Psalms 135
Butler1. PRAISE ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD; Praise him, O ye servants of the LORD: 2 Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, In the courts of the house of our God. 3 Praise ye the LORD; for the LORD is good: Sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant. 4 For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, And Israel for his peculiar treasure. 5 For I know that the LORD is great, And that our Lord is above all gods. 6 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that hath he done, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. 7 He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; He maketh lightnings for the rain; He bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries. 8 Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, Both of man and beast. 9 He sends signs and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, Upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants. 10 Who smote many nations,
And slew mighty kings; 11 Sihon king of the Amorites, And Og king of Bashan, And all the kingdoms of Canaan: 12 And gave their land for an heritage, An heritage unto Israel his people. 13 Thy name, O LORD, endureth for ever; Thy memorial, O LORD, taroughout all generations. 14 For the LORD shall judge his people, And repent himself concerning his servants. 15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands. 16 They have mouths, but they speak not; Eyes have they, but they see not; 17 They have ears, but they hear not; Neither is there any breath in their mouths. 18 They that make them shall be like unto them; Yea, every one that trusteth in them. 19 O house of Israel, bless ye the LORD: O house of Aaron, bless ye the LORD: 20 O house of Levi, bless ye the LORD: Ye that fear the LORD, bless ye the LORD. 21 Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, Who dwelleth at Jerusalem. PRAISE YE THE LORD.
A PSALM intended for the temple service, and one of the Hallelujah Psalms, though not placed in the same series with the rest. It is, like Psalm 134, an exhortation to the priests and Levites who wait in the sanctuary to praise Jehovah, both because of His goodness in choosing Israel to be His people, and because of His greatness and the almighty power which He has shown in His dominion over the world of nature, and in the overthrow of all the enemies of His people. Then His abiding majesty is contrasted with the nothingness of the idols of the heathen. The Psalm is almost entirely composed of passages taken from other sources. Compare v. 1 with Psalm 134: 1; v. 3 with Psalm 147: 1; vs 6 and 15-20 with Psalm 115; vs. 8-12 with Psalm 136: 10-22. P.
The people of Jehovah are exhorted to praise Him as their peculiar God (vs. 1-4), as the God of nature (vs. 5-7), as the deliverer of Israel from Egypt and in Canaan (vs. 8-12), as their hope also for the future (vs. 13, 14), rendered more glorious by contrast with the impotence of idols (vs. 15-18), after which the Psalm concludes as it began with an exhortation to praise God (vs. 19-21). A.
3. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah (praise to Jehovah!) for good (is) Jehovah. Make music to His name, for it is lovely. The last words may also be translated, He is lovely, i.e., an object worthy of supreme attachment. A.—For the Lord is good—that is, originally, transcendently, effectively; He is good, and doeth good, and is therefore to be praised with mind, mouth, and practice. Trapp.
Praise is a constant corrective of the earthliness which hangs about the words and even the thoughts whereby it is contained. And the praise of God is for us the expression of a perfect admiration blended with a perfect love.
It is the admiration of a Being who claims all our hearts in personal devotion, while containing or being Himself all that we speak of in abstract categories as the ideals of goodness and beauty. It is the most ennobling exercise of the human spirit. E. S. Talbot.
4-12. Then follow the several grounds of this praise. First, because He has chosen Israel. Next, because He is higher than all the gods of the heathen, as He has shown in His absolute supremacy over the world of nature (vs. 5-7). Then, because He redeemed His people from Egypt (vs. 8, 9). Lastly, because, vanquishing all their enemies, He gave them the promised land (vs. 10-12). P.
4. The nation was chosen by God unto Himself to answer the Divine ends and purposes in blessing all mankind. Jacob’s race was chosen to be the trustees of His truth, the maintainers of His worship, the mirrors of His mercy. Chosen they were; but mainly for this end, that they might be a peculiar people, set apart unto the service of the true God. S.
6. All that Jehovah will He does in the heavens and in the earth, in the seas and all depths. It is not merely as their own peculiar God that they are bound to praise Him, but as the universal sovereign. Heaven, earth, and sea are put for the whole frame of nature. A.
Whatsoever He pleaseth. This absolute supremacy of God over all the forces and phenomena of the natural world is stated in the same way as in Psalm 115:3, with reference more particularly to the weakness of the gods of the nations, as also in this Psalm (vs. 15-18). P. —Profane history exhibits the instruments by which Jehovah works; the finger of Divine revelation points to the unseen but almighty hand which wields and guides the instrument, and causes even Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Jews and the people of Israel, to do what the hand and the counsel of God determined before to be done. George Payne.
7. As the electricity is dissipated by the frequent discharges the cloud condenses, and there comes a sudden and heavy rain; but the greater the accumulation of electricity, the longer is the rain delayed. Thus connected as the electrical phenomena of the atmosphere are with clouds, vapor, and rain, how forcibly are we struck with these appropriate words in the Scriptures! Edwin Sidney.
He bringeth the wind. The winds are, with great beauty, represented as laid up by Him as jewels in a treasure house. Indeed, few verses better express creative control than those in which the winds, which make sport of man’s efforts and defy his power, are represented as thus ready to spring forth at God’s bidding from the quarters where they quietly sleep. The occasion comes, the thoughts of Jehovah find expression in His providence, and His ready servants leap suddenly forth. J. Duns.
Everything in the material world is under the immediate direction and control of the Lord of all. Observe how the Psalmist brings before us the personal action of Jehovah: “He causeth,” “He maketh,” “He bringeth.” Everywhere the Lord worketh all things, and there is no power which escapes His supremacy. S.
8-12. He is worthy to be praised, for He is the Redeemer out of Egypt. He is worthy to be praised, for He is the conqueror of the promised land. D.
10. The Israelites’ sword, in its bloodiest executions, wrought a work of mercy for all the countries of the earth to the very end of the world. They seem of very small importance to us now, those perpetual contests with the Canaanites, and the Midianites, and the Ammonites, and the Philistines, with which the Books of Joshua and Judges and Samuel are almost filled. We may half wonder that God should have interfered in such quarrels, or have changed the course of nature, in order to give one of the nations of Palestine the victory over another. But in these contests, on the fate of one of these nations of Palestine the happiness of the human race depended. The Israelites fought not for themselves only, but for us. It might follow that they should thus be accounted the enemies of all mankind—it might be that they were tempted by their very distinctness to despise other nations; still they did God’s work—still they preserved unhurt the seed of eternal life, and were the ministers of blessing to all other nations, even though they themselves failed to enjoy it. Thomas Arnold.
13. Jehovah, Thy name (is) to eternity. Jehovah, Thy memory is to generation and generation. Name and memory are here equivalent expressions, meaning that by which God is remembered or commemorated, His perfections as exhibited in act. The perpetuity of this implies continued or repeated acts of goodness. A. —The memorial name of Israel’s God is Jehovah, with reference to its significance—fidelity to promise, faithfulness resting on immutability. (See Ex. 3:15; Hos. 12:5.) It had pleased God to give them this name of Himself with this interpretation; with joy, therefore, the Psalmist declares that this name shall stand good through all generations—the ground of abiding, everlasting confidence in the Lord of hosts as by covenant their own God. C.
God is and will be always the same to His Church, a gracious, faithful, wonder-working God; and His Church is and will be the same to Him, a thankful, praising people; and thus His name endures forever. H.—Never shall men forget thee, O Lord. The ordinances of Thine house shall keep Thee in men’s memories, and Thine everlasting Gospel and the grace which goes therewith shall be abiding remembrances of Thee. Grateful hearts will forever beat to Thy praise and enlightened minds shall continue to marvel at all Thy wondrous works. Men’s memorials decay, but the memorial of the Lord abideth evermore. What a comfort to desponding minds, trembling for the ark of the Lord! No, precious name, Thou shalt never perish! Fame of the Eternal, Thou shalt never grow dim! S.
14. For.** Here is the proof and evidence that Jehovah’s name and memorial abide forever; that He will manifest, as in the past, so in the future, His righteousness and His mercy to Israel. P.—He will plead their cause against others that contend with them; He will judge His people, He will judge for them, and will not suffer them to be run down. He will not Himself contend forever with them, but will repent Himself concerning His servants, and not proceed in His controversy with them; He will be entreated for them, or He will be comforted concerning them; He will return in ways of mercy to them, and will delight to do them good. This verse is taken from the song of Moses (Deut. 32: 36). H.
15. The idols of the nations (are) silver and gold, works of the hands of man.** The Divine perfection of the Lord is now exhibited in contrast with the impotence and nullity of idols. The terms of the comparison are borrowed, with several variations, from Psalm 115: 4-8. A.—For the good of His proved Church He ever proves Himself as the living One, whereas idols and idolaters are vain. D.
16,17. They can neither speak in answer to your prayers and inquiries, nor see what you do or what you want, nor hear your petitions, nor smell your incenses and sacrifices, nor use their hands either to take anything from you, or to give anything to you; nor so much as mutter, nor give the least sign of apprehending your condition or concerns. M. Pool.—Idols of gold and silver have a mouth, but give no counsel to their worshippers; eyes, but see not the devotions nor the wants of those who serve them; ears, but hear not their cries of distress or songs of praise; nostrils, but smell not the fragrant incense presented to their images; feet, but they cannot move to help the fallen. They cannot so much as whisper one syllable of response, or even mutter in their throat! And as man becomes like his God (witness Hindoo idolaters, whose cruelty is just the reflection of the cruelty of their gods), so these gods of the heathen being “soul-less, the worshippers become soul-less themselves.” A. Bonar.
The painter, the carver did their part well enough; they made them with mouths and eyes, ears and noses, hands and feet, but they could put no life into them and therefore no sense. They had better have worshipped a dead carcass (for that had life in it once) than a dead image, which neither has life nor can have. They speak not, in answer to those that consult them; the crafty priest must do it for them. In Baal’s image there was no voice, neither any that answered. They see not the prostrations of their worshippers before them, much less their burdens and wants. They hear not their prayers, though ever so loud; they smell not their incense, though ever so strong, ever so sweet; they handle not the gifts presented to them, much less have they any gifts to bestow on their worshippers; they cannot stretch forth their hands to the needy. They walk not, they cannot stir a step for the relief of those that apply to them. Nay, they do not so much as breathe through their throat; they have not the least sign or symptom of life, but are as dead, after the priest has pretended to consecrate them and call a deity into them, as they were before. H.
A beautiful contrast is formed between the God of Israel and the heathen idols. He made everything, they are themselves made by men; He is in heaven, they are upon earth; He doeth whatsoever He pleaseth, they can do nothing; He seeth the distresses, heareth and answereth the prayers, accepteth the offerings, cometh to the assistance and effecteth the salvation of His servants; they are blind, deaf, dumb, senseless, motionless, and impotent. Equally slow to hear, equally impotent to save in the time of greatest need, will every worldly idol prove on which men have set their affections, and to which they have, in effect, said, “Thou art my god.” Bishop Horne.
18. They that make them are like unto them, so is every one that trusteth in them. Whatever we adore and esteem, we are changed into its image. Idolaters are as stupid and senseless as the idols to which they pay homage. Thus when God is chosen as our supreme good and
last end, by conversing with Him, the image of His glorious holiness is derived on the soul, and it becomes godly; the heart is drawn by His attractive excellencies, and the life directed to him. Bates.