Summary

Here we find a call to sing to the Lord on Mount Zion, the temple mount, where the Lord has his earthly throne. But the singing is to go further than the covenant people: Tell among the peoples his deeds! This invitation sounds more often, for example in Psalm 18:49, “For this I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations,” and Psalm 57:9, I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. Again, it shows that the poet does not speak about his personal misery, but he is active in the Missio Dei—God’s world-encompassing plan of salvation. But he is also convinced of God’s just actions in his situation: by avenging the blood of the oppressed, God shows to be attentive to them. He does not forget the cry of the oppressed. His justice is shown in this. Think of his attention for Abel when Abel was murdered by his brother (Genesis 4:10). God addresses the criminal, Cain, saying, The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And the deeper clarification we receive in Hebrews 12, where believers have a place on Mount Zion, in the heavenly Jerusalem, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel” (Hebrews 12:22–24).