kings chained and hauled off to jail, their leaders behind bars for good,...

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             To put their kings in chains, and their rulers in bands of iron;...

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     ...binding their kings with chains and their dignitaries with iron shackles,...

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             .

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         ...to bind their kings with chains, and their ranking men with fetters of iron,...

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     ...to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with iron bands;...

MKJV                                     .

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             .

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young's Updated LT              ...to bind their kings with chains, and their honoured ones with fetters of iron,...

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: ...to bind their kings in chains,... There are some evil societies, and their kings need to be bound in chains. This does not mean that the fault is all the king’s; but that he does bear some responsibility.

Translation: ...and their dignitaries with iron shackles;... There are those in a society who are those who are honored by that society; if this society is evil, whom they hold in high regard are evil, and they need to be put into chains.

Here is how others have translated this verse:

Ancient texts:

Dead Sea Scrolls                   .

Latin Vulgate                          .

Masoretic Text                       ...to do in them a judgment which is written;

a majesty this to all His gracious ones.

Praise Yah!

Peshitta                                  .

Septuagint                              ...to execute on them the judgment written [transcribed in the Scriptures]: this honour have all his saints.

Significant differences: 

Thought-for-thought translations; paraphrases:

CEV                                       Punish them as they deserve; this is the privilege of God's faithful people. Shout praises to the LORD!

Good News Bible (TEV)         .

The Message                         The judgment on them carried out to the letter --and all who love God in the seat of honor! Hallelujah!

New American Bible              .

New Jerusalem Bible             .

New Living Testament           .

Revised English Bible            .

Mostly literal renderings (with some occasional paraphrasing):

Bible in Basic English             To give them the punishment which is in the holy writings: this honour is given to all his saints. Praise be to the Lord.

Complete Apostles’ Bible      .

Complete Jewish Bible           .

God’s Word™                         .

HCSB                                     ...carrying out the judgment decreed against them. This honor is for all His godly people. Hallelujah!

JPS (Tanakh)                         .

NET Bible®                             ...and execute the judgment to which their enemies have been sentenced.

All his loyal followers will be vindicated.

Praise the LORD!

New International Version      .

The Scriptures 1998              .

Literal, almost word-for-word, renderings:

The Amplified Bible                .

Albert Barnes (revised)          .

A Conservative Version         .

Updated Emphasized Bible    .

English Standard Version      .

Hebrew Names Version         .

Keil and Delitzsch (revised)   .

KJV (Scofield)                        .

King James 2000 Version      .

LTHB                                     .

MKJV                                     ...to carry out on them the judgment written; this is an honor for all His saints. Praise Jehovah!

NASB                                     .

New King James Version       .

NRSV                                     .

Owen's Translation                .

Updated Bible Version 2.11   .

A Voice in the Wilderness      .

WEB                             .

Young's Literal Translation     .

Young’s Updated LT             ...to do among them the judgment written, An honour it is for all His saints. Praise Jah!

What is the gist of this verse? .

Translation: ...to execute the judgment which stands written against them;... In Scripture, on occasion, there were nations whom God had judged and whom God had inspired writers of Scripture to write about and to prophesy against. However, God has decreed judgment in time against a huge number of nations and peoples, so that we are speaking here of God’s judgment against any nation or group of people. God uses His own people and sometimes other groups of people to execute His judgment against reprobates.

Translation: ...this [is] an honor to all of His grace orientated types When it comes to executing God’s judgement against His enemies, it is an honor which is occasionally enjoyed by God’s grace-oriented types. I think the idea that this is an honor to all of God’s grace oriented types is, it is an honor to all of those who execute this judgment. I should hope that it is obvious that there are some people who believe in Jesus Christ who never once are involved in God’s plan, apart from being saved in the first place.

Translation: Praise Yah! Like all of the other 4 psalms at the end of the Psalms, this one begins and ends with Praise Yah! This suggests to me that we may find a parallelism throughout this psalm. I recall running into the same words from time to time, so that may be a key to its organization.

Psalm 149 Addendum