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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. Psalm 149 (King James Version, Cambridge, 1769) | ||||
Elements of our salvation: | ||||
Psalm 149:1-3 | ||||
Joyful praise and worship with music and dance (this is how we enter into His presence). | ||||
Psalm 149:4-5 | ||||
God does the following three things for His people. | ||||
1) He takes pleasure (delight - NIV) in us. | ||||
2) He beautifies (crowns - NIV) us with salvation. | ||||
3) He gives us joy, as we partake of His glory. | ||||
Psalm 149:6 | ||||
God gives us the following tools and weapons to carry out the great commission. | ||||
1) He causes us to proclaim His glory, through the high praises of our mouth (the creative power of the tongue). | ||||
2) He gave us His living Word, which is the two-edged Sword of the Spirit. He also gave us the authority to use His Word. | ||||
Psalm 149:7-9 | ||||
This is what the weapon of prayer accomplishes in the spiritual realm. | ||||
1) Prayer executes (inflicts - NIV) vengeance and punishment, upon the demonic forces of wickedness (heathen and people). These are the demonic foot soldiers, the front line warriors (the lowest ranking or considered to be the expendable part of the battle group). It is poor military strategy to expose the higher-ranking warriors (kings, nobles, generals, commanders, and captains) to the heat of the battle. It is no different in the kingdom of darkness. Since the devil is not omnipresent, he is not able to attack each of us directly, but he uses these front line demonic foot soldiers to do his dirty work. | ||||
2) Prayer reaches deep into enemy territory and binds powers and principalities (kings and nobles), in chains (shackles - NIV) and fetters of iron. Note: In ancient times, invading armies usually killed the soldiers and enslaved the kings and nobles, to humiliate them. This makes the enemy completely ineffective, because the rulers of darkness can no longer operate. | ||||
3) It carries out God's judgment (sentence - NIV) against those demonic forces and the powers and principalities. Psalm 149:9 calls this the honor (glory - NIV) of the saints. Jesus has given us authority over all the power of the devil, yet we should not glory in this, but that our names are written in the kingdom of heaven. | ||||
Questions: | ||||
What is God's judgment or sentence, which we execute through the power of prayer? | ||||
God's ultimate judgment upon the spiritual forces of wickedness is to condemn them to the lake of fire, for eternity. We know that hell was created for the devil and his angels. Many times, when Jesus confronted demonic forces, they would call out, "have you come to torment us before our time?" Another aspect of God's judgment is binding up the strong man (kings and nobles). When two or more of us gather in the name of Jesus, to pray, He is in our midst, and demons will be tormented and the strong man will be bound. This is irrefutable; it has to happen, for we are acting under God's authority. | ||||
Why does the devil flee when we get wise to his tactics (when wickedness is exposed), and resist him (after drawing near to God)? | ||||
First of all, drawing near to God is way of saying that we are in His presence or in prayer. We can't even hope to resist the devil any other way or under any other circumstances. So when we are in God's presence and we take our stand against the devil, he greatly fears the judgment that will be released against him, if he doesn't flee. The devil knows we are commissioned to execute God's judgment against him and he doesn't want us to know that. So, in other words, the devil flees to escape torment and he fears being bound in chains. | ||||
Why does it often seem difficult to pray or to press into the presence of God? | ||||
Prayer is difficult because the devil doesn't want us to be focused on the 'Author and Finisher' of our faith. The devil will do anything to escape being tormented, so he tries to keep us preoccupied with other things. | ||||