Psalms 135
Chuck Smith on Psalms 135
Verse by verse, the C2000, 1979 to 1985 and C3000, 1985 to 1999 series. Permission granted by The Word For Today.
C2000 · 1979 to 1985
Chapter introduction
Psalm 135 is one of those psalms that begins and ends with the word Hallelujah.
Verse 1
Praise ye the LORD (135:1).
Hallelujah.
Verses 1–3
Praise the name of Yahweh; praise him, O ye servants of Yahweh. Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God, Praise the LORD (135:1-3);
So this exhortation of praising God repeated, emphasized, and repeated for emphasis. "Praise the Lord. Praise the name of the Lord. Praise Him all ye servants. Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord." And now He's going to tell you why you should praise Him.
Verse 3
for the LORD is good (135:3):
How are you to praise Him?
sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant (135:3).
And again, why?
Verse 4
For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel as his peculiar treasure (135:4).
Now we are told in the New Testament that you have become His peculiar people, which we told you Thursday night was His people of possession. The word peculiar is the word possess. So you are the people that God has claimed as His possession is what it is. Now Israel was God-possessed, they were His treasure. He possessed them as His treasure. He claimed them. "I possess you as My treasure." God possesses you as His people. And so Israel is His possessed treasure, or the treasure that He possesses.
Verse 5
For I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is above all gods (135:5).
Now there are many gods that people worship and serve, but they are not living; they are not true. There is One true and living God, the maker of the heaven and the earth. And our Lord is above all of the gods that men have made.
Verse 6
Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and in the deep places (135:6).
God's pleasure, God's will. Whatever He pleases. Who can say unto the Lord, "Why have you done thus?" He does what He pleases to do. I have no right to challenge Him. I have no power to resist Him. In the book of Revelation, chapter 4, when the elders fall down and cast their golden crowns before the throne of God, they say, "O Lord, Thou art worthy to receive glory and honor: for Thou has created all things, and for Thy good pleasure they are and were created" (Revelation 4:11).
Now, like it or not, God made you for His own pleasure. He didn't make me for my pleasure. Nor will my life ever be fulfilled if I seek only my pleasure. That can be a very empty, futile, frustrating life seeking my own pleasure. I can only find fulfillment when I bring God pleasure, because that's why He made me. And to answer to the reason for my being, I must bring pleasure to God. He has done whatever He pleased.
Verse 7
He causes the vapors (135:7)
And, of course, praise the Lord because of His power over the universe, His creation of the universe.
Verses 7–10
He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; and he makes the lightning for the rain; he brings the wind out of his treasuries. He smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. He sent his tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, upon all of his servants. He smote the great nations, he slew the mighty kings (135:7-10);
In other words, "Israel, praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord," and all. Why? Because He delivered you out of Egypt. He delivered the land into your hand.
Verses 11–14
He smote,
The kings of Sihon, the Amorites, Og the king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan: and he gave their land for a heritage, a heritage unto Israel and his people. Thy name, O Yahweh, endures for ever; and thy memorial, O Yahweh, throughout all the generations. For the LORD [or Yahweh] will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants (135:11-14).
Now in contrast, here is God. Has done all of these marvellous mighty things, demonstrating His power, His authority, His love.
Verse 15
But the idols of the heathen (135:15)
You see, He's the Lord over all the gods.
Verses 15–18
"The gods of the heathen," the idols that they have made,
are silver and gold, they are the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; they have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them: and so is every one that trusteth in them (135:15-18).
Now we had this same concept given to us in the one-hundred-and-fifteenth psalm where he said much the same thing in talking about the idols of the heathen. He makes these philosophical observations. Number one, men often make their own gods. They'll carve them out of silver, gold, wood, stone. When a man makes his own god, he makes his god like himself. Eyes, ears, nose, mouth, feet. Because I have eyes, ears, nose, mouth, feet. But he makes his god, in reality, the god that he has made, he makes his god, but the god that he has made is less than he is. For though he put eyes on the god, the eyes can't see. Though he put feet on them, they can't walk. Though he put ears on them, they can't hear. So the god is less than the man who has made it. But the damning aspect of the philosophy is that a man becomes like his god. They that have made them have become like the gods that they have made. They that make them are like unto them. And so is every one that trusts in them.
In other words, a man becomes like his god. Thus, if you've made your own god, you made a god that is really less than you are, and thus, in worshipping that god, the projection of yourself, you are worshipping something really that is less than you. And then you become like it. Therefore, it is degrading. It's downhill. It's a degrading experience to worship your own gods of your own concepts, your own ideas, and all. It is a degrading experience, because your god is always too small and he is even less than you and you're becoming like him. And so it is always degrading for any society or any man to worship anything other than the true and the living God that made the heavens and the earth. To worship any other God is degrading. You see, men are in the process of being degraded as they worship other gods. "They that worship them have become like unto them; so is every one that trusts in them" (Psalm 115:8). A man becomes like his god. That can be a damning philosophy, or it can be a blessed philosophy. It all depends on who your god is.
"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, it doth not yet appear what we're going to be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him" (I John 3:2). Why? Because a man becomes like his god. That's blessing. That's glorious. I'm thrilled, because I'm serving the true and the living God. If I wasn't serving the true and the living God, that would terrify me. To think that I was becoming like my god.
As I see men worshipping pleasure, living after sex, living after pleasure, becoming like their gods, being obsessed by lust. As I see men who are living after power, that driving ambition, destroying others, climbing to the top. Scratching, clawing, crawling over others. Disregarding others. Obsessed by power. And becoming like their god. How tragic. "But we, with open face beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed from glory to glory into the same image" (II Corinthians 3:18). A man becomes like his god. It surely places a high priority and an importance upon worshipping the true and the living God.
Verses 19–20
Bless the LORD, O house of Israel: bless the LORD, O house of Aaron: Bless the LORD, O house of Levi: and ye that reverence the LORD, bless the LORD (135:19-20).
That should include all of you.
Verse 21
Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, which dwells at Jerusalem. Hallelujah (135:21).
So the last of the psalms. We get to Psalm 145 on through to the end. They all begin and end with Hallelujah. It's just one of those favorite words of exhortation unto praise.
C3000 · 1985 to 1999
Chapter introduction
Psalm one hundred and thirty-five is a psalm that begins and ends with the Hebrew word Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord.
Verse 1
PRAISE ye the LORD. Praise ye the name of the LORD: praise him, O ye servants of the LORD (135:1).
The exhortation to praise. It seems rather sad and pathetic to me that people have to be exhorted to praise the Lord. It seems to me that this would be one of the most natural things for redeemed man. The Lord has done so much for us you think that praise would just be an automatic natural thing. Everytime we think about God we would be praising the Lord, everytime we would think about what God has done we would be praising the Lord.
I’m afraid lest we are much like those ten lepers who came to Jesus for healing. He said, “Go show yourself to the priests” which was the first step of restoration to society. They had to go be accounted by the priests, be put in the house for seven days and examine them again. If there was no further development then they would be declared clean and bring the sacrifice. They could go back home, they could live in the community once more. So it was the first step of being restored to the community life. As they went to go show themselves to the priests they were cleansed. One of them when he looked down and he saw it’s gone and realized that he was healed, he came running back to Jesus giving thanks to the Lord. The Lord said, “Were there not ten who were cleansed? Where are the nine?” I wonder how many times the Lord is saying “Where are the nine?” Are you among the nine?
To be exhorted to praise the Lord seems to be, to me, a rather sad thing that that is necessary and yet all through the Bible we are exhorted to praise the Lord. Emphasis, three times over the psalmist states to praise him.
Verses 2–3
Ye that stand in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God, Praise the LORD; (135:2-3).
Why?
Verse 3
for the LORD is good: sing praises unto his name; (135:3).
Why?
for it is pleasant (135:3).
It’s good.
Verse 4
For the LORD hath chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure (135:4).
Peter tells us that the Lord has chosen you for his peculiar treasure. He said, “We are a royal priesthood, we are a chosen nation that we should bring forth praise to him, we are his peculiar treasure”. That is one of the most amazing things to me of all, the fact that God treasures me. Now I have every reason in the world to treasure God and to consider him as a glorious treasure. For God to consider me as his treasure is something that I find hard to really grasp.
Paul prayed for the Ephesians that you might know what is his exceeding inheritance in the same. How much God does treasure you. If you only knew how much God treasured you, how much he values you; God’s treasure.
Verse 5
For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods (135:5).
He is great, he’s to be praised above all gods. There are other gods and men have worshiped other gods. Men today do worship other gods but Jehovah is above all gods.
Verse 6
Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, (135:6).
He reigns in heaven, he’s sovereign over the universe.
and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places (135:6).
This is intended to take everything in the universe. The Lord does what he pleases, he’s sovereign. He reigns. He rules.
Verse 7
He causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; (135:7).
Talking now about the rain cycle.
he maketh lightnings for the rain; he bringeth the wind out of his treasuries (135:7).
Beautiful, picturesque. It’s interesting how he sees the rain, the vapors arising from the ends of the earth, how the sun beating down on the ocean the hydrogen and oxygen are turned into gas forms and carried into the atmosphere. Then he takes his wind out of his treasuries and moves these clouds with the gasses. Designs them so that as they cool in the ratio to their cooling the gasses again are condensed to water molecules then they drop thus God has designed to water the earth.
Can you see a design in that at all? Can you see any wisdom in that? In order that we might have water during the long summer times he lets it drop as snow on the mountains preserving it. Keeping it cold so that gradually during the summer the longer days and light hours it melts in the streams. I cannot fathom the audacity of the evolutionists that can look at all of this and think that it all just so happened by chance, fortunately, that this is the way it works. How much better is it that a person can look at this and worship God who designed and created it?
It’s so irrational to worship nature, to look at these things and say, “Marvelous, that’s god”. There are a lot of gods but the God who made them is above them all. These men who are willing to worship these other things, they become the gods in their lives. There is one true and living God who is above all gods.
Verses 8–14
Who smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. Who sent tokens and wonders into the midst of thee, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his servants. Who smote the great nations, and slew mighty kings: Sihon king of the Amorites, and Og King of Bashan, and all of the kingdoms of Canaan: And gave their land for an heritage, an heritage unto Israel his people. Thy name, O LORD, endureth for ever; and thy memorial, O LORD, throughout all generations. For the LORD will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants (135:8-14).
We’ve talked before of this phrase of God repenting. We have a difficulty in talking about God, his nature and characteristics because the only way we can talk about them is in human language. Thus you have that problem of trying of define or to describe an infinite God in finite terms. You can see at the beginning that we are doomed for a real problem. All we can describe God with is terms that we use for ourselves, in terms that we can relate to. God, the infinite God, dwelling in the eternal; we don’t have words to define or describe because we can’t even think, it’s foreign to us to think around the infinite or the eternal or whatever.
In describing God in using human terms, when there seems to be an apparent change, and the word repent in its root is to change, then we say then God repented in that he didn’t destroy, he didn’t wipe out. To actually say that God repents is wrong because the Bible tells us that “God is not a man that he should repent has he not said and shall he not do it”. When we are expecting God to move a certain way and he doesn’t, he doesn’t follow our patterns we say, “God changed his mind”. It would appear that that may have happened but we can only describe it in human terms so we have problems with that. The word is used but in reality God doesn’t change. “Behold I’m the Lord God, I change not.” From our side, so many times, there seems to be an apparent change.
He goes on to contrast the living true God, the creator of the universe, with the gods of the heathen.
Verse 15
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands (135:15).
In other words there are man-created gods. Many people are trying to say today that God is the invention of man. The idea of God was created by man because man needed to believe in something so he made up God. God is sort of a creation of man. What a ridiculous thing! That’s a part of this whole humanism that makes the world revolve around man, man is the top of all things. This elevating of man, humanism, would make God then the invention or the creation of man rather than man being created by God. What a turnaround, “I created God”. That’s certainly is ridiculous!
It is acknowledged that men did make idols and they did worship these idols. The idols were representative to them of their gods. Ancient man lived closer to the truth than we live. We have created so many facades upon façade upon façade that man it’s hard to find the real person, you have to dig through one façade after another to get to the real person. They live closer to nature, closer to earth, closer to reality, closer to truth. We hide the truth, so many times, behind the facades.
They marveled at the reproductive capacity of man, the power to create new life. Thus they began to worship the reproductive organs of the body. They made idols to represent these things. They would worship that because, after all, they mystery of the origin of life, new life, a new child; it was marvelous, it was mysterious. We know it happens but how? It was one of those things that was sort of shrouded in mystery to them but it was godlike in the capacity to create so they worshiped it. They had the female sex goddess Ashorem which was to the Greeks, Aphrodite which was to the Romans, Venus and all of the statues that went with it, the female goddess of sex. All of these idols represented their object of worship.
Now in our world today we have many people who worship sex, it’s their god or goddess. They don’t carve out little idols anymore, they have pictures maybe in magazines that would be an equivalent in a sense to the idols. If you look at a person’s life, their whole life revolves around sex and sexual encounters. The excitement and the sexuality is their whole life, that’s what their life revolves around. That’s what they live for and that’s what they talk about. It is really the god that controls their life. Their life is controlled by this. We are too sophisticated to make an idol today but none the less it is still the god.
In those days they enjoyed pleasure also and so they had their god of pleasure, Molech. The little idols of Molech actually represented the fact that they live for pleasure, their whole life was geared around the pleasure principle. There are people today whose lives are all centered around pleasure. The heathenish, the philosophies that said pleasure was the chief good and there are people today who buy into that. Their whole life, they only work in order that they might get off on the weekend so they can take off with their hang gliders so they can have their thrills, that rush of these things, they live for that. Getting on that curl of that wave and the feeling you get when you go down, that free ride on nature. They don’t have little idols that they put their candles and offer their prayers and all to this little god of pleasure but none the less they still worship pleasure. It is their god.
There were those in those days who worshipped power. I want to have, I want to possess, I want to rule and thus they had their little god of Mammon that represented their chief goal of life. This was to possess to control and to rule. There were those who worshipped the intellect. They said. “The most important thing in life is to know”. They were constantly studying, constantly reading, constantly trying to gain as much insight and knowledge as they possible could. They had their little idol that they carved and they said, “This is the god of knowledge” and they worshipped knowledge; their desire to know.
Men have made these gods themselves, our God made us.
Verse 16
They have mouths, but they speak not; (135:16).
They carved out a little mouth on that idol but they can’t talk.
Verses 16–17
eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: neither is there any breath in their mouths (135:16-17).
In other words when man makes a god he makes it like himself. If a man does not worship the true and the living god then he does worship a projection of himself. Self-worship, if I were god this is what I would do, this is how I would be, this is what I feel is the most important thing in life, this is what I worship, this is the thing that rules me, this is the ideal that governs me and this is my master passion; a projection of me. It’s sort of like me. So when a man makes a god he makes it like himself. Because I have eyes I carve eyes on my little god, because I have ears I carve ears, because I have a mouth I carve a mouth.
When a man makes a god he makes it like himself but he makes it less then himself. Though I carve the ears the little god still can’t hear, though I carve the eyes the little god still can’t see and though I carve a mouth it still cannot count. So I’ve made it like me but in reality I’ve made it less than me.
Verse 18
They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them (135:18).
The inescapable truth of life is that you become like your god. If your god can’t see you are becoming blind to the truth yourself. If your god can’t hear you are becoming deaf to the voice of nature. If your god is insensate you are becoming insensate. If your god is false you are becoming false. A man becomes like his god. Remember when you made your god you made your god like yourself but you made it less than yourself thus if you are becoming like your god you’re on the road down if your god is a false god. Becoming like your god you are degrading. So I want you to observe all of those who have rejected the true and the living God and watch their life. Their lives are in the process of being degraded. Sin is degraded and to worship pleasure is degrading, to worship money is degrading.
On the other hand if a man becomes like his God, if you are worshiping the true and the living God and you are becoming like your God think of how wonderful that is. The scripture affirms that that is true. “Beloved now are we the sons of God it doesn’t yet appear what we are going to be but we know when he appears we are going to be like him." Why? Because I am becoming like my God. Paul said, “And we with unveiled faces as we behold the glory of the Lord are being changed from glory into glory into the same image by the power of the spirit within us”. That’s why it’s so important that you worship the true and the living God because that is always an uplifting, you’re becoming better as you are worshiping the true and the living God. If you are worshiping the false God you are going down, you are being degraded.
I’ve observed something else that I think is rather interesting. For those who have established the intellect as their god, to know and to understand is the most important thing in the world thus I spend my hours in study pouring over volumes that I might expand my understanding of the world around me. Well tell me friend, what about the eternal God, the one who created the universe? The ultimate knowledge would be the knowledge of that eternal God, tell me about him. I’m an agnostic and they make it sound like they came right out of class at Harvard. They give sort of a nasal kind of a Harvard tone so that it really sounds sophisticated. Interesting, do you know what agnostic means? Yes, not to know. It comes from the Greek. Gnosko is to know but an “a” in Greek is a negative prefix, sort of like our non in English. So you have "theos” meaning God and “atheos” meaning no God. Do you know what the Latin word is for not to know? Ignoramus.
You have this guy who says, “To know is the most important thing and I spend my life studying”. Tell me about ultimate knowledge, I’m an ignoramus. In reality that is what they are telling you. Isn’t that fascinating? You make knowledge your god, you worship it and you end up with a confession of ignorance. The person who worships power ends up a slave.
There is a very wealthy man who befriended me, invited me out to lunch. The interesting thing though, this fellow has never had to really work a day in his life but so often I get stuck with the bill. He’s very clever at that because he has a hard time spending his money. He has a hard time letting it go. I’ve met people who have just become a slave to their money. That’s what they worship, they worship it so much they can’t let it go. Instead of enjoying it and using it they just seek to get more and more. They are never satisfied.
So you make power your God and you become a slave. You make intellect your god and you become an ignoramus. You make pleasure your god and you become filled with lust. You begin to have an unfilled desire or worse than that, an unfulfillable desire. The desire is still there but you can’t fulfill it. So you go around in a continual lust never being satisfied, always seeking more and yet you’ve made fulfillment for that moment as your God. You become jaded, tragic. They that worship them become like them and so does everyone who trusts in them.
Verses 19–20
Bless the LORD, O house of Israel: bless the LORD, O house of Aaron: Bless the LORD, O house of Lei: ye that fear the LORD, bless the LORD (135:19-20).
How wonderful it is to worship and to serve the true and the living God to becoming like him. A God of love, I’m becoming loving. The God of purity, I’m becoming pure. A God of holiness, I’m becoming holy. God of righteousness, I’m becoming righteous. A God of peace, I’m filled with peace.
Verse 21
Blessed be the LORD out of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem. Praise ye the LORD (135:21).
May the Lord be with you and keep you in His love and grace this week as you walk in fellowship with Jesus Christ. May the spirit of God work in you as He is conforming you into the image of Jesus. I pray that this week you’ll spend a lot of time in the spiritual development growing spiritually in the things of the Lord and the ways of the Lord, walking in His path.