Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 149:7
To execute vengeance upon the heathen, [and] punishments upon the people;
7. vengeance upon the nations] Cp. Isa 61:2; Isa 63:4.
punishments upon the peoples] Lit. corrections.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
To execute vengeance upon the heathen – To inflict punishment upon them as a recompence for their sins. The word pagan here means nations. The allusion is, doubtless, to those who had oppressed and injured the Hebrew people – perhaps referring to those who had destroyed the city and the temple at the time of the Babylonian captivity. They were now to receive the punishment due for the wrongs which they had done to the nation; a just recompence at the hand of God, and by the instrumentality of those whom they had wronged. Compare the notes at Psa 137:7-9.
And punishments upon the people – The people of those lands. Those who had waged war with the Hebrew nation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. To execute vengeance upon the heathen] This may refer simply to their purpose of defending themselves to the uttermost, should their enemies attack them while building their wall: and they had every reason to believe that God would be with them; and that, if their enemies did attack them, they should be able to inflict the severest punishment upon them.
Punishments upon the people] The unfaithful and treacherous Jews; for we find that some, even of their nobles, had joined with Sanballat and Tobiah; (see Ne 6:17-19🙂 and it appears also that many of them had formed alliances with those heathens, which were contrary to the law; see Ne 13:15-29.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
For all their cruelties and injuries towards Gods people. This was literally accomplished by David upon the Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians, and other neighbouring nations and princes, which were bitter enemies to Gods people. And the same thing was done afterward in the Christian world, when God raised up Christian princes, who did by the help of the Christians, fighting with and under them, severely revenge the blood of the martyred Christians upon their cruel persecutors and tyrants in divers ages. It may also be understood of the spiritual plagues which Christ by the hand or ministry of his apostles and ministers did inflict upon the hearts and consciences of his incorrigible enemies, who by Gods word and ordinances were either tormented or hardened to their destruction. Yea, it may have a respect unto the last day of judgment, in which the saints shall judge the world, 1Co 6:2, which will be a most dreadful execution of this vengeance, &c.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. The destruction of theincorrigibly wicked attends the propagation of God’s truth, so thatthe military successes of the Jews, after the captivity, typified thetriumphs of the Gospel.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
To execute vengeance upon the Heathen,…. Either upon the Gentile world, in the first times of the Gospel; when the apostles, going there with the twoedged sword of the word, vehemently inveighed against the idolatry of the Heathens, and exhorted them to turn from their idols to serve the living God; and divine power going along with their ministry, multitudes were turned from them; through the success of the Gospel, the oracles of the Heathen were struck dumb, their priests were despised, their idol temples were forsaken, and idols rejected; now were the judgment of the Heathen world, and the prince of it, cast out, and vengeance in this way taken upon it, or their disobedience to God revenged, Joh 12:31. Or else upon the Papists, as will be in the latter times of the Gospel; who are sometimes called Heathens and Gentiles, Ps 10:16; on whom vengeance will be taken for all their idolatry, superstition, and bloodshed of the saints; and they will be smitten and slain by the twoedged sword, proceeding out of the mouth of Christ, and as in the hands of his servants, Re 19:15;
[and] punishments upon the people; or “reproofs” p; sharp and piercing ones; such as the convictions the word of God will strike in the minds of men, and will be very distressing and afflicting to them; as the fire out of the mouths of the witnesses, which is their doctrine, will be to their enemies the Papists; and will torment and kill them, and be the savour of death unto death unto them, Re 11:5.
p “increpationes”, V. L. Pagninus, Montanus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator “redargutiones”, Cocceius, Michaelis; so Ainsworth.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
7. To execute vengeance, etc. Both during their exile and after their return from it, this might seem to be altogether incredible. Nor did it take place before the advent of Christ; for though the Machabaei and their posterity reduced the neighboring nations to subjection, this was but a faint prelude and earnest to direct the thoughts of the Lord’s people to what was approaching. But as Haggai prophesied that the glory of the second Temple would be greater than of the first, so here there is promised a more prosperous state than had ever existed. (Hag 2:9.) Reduced as the Jews were in numbers, and low as was the state of things among them, the Psalmist announces to all nations which opposed and troubled them, that they would have the ascendancy. As they were yet tributary, and dwelt at Jerusalem only by sufferance, they were called to exercise faith in a promise which, to the judgment of sense, might appear visionary, and to raise their thoughts to the infinite power of God, which triumphs over all worldly obstacles. The vengeance spoken of is such as the Israelites would take, not under the influence of private resentment, but by commandment of God; and this we mention that none may infer that they are allowed to take vengeance for personal injuries.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) Heathen . . . people.Rather, nations . . . peoples.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. Vengeance The word simply means retributive justice, in rendering back to men according to their deeds.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 149:7 To execute vengeance upon the heathen, [and] punishments upon the people;
Ver. 7. To execute vengeance upon the heathen ] viz. Upon a just calling, and not for private revenge; yea, that soldier can never answer it to God that strikes not more as a justicer than as an enemy, be his cause never so good. But that is the most noble vengeance that is executed upon men’s lusts; while they thrust the sword of the Spirit into the throats of them, and let out their life blood. That is a good sense that some give of these words, viz. that the saints, when they go forth to battle, should go with holy songs in their mouths, as well as with swords in their hands. See Jdg 7:19-20 , &c.; 2Ch 20:21 , &c.; the victoria Halleluiatica was got on this manner here in Britain, under the conduct of Germanus, against a mighty army of Pelagian Picts and Saxons. Ussier. de Brit. Eccles. Primord. This was the course and custom of the Angrognians in Piedmont against their Popish persecutors; and the like we read of the other French Protestants at the siege of Montaubon; that I mention not those gallant spirits at Edgehill battle with their reboated, Now for the fruit of prayer; together with the many psalms sung by that religious army in their several stations, whereof I have been an ear-witness.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
heathen = nations.
people = peoples.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Psa 149:7-9
Psa 149:7-9
“To execute vengeance upon the nations,
And punishments upon the peoples;
To bind their kings with chains,
And their nobles with fetters of iron;
To execute upon them the judgment written:
This honor have all the saints.
Praise ye Jehovah.”
“To execute vengeance upon the nations” (Psa 149:7). The vengeance spoken of here was not Israel’s vengeance but God’s, as evidenced by its having been written (Psa 149:9). The kingdoms of Canaan had not oppressed Israel. Their horrible immoralities had incurred the wrath of God, and Israel was God’s instrument of their punishment. The view of Israel taking vengeance upon the nations that had persecuted them, as alleged by some, is simply not in the picture at all.
Despite the view that, “It is most probable that the psalm is eschatological, we can see nothing in it that suggests that. The carnal weapons in view here are not those of the New Israel. The binding, fettering, and enslavement of kings suggests nothing that we can associate with the End Times. It appears that the eschatalogical interpretations have been forced by difficulties in the psalm, difficulties which disappear when the event to which the psalm points is properly understood as Israel’s military defeat and occupation of Canaan.
The interpretation advanced by Addis, namely, that this paragraph means that, “Israel (as an earthly kingdom) is to punish and crush other nations. is unacceptable. The earthly kingdom idea perished with the Advent of Christ whose `kingdom is not of this world.’
We admire the ingenuity and zeal of those interpreters who do their best to apply this psalm to the ultimate triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ in that hour when, “The kingdom of the world is become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever” (Rev 11:15), finding in the two-edged sword of this psalm a prophecy of that “two-edged sword” in the mouth of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 19:15). We cannot see anything like that in this psalm.
What then, is this psalm? It is a hymn of victorious Israel as they began the conquest of the Promised Land. One great victory is behind them, probably the fall of Jericho, and they anticipate many other victories. They will indeed bind and fetter kings, and eventually cut off the thumbs of Adonibezek; but that all of this is a prophecy of what fleshly Israel would ever do upon another occasion is simply not true. That the psalmist either wrote this, or adapted a psalm already in existence, as an encouragement of the returnees from captivity, seems the best way to understand it. That fleshly Israel totally misunderstood it is fully in keeping with Israel’s history.
“To execute upon them the judgment written” (Psa 149:9). Here we are upon solid ground indeed. Israel did indeed execute the judgment that God had written against the kingdoms of Canaan in this passage:
“When Jehovah thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before thee, the Hittite, the Girgashite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than thou; and when Jehovah thy God shall deliver them up before thee, and thou shalt smite them; then thou shalt utterly destroy them: thou shalt make no covenant with them, and show no mercy to them, neither make marriages with them, Etc.” (Deu 7:1-2).
This is the only passage in the Bible that envisions Israel punishing and destroying a number of nations; and therefore we conclude with a great deal of assurance that the event prophesied here in Deuteronomy has to be the event extolled in Psalms 149.
“This honor have all his saints” (Psa 149:9 b). All Israel participated in the conquest, as for example, when they all marched around the walls of Jericho, and thus all of them shared in the honor God bestowed upon them in his removal of the pagan kingdoms of Canaan and giving the Promised Land to the Israelites as an inheritance.
E.M. Zerr:
Psa 149:7. While God’s people took vengeance on the heathen it was counted as His vengeance. This principle is taught in Rom 12:19 and 2Co 7:11.
Psa 149:8. The kings of the heathen nations fought with God’s people. The Psalmist wished that those kings and their associates would be defeated by the people of God and be handcuffed. That would be winning a victory against the vicious enemies of God.
Psa 149:9. The judgment written referred to such instructions as Deu 7:1-2. To have carried out that instruction would have brought honor upon the nation. Their forefathers failed to do so and the nation was brought under great shame (Judges 1).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Psa 137:8, Psa 137:9, Num 31:2, Num 31:3, Jdg 5:23, 1Sa 15:2, 1Sa 15:3, 1Sa 15:18-23, Zec 9:13-16, Zec 14:17-19, Rev 19:11-21
Reciprocal: 2Ki 17:4 – bound him Psa 9:5 – rebuked Psa 9:19 – let the Psa 94:10 – chastiseth Psa 110:5 – strike Jer 50:15 – for it Eze 25:11 – I will Eze 30:3 – the time Eze 30:19 – General Mic 5:15 – General Luk 21:22 – all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
149:7 {e} To execute vengeance upon the heathen, [and] punishments upon the people;
(e) This is chiefly accomplished in the kingdom of Christ when God’s people for just causes execute God’s judgments against his enemies and it gives no liberty to any to avenge their private injuries.