Psalm 149

1 Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.
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 tambourine and harp.
4 For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.
5 Let the saints 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 saints. Praise the LORD.


The theme in this psalm can easily be summarized in one word; praise. I thought it would be interesting to do a word study on the word praise. One of the definitions I found for the word praise was "to express approval or admiration of." Then I decided to look up the word admiration and I found this:

"1. a feeling of wonder, pleasure, or approval.
2. the act of looking on
or contemplating with pleasure: admiration of fine paintings.
3. an object of wonder, pleasure, or approval: The dancer was the admiration of
everyone.
4 Archaic. wonder; astonishment."

What does it mean to stand in astonishment of God? Here is what I found:

"1. overpowering wonder or surprise; amazement: He looked with astonishment at his friends.
2. an object or cause of amazement."

Then I decided to look up the word amazement and it said "overwhelming surprise or astonishment."


I realized a common theme in the definitions and that was that it was a strong feeling of wonder. When looking up the synonyms for the word wonder I found the following:

"conjecture, meditate, ponder, question. marvel. surprise, astonishment, amazement, bewilderment, awe."



I know that was a lot of definitions but I know I have heard the word praise so many times that i rarely take the chance to even think about what that means anymore. We need to all take more time out of our day to praise God for the things He has done.

I love how this psalm starts out with singing a new song to the Lord! Find a new song to refresh your heart's focus on the Lord today.