Today’s Passage: Psalm 135
This is a psalm that begins and ends with the same word, praise, and everything in between is the reason for it. The singer knows that the LORD is great, greater than anything the nations call a god, and that He does all that pleases Him in heaven and on earth. To prove it he reaches back into Israel’s own history: the LORD struck down the firstborn of Egypt, He struck down Sihon and Og and the kings of Canaan, and He gave their land to His people. Then, standing beside that living God, the psalm sets the idols of the nations, images of silver and gold that cannot speak or see or breathe. History first, and then the sober warning that those who make such things become as empty as the things they make.
As you read, hold this: The LORD does all that pleases Him.
Psalm 135:1-4 (BSB)
Hallelujah! ¹ Praise the name of the LORD. Give praise, O servants of the LORD, ² who stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God. ³ Hallelujah, for the LORD is good; sing praises to His name, for it is lovely. ⁴ For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
The call to praise goes first to those who stand nearest, the servants of the LORD who keep watch in His house and gather in His courts. They are the ones with the most reason to sing, because the LORD is good and His name is lovely. And behind their praise lies a wonder they did nothing to earn: He chose Jacob for His own, and made Israel His treasured possession. To be chosen like that, to be held as someone’s treasure, is a gift that can only be answered with worship.
Psalm 135:5-12 (BSB)
⁵ For I know that the LORD is great; our Lord is above all gods. ⁶ The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths. ⁷ He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses. ⁸ He struck down the firstborn of Egypt, of both man and beast. ⁹ He sent signs and wonders into your midst, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. ¹⁰ He struck down many nations and slaughtered mighty kings: ¹¹ Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan. ¹² He gave their land as an inheritance, as a heritage to His people Israel.
Here the psalm lifts its eyes to the size of the God it praises. He is above all gods, and He does all that pleases Him, in the heavens and on the earth and in the seas down to their darkest depths. He raises the clouds from the ends of the earth, He makes the lightning flash with the rain, He brings the wind out of His own storehouses, as though the weather itself were kept on shelves in His house. And then the psalm turns from the sky to the story. This same God struck down the firstborn of Egypt, sent His signs and wonders against Pharaoh, brought low Sihon and Og and the kings of Canaan, and handed their land to Israel as an inheritance. These are not decorations added to make the praise sound grand. They are things that actually happened, in real places, to a real people, at the hand of the God who was pleased to save them.
Context Sihon and Og
These were two kings whose lands lay east of the Jordan, on the road Israel had to travel. Both of them refused to let the people pass, both of them came out to attack, and both of them fell. Numbers 21 still keeps the record of those days. The psalm names them on purpose, because a rescue with names attached cannot melt away into a vague idea. It happened to these people, against these kings, on that ground.
Psalm 135:13-14 (BSB)
¹³ Your name, O LORD, endures forever, Your renown, O LORD, through all generations. ¹⁴ For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.
The gods of the nations come and go, but the LORD’s name endures forever, and His renown carries down through every generation that will ever live. And this enduring God bends toward His own: He will din, pronounced dah-DEEN. Strong's H1777, to judge, to plead a cause. The word means to judge, and it carries the picture of one who steps in to plead a cause on someone’s behalf.
That is what the psalm promises: the LORD taking up the case of His servants, giving judgment for them, and doing it with compassion in the same breath. This is not two different gods, a stern one and a kind one, taking turns. It is one LORD, who judges and pities as He pleases, and pleases to do both for His own. His people and have compassion on His servants. Notice how judgment and tenderness stand together in a single line, without any strain between them. The One who will set things right is the very One whose heart is moved with pity for those who are His.
Study notes He will judge His people
The writer of Hebrews takes up these very words, and he will not let them settle down into comfort alone.
"For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.”" Hebrews 10:30 (BSB)
The same LORD who vindicates His people will also judge them, and He is coming to do it. Exactly when and how that day unfolds is not the work this psalm sets before us. What it sets before us is the certainty underneath it all: the LORD does all that pleases Him, and no one holds Him back.
Psalm 135:15-18 (BSB)
¹⁵ The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. ¹⁶ They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see; ¹⁷ they have ears, but cannot hear; nor is there breath in their mouths. ¹⁸ Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
Now the psalm sets the idols of the nations beside the living God, and the contrast could not be plainer. They are silver and gold, shaped by the hands of men. They have mouths but say nothing, eyes but see nothing, ears but hear nothing, and there is not so much as a breath in them. And here comes the warning that gives the whole picture its edge: those who make them, and all who trust in them, become just like them, empty and unseeing and dumb. The psalm does not treat the images as one more option worth weighing. It shows them for what they are, so that we will set our trust where it belongs.
Psalm 135:19-21 (BSB)
¹⁹ O house of Israel, bless the LORD; O house of Aaron, bless the LORD; ²⁰ O house of Levi, bless the LORD; you who fear the LORD, bless the LORD! ²¹ Blessed be the LORD from Zion—He who dwells in Jerusalem. Hallelujah!
So the psalm ends the way it began, calling everyone to bless the LORD. The house of Israel, the house of Aaron, the house of Levi, and beyond them all who fear the LORD, whoever they are: every one of them is summoned to join the blessing. And the last word rises from Zion, from the place where God has chosen to dwell among His people, up to Jerusalem and out again in one more shout of praise. Hallelujah. From first line to last, this is the reason we sing: the LORD does all that pleases Him.