Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Praise ye the Lord.  Sing unto the Lord a new song, and his praise in the congregation of the saints.  Let Israel rejoice in him that made him:  let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

Psalm 149:1-2

We are almost at the last Psalm, and still among the Hallelujahs.  This is "a new song", evidently intended for the new creation, and the men who are of new heart.  It is such a song as may be sung at the coming of the Lord, when the new dispensation shall bring overthrow to the wicked and honour to all the saints.  The tone is exceedingly jubilant and exultant.  All through one hears the beat of the feet of dancing maidens, keeping time to the timbrel and harp.

Praise ye the LORD.   Specially you, ye chosen people, whom he has made to be his saints.  You have praised him aforetime, praise him yet again; yea, forever praise him.  With renewed zeal and fresh delight lift up your song unto Jehovah. Sing unto the LORD a new song.  Sing, for it is the fittest method for expressing reverent praise.  Sing a hymn newly composed, for you have now a new knowledge of God.  He is ever new in his manifestations; his mercies are new every morning; his deliverances are new in every night of sorrow; let your gratitude and thanksgivings be new also.  It is well to repeat the old; it is more useful to invent the new.  Our singing should be "unto the Lord"; the songs we sing should be of him and to him, "for of him, and to him, and through him are all things."  Never can we find a nobler subject for a song than the Lord, nor one more full of fresh matter for a new song, nor one which we are personally so much bound to sing as a new song "unto the Lord."  

And his praise in the congregation of saints.  Saints are precious, and the congregation of saints is a treasure house of jewels.  God is in the midst of saints, and because of this we may well long to be among them.  They are so full of his praise that we feel at home among them when we are ourselves full of praise.  All saints praise God: they would not be saints if they did not.  Their praise is sincere, suitable, seasonable, and acceptable. 

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him.  Here is that new creation which calls for the new song.  It was Jehovah who made Israel to be Israel, and the tribes to become a great nation: therefore let the Founder of the nation be had in perpetual honour.  Joy and rejoicing are evidently to be the special characteristics of the new song.  The religion of the dead in sin is more apt to chant dirges than to sing hallelujahs; but when we are made new in the spirit of our minds we joy and rejoice in him that made us.  Our joy is in our God and King: we choose no lower delight.  Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.  Those who had seen the tribes formed into a settled kingdom as well as into a united nation should rejoice.  Israel is the nation, Zion is the capital of the kingdom: Israel rejoices in her Maker, Zion in her King.  In the case of our God we who believe in him are as glad of his Government as we are of his Creation: his reign is as truly the making of us as was his divine power.  The children of Israel are happy to be made a people; the children of Zion are equally happy to be ruled as a people.  In every character our God is the source of joy to us: this verse issues a permit to our joy, yea it lays an injunction upon us to be glad in the Lord.

~Charles H. Spurgeon, excerpt from The Treasury of David