Psalm 149:2

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

149:1-5 New mercies continually demand new songs of praise, upon earth and in heaven. And the children of Zion have not only to bless the God who made them, but to rejoice in him, as having created them in Christ Jesus unto good works, and formed them saints as well as men. The Lord takes pleasure in his people; they should rejoice in Him. When the Lord has made sinners feel their wants and unworthiness, he will adorn them with the graces of his Spirit, and cause them to bear his image, and rejoice in his happiness for ever. Let his saints employ their waking hours upon their beds in songs of praise. Let them rejoice, even upon the bed of death, assured that they are going to eternal rest and glory.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let Israel - The people of Israel; the Hebrew people; the people of God.

Rejoice in him that made him - Him, who has made the people what they are. All that they have and are is to be traced to him, as really as the universe of matter is to be traced to his power. Their condition is not one of development, or one which is the result of their own wisdom, grace, or power. See the notes at Psalm 100:3 : "It is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves." Compare Isaiah 54:5.

Let the children of Zion - Those who dwell in Zion or Jerusalem.

Be joyful in their King - In God as their king.

(a) That they have a king, or that there is one to rule over them;

(b) That they have such a king; one so wise, so powerful, so good;

(c) That he administers his government with so much efficiency, impartiality, equity, wisdom, goodness. Compare Psalm 100:3-5.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. God had signalized His relation as a sovereign, in restoring them to their land.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

That made him; that made them not only his creatures, but, which is unspeakably greater, his people; or, that advanced and adorned them with singular privileges, as this word is used, 1 Samuel 12:6, and elsewhere.

Be joyful in their King; David and his posterity, and especially the chief of all of them, the Messiah. Let them rejoice and bless God that they have so potent, so wise, and so just a king.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him,.... Or, "in his Makers" (i), Father, Son, and Spirit; as in Job 35:10; see also Ecclesiastes 12:1; for all three Persons had a concern in the creation of man at first, "let us make man", &c. Genesis 1:26; and have in the formation of every individual man; of the Israelites as men, and of them as a body politic and ecclesiastic, being raised up, constituted, and formed by the Lord in their civil and church state, and therefore had reason to rejoice in him, Deuteronomy 32:6; and so have all the spiritual Israel of God, whom he has chosen, redeemed, and called; every Israelite indeed, all who are the workmanship of God, the people he has formed for himself, and to show forth his praise: these should rejoice in God the Father, who has chosen them in Christ, blessed them with all spiritual blessings in him, sent him to redeem them, has justified them by his righteousness, pardoned their sins through his blood, adopted them and made them heirs of glory; and in the Son of God their Redeemer, they should rejoice in his person, in his righteousness, sacrifice, and fulness; and in the Holy Spirit, who has regenerated and sanctified them, is their Comforter, and the earnest of their future glory;

let the children of Zion be joyful in their King: not in David, unless as a type, but in his Son, the King Messiah, who is King of Zion; and therefore the children of Zion, the church, who are born of her, the mother of us all, and born in her through the ministry of the word, and brought up there by means of the Gospel, and the ordinances of it; such as are regenerate persons, sons of God, and members of Gospel churches, should rejoice in Christ, the King of saints; that they have such a King over them, who is the greatest of Kings, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; so righteous in the administration of his government, so wise in making laws for them, so powerful to protect and defend them; and who must reign tilt all enemies are put under his feet, even for ever and ever. Every appearance of Christ's kingdom is matter of joy to saints; his first coming was as a King, though in a mean and lowly manner; yet joyful to Zion and her children, Zechariah 9:9; his ascension to heaven, when he was declared Lord and Christ; the pouring forth of his Spirit, and the success of his Gospel in the Gentile world, to the overthrow of Paganism in it, Revelation 12:10; and especially it will be an occasion of great joy to his subjects, when he takes to himself his great power, and reigns, Revelation 11:15.

(i) "in factoribus suis", Gejerus, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.

Geneva Study Bible

Let Israel rejoice in him that {b} made him: let the children of Zion be joyful in their {c} King.

(b) In that they were preferred before all other nations, it was a new creation, and therefore Ps 95:7 they were called the sheep of God's hands.

(c) For God as he is the creator of the soul and body, so will he that both two serve him, and that his people be continually subject to him, as to their most lawful king.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. Jehovah is Israel’s Maker (Psalm 95:6; Psalm 100:3; Isaiah 44:2; Isaiah 51:13), for to Him it owes its original existence as a nation, and the present restoration of its national life; now that it has no earthly king, it acknowledges Him as its true King as in days of old (1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 12:12), and celebrates the glory of His kingdom, which is universal (Psalm 145:1; Psalm 145:11-13), yet in an especial sense has its seat in Zion (Isaiah 52:7).

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Let Israel rejoice in him that made him; or, "in his Maker" (comp. Psalm 95:6). This ground of thankfulness Israel possesses in common with all the rest of mankind; but he has also another exclusive ground - let the children of Zion be joyful in their King (comp. Judges 8:23; 1 Samuel 8:7; 1 Samuel 10:19; 1 Samuel 12:12, etc.). God, by covenant with Israel, had constituted himself in an especial way their King (Hosea 13:10). Psalm 149:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

A period, in which the church is renewing its youth and drawing nearer to the form it is finally to assume, also of inward necessity puts forth new songs. Such a new era has now dawned for the church of the saints, the Israel that has remained faithful to its God and the faith of its fathers. The Creator of Israel (עשׂיו, plural, with the plural suffix, like עשׂי in Job 35:10, עשׂיך in Isaiah 54:5, cf. עשׂו in Job 40:19; according to Hupfeld and Hitzig, cf. Ew. 256, b, Ges. 93, 9, singular; but aj, ajich, aw, are always really plural suffixes) has shown that He is also Israel's Preserver and the King of Zion, that He cannot leave the children of Zion for any length of time under foreign dominion, and has heard the sighing of the exiles (Isaiah 63:19; Isaiah 26:13). Therefore the church newly appropriated by its God and King is to celebrate Him, whose Name shines forth anew out of its history, with festive dance, timbrel, and cithern. For (as the occasion, hitherto only hinted at, is now expressly stated) Jahve takes a pleasure in His people; His wrath in comparison with His mercy is only like a swiftly passing moment (Isaiah 54:7.). The futures that follow state that which is going on at the present time. ענוים is, as frequently, a designation of the ecclesia pressa, which has hitherto, amidst patient endurance of suffering, waited for God's own act of redemption. He now adorns them with ישׁוּעה, help against the victory over the hostile world; now the saints, hitherto enslaved and contemned, exult בכבוד, in honour, or on account of the honour which vindicates them before the world and is anew bestowed upon them (בּ of the reason, or, which is more probable in connection with the boldness of the expression, of the state and mood);

(Note: Such, too (with pomp, not "with an army"), is the meaning of μετὰ δόξης in 1 Macc. 10:60; 14:4, 5, vid., Grimm in loc.))

they shout for joy upon their beds, upon which they have hitherto poured forth their complaints over the present (cf. Hosea 7:14), and ardently longed for a better future (Isaiah 26:8); for the bed is the place of soliloquy (Psalm 4:5), and the tears shed there (Psalm 6:7) are turned into shouts of joy in the case of Israel.