Psalm 149:4

For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(4) He will beautify the meek . . .—Rather, He adorns the oppressed with salvation. Not only is the victory which achieves the deliverance of the afflicted people a relief to them, but the honour won in the sight of the world is like a beautiful robe, a figure no doubt suggested by the actual triumphal dresses of the victors, or the spoils in which they appeared after the battle. (Comp. Isaiah 55:5; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 61:3; Judges 5:30.)

Benson Commentary

Psalm 149:4. The Lord taketh pleasure in his people — He loveth them above all people, and rejoiceth over them to do them good. He will beautify the meek — The humble, and lowly, and contrite in heart, that tremble at his word, and submit to it; that are patient under their afflictions, and show all meekness toward all men. These the men of the world vilify and asperse; but God will justify them, and wipe off their reproach; nay, he will beautify, or adorn, or glorify them, as יפאר signifies. They shall appear, not only clear, but comely and honourable before all the world, with the comeliness and dignity wherewith he clothes them. He will beautify them with salvation, perhaps with temporal salvation, working remarkable deliverances for them; and then they who had lain among the pots, become as the wings of a dove covered with silver, Psalm 68:13 : but especially with eternal salvation. The righteous shall be beautified indeed in that day when they shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

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

For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people - Let them rejoice on this account. He loves them; he approves their conduct; he bestows his favors upon them. All this should add to their joy, and fill their hearts with gladness. Compare the notes at Psalm 35:27. The Hebrew word here rendered "taketh pleasure" conveys the idea of complacency, satisfaction, delight. It is the opposite of being pained or offended. God has complacency in his people. He delights in their welfare; he delights in doing them good.

He will beautify the meek with salvation - The word here rendered beautify means to adorn, to honor, as the sanctuary, Isaiah 60:7 (rendered glorify); and it here means that the salvation which God would bestow upon them would be of the nature of an ornament, as if they were clothed with costly or splendid raiment. Compare Psalm 132:16. The word meek here means humble or lowly, and may refer to those who are humble in rank or condition, or those who are humble in heart. Perhaps the two ideas are here combined. They have not external adorning, but God will give them an honor and beauty in salvation which no outward adorning could impart.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. taketh pleasure—literally, "accepts," alluding to acceptance of propitiatory offerings (compare Ps 147:11).

beautify, &c.—adorn the humble with faith, hope, joy, and peace.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Taketh pleasure in his people; he loveth them above all people, and rejoiceth over them to do them good.

He will beautify, Heb. adorn or glorify; make them amiable and honourable in the eyes of the world, who now hate and despise them.

The meek, or humble, to wit, his people, as he now said, who are oft in Scripture described by that character, because all true Israelites are such, and all Israelites profess and ought to be such. Or, the afflicted, as that word is oft used in Scripture, which hath been observed before; his poor afflicted and oppressed people, to whom the following salvation is most needful and acceptable.

With salvation; both temporal, in delivering them from, and setting them above, all their enemies; and afterwards, with everlasting salvation and glory.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people,.... Not all mankind; though they are all his people by creation, and are under the care of his providence; yet they are not all acceptable to him; some are abhorred by him for their sins and transgressions: but these are a special and peculiar people, whom he has foreknown and chosen, taken into the covenant of his grace, and provided in it blessings for them; whom he has given to Christ, and he has redeemed; and who are called by the Spirit and grace of God, whereby they appear to be his people. These the Lord loves with a love of complacency and delight; he takes pleasure in their persons, as considered in Christ, in whom they are accepted with him; as they are clothed with his righteousness, and made comely through his comeliness; as washed in his precious blood, and adorned with the graces of his spirit: yea, he takes pleasure in their services done in faith, and from love, and to his glory; in their sacrifices of prayer and praise, as offered up through Christ; in the company of them and communion with them; and in their prosperity and happinesS, here and hereafter;

he will beautify the meek with salvation; humble and lowly souls, who have been truly humbled under a sense of sin; brought to submit to the righteousness of Christ, and to depend upon the grace of God for salvation; are subject to the yoke of Christ, and patiently submit to the will of God under every dispensation of Providence; are not easily provoked to wrath; are free from envy and malice; have mean thoughts of themselves, and high ones of other saints; these the Lord beautifies now with more grace, with which salvation is connected; with the robe of Christ's righteousness, and the garments of his salvation, which are beautiful ones; and he will beautify them with eternal salvation, with the white robes of immortality and bliss, when they will shine as the sun in the kingdom of heaven.

Geneva Study Bible

For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

4. taketh pleasure in his people] The deliverance which they have experienced is the proof of the renewal of His favour. Cp. Psalm 147:11; Isaiah 54:7-8; Isaiah 60:10.

he adorneth the meek with salvation] Through humiliation Israel has learnt humility; and now Jehovah restores their prosperity. Beautify or adorn is a word frequently used of the restoration of Israel in the later chapters of Isaiah (Isaiah 55:5; Isaiah 60:7; Isaiah 60:9; Isaiah 60:13, A.V. glorify or beautify). Salvation is not to be limited to victory (R.V. marg.), but denotes welfare and prosperity generally.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 4. - For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. God had shown by the mercy, whatever it was (ver. 1), recently vouchsafed to his people, that he was well pleased with them, and might be counted on to support and sustain them. He will beautify the meek with salvation. Those who patiently submit to his chastisements God will ultimately "adorn," or "beautify," with his salvation. Psalm 149:4

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.