Psalms 149:5

Let the saints be joyful in glory.

The saints in glory

I. Their name. “Saints.”

1. Because they are separated. Not the world, or the god of this world, but the God who made and redeemed them, is their Master and Lord; God’s service is their service; God’s will is their law; God’s Word is their rule.

2. Because they are sanctified. By the belief of the truth as it is in Jesus their eyes are turned away from viewing vanities, and are turned towards holy objects of contemplation.

II. Their honour. “In glory.”

1. The state of glory. Heaven--eternal rest, but not inaction.

2. The place of glory. The holy city is all glorious, “having the glory of God,” within, above, and around. Its sky is ever cloudless, its light is ever clear, its sun never sets, and its day never ends.

3. The society of glory.

4. An eternity of glory.

III. Their joyfulness.

1. Wholly joyful.

2. All joyful.

3. Ever joyful. (G. Robson.)

Hallelujah

Once, when the seraphic Samuel Rutherford was preaching, he came ere long to speak on the high praises of the Lord Jesus Christ. That was a theme upon which he was at home, and when he reached that point, and had spoken a little upon it, the Duke of Argyle, who was in the congregation, cried out, “Now you are on the right strain, man; hold on to that.”

I. Some reasons for praise.

1. The delight of God in His people--their prayers, and their praises.

2. The beauty He puts upon His people. This text may be read in three different ways. First, as in our version, “He will beautify the meek with salvation!” Next, “He will beautify the afflicted with deliverance.” Hear that, you afflicted ones; jot it down for your comfort. And, next, “He will beautify the meek with victory.” The men that cannot fight shall be beautified with victory. When the fighting men and those that stood up for their own rights will find themselves covered with shame, “He will beautify the meek with victory.”

II. Special phases of praise.

1. Glorying in God. By anticipation and by foretaste we have already obtained the life eternal, therefore, “let the saints be joyful in glory.” “I cannot get up to that,” says one. Try. At any rate, get as far as this: wherever there is grace there will be glory. Grace is the egg, and glory is the hatching of it. Grace is the seed, and glory is the plant that comes out of it. Having the egg and the seed, we have practically and virtually the glory; therefore, “Let the saints be joyful in glory.”

2. The next special kind of praise is joy in special circumstances: “Let them sing aloud upon their beds.”

(1) This is a message for the time of sickness. Praise the Lord when you are ill; sing to His glory when you cannot sleep; sing when the head aches, for that is the highest kind of praise that comes out of the body that is racked with pain. “Let them sing aloud upon their beds.”

(2) Your bed? Why, that is the place of seclusion! There you are alone. Commune with God upon your beds, and sing His praises, if not aloud with the voice, yet aloud with the heart.

(3) Upon your bed? Why, that is the place of domestic gathering; for the bed here meant is a couch, on which the Orientals reclined when they ate. Sing the Lord’s praises on your couches; that is, when you gather in your families.

(4) The bed of death. (C. H. Spurgeon.)