Pastor Fredo Ramos: Psalm 149. Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song. Sing his praises in the assembly of the faithful. Oh Israel, rejoice in your maker.
Oh people of Jerusalem, exalt in your king. Praise his name with dancing accompanied by a tambourine and a harp for the Lord delights in his people. He crowns the humble with victory that the faithful rejoice that he honors them. Let them sing for joy as they lie on their beds. Let the praises of God be in their mouths and a sharp sword in their hands to execute vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples to bind their kings with shackles and their leaders with iron chains to execute the judgment written against them.
This is the glorious privilege of his faithful ones. Praise the Lord. By way of reflection, again, we continue through these last five Psalms with an invitation to sing. Notice specifically there in verse five, the invitation to sing for joy as they lie on their beds. What's the Psalmist getting at?
Well, I interpret this as a moment where the day has come to an end And what could have been done has been done. And like, so many of us, maybe we lie down and we reflect on the day. We kind of take inventory on what's happened. And I would imagine as you maybe begin your day at this point, you can fast forward and realize that at some point today, you will finally rest. And when you do so, what will you think about?
The victories, the losses, what you didn't get to? You see our minds and our hearts often wander, especially towards the evening times. But I love there in verse five, let them sing for joy as I as they lie on their beds. In other words, as they go to rest, maybe their final thought joins back with their first thought that God is good to them and they have a reason to sing for joy. And so maybe instead of a scroll on the phone or one more episode or one late night snack, maybe there's just a moment for you to pause and to rejoice in the God who loves you and sees you.
And as verse three says, has invited you as his people to sing and to dance. This is a praise of the redeemed. Those who weren't God's people have now become his people and they're invited to join in the celebration. And perhaps there's a good practice for us here in this prayer that in moments where we're feeling like things have maybe just not gone that way. Moments of regret as we lie down before we fall asleep.
We might break that habit and say, God, tonight I want to rejoice because you are God. Jesus, we hear you now inviting us into that place where we might protect the sacred moments before we lay down and fall asleep. We might protect our hearts and our minds and what we think about and how we feel knowing that you invite us to find joy in you even in those last few moments. And so with some of the first words of this of this Psalm be the last words and thoughts that we have tonight as we go to sleep. We pray these things in Jesus name.
Amen.