Psalm 135
Whatever the Lord pleases, He does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps.
He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
who makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and of beast,
who in your midst, O Egypt, sent signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants,
who struck down many nations and killed mighty kings,
Sihon, king of the Amorites, and Og, king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan,
and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to His people, Israel.
Your name, O Lord, endures forever, your renowned, O Lord, throughout all ages,
for the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants.
The idols of the nations are silver and gold with the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak.
They have eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear.
Nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them become like them.
So do all who trust in them.
O house of Israel, bless the Lord.
O house of Aaron, bless the Lord.
O house of Levi, bless the Lord.
You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord.
Blessed be the Lord from Zion, he who dwells in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.
Psalm 135 is a chorus of praise to God.
Praise the Lord is the phrase that's hallelujah that we are familiar with.
It begins with the invitation to praise the Lord in verses 1 to 4,
and it ends with the invitation to praise the Lord in verses 19 to 21.
But this isn't an invitation to everyone.
There are psalms, for example, like Psalm 150, which extends the invitation to everyone.
So it says in Psalm 150, verse 6,
But Psalm 135 is addressing a more exclusive audience.
It says in verses 1 to 2,
Praise the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord.
Give praise, O servants of the Lord,
who stand in the house of the Lord,
in the courts of the house of our God.
So if you read that, you could probably,
you probably notice the emphatic kind of repetition of the phrase,
of the Lord, of the Lord, right?
Name of the Lord, servants of the Lord,
house of the Lord, courts of God.
So this is a specific invitation to the chosen people of God,
the people to whom God has revealed His name, the Lord,
and the people who dwell in God's chosen place,
who are worshiping in the temple of the Lord.
So there's a sense of kind of this beaming pride in these verses of God,
of being God's people.
It's saying we do not praise any old name.
No, he says we praise the name of the Lord.
We're not servants of any old God.
No, he says we are servants of the Lord.
We do not worship in any old place.
No, we worship in the house of the Lord,
because He is our God, it says,
the God who has redeemed us,
the God to whom we belong.
And then verses 3 to 4 give us some of the general reasons
why we should praise Him.
It says,
Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good.
Sing to His name, for it is pleasant.
For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself.
Israel has His own possession.
So it says that the Lord is good and that His name is pleasant.
And why is that?
Why is He good?
Why is His name pleasant?
And then he gives the reason,
For the Lord has chosen us as His own possession.
So the fact that God chooses His people,
that's what we call the doctrine of election, right?
God is the creator of the cosmos,
and He therefore owns everything.
So it's not like there's anything that He doesn't own as His possession.
In that sense, all the nations belong to Him.
And yet, there's a distinction that out of all those nations,
God chose Israel as His own possession,
to put His name on them in a special way.
But why did He do that?
Was Israel particularly appealing or glorious or powerful as a nation?
It says in Deuteronomy 7, verses 6-9,
God says,
Lord Moses says,
For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.
The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession
out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.
It was not because you were more in number than any other people
that the Lord set His love on you and chose you.
For you are the fewest of all peoples.
But it is because the Lord loves you
and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers
that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand
and redeemed you from the house of slavery.
And so Israel was not more numerous or powerful than the surrounding nations.
God did not choose them for these reasons.
So then, was Israel more righteous compared to the surrounding nations?
Deuteronomy 9, verses 4-5 says this,
Do not say in your heart,
After the Lord your God has thrust them out before you,
Well, it's because of my righteousness
that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land.
Whereas it is because of the wickedness of these nations
that the Lord is driving them out before you,
not because of your righteousness
or the uprightness of your heart
are you going in to possess their land.
But because of the wickedness of these nations
the Lord your God is driving them out from before you,
and that He may confirm the word
that the Lord swore to your fathers,
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
So once again, God did not choose Israel
because of their moral uprightness either.
He didn't choose them because they were a powerful nation.
He didn't choose them because they were righteous.
He's simply keeping the promise He had made to their forefathers.
Well, then why did God choose their forefather Jacob,
also called Israel?
Romans 9, verses 10-13 says,
So that's the love-hate contrast
that Hebrew uses.
It's an idiom that indicates the choice of one over another.
God chose Jacob over Esau.
And there was nothing,
according to that passage in Romans 9,
about Israel, about Jacob,
that commanded God's special affection.
And yet God chose him.
Before he had done anything good or bad.
And that's the mystery of God's election.
Why did He choose His people?
That it's unconditional.
There's no merit.
There's no deservingness on the part of the people
for God's choosing them.
Well, if that's the case,
then isn't that unfair?
Well, if it's unconditional,
shouldn't God choose based on people's merit?
Shouldn't God choose people that are more deserving?
Right?
Paul anticipates that objection in Romans 9, 14-15.
He says,
What shall we say then?
Is there injustice on God's part?
By no means.
For he says to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
And so that leads to the question,
Well, how does that in any way dispel the objection
that it's unfair of God to choose a certain people
for salvation and not others?
Because it simply seems to restate the problem, right?
It says,
God is merciful to whom He wills.
Yes.
But the question is,
why He chooses to be merciful to some and not to others?
But the answer lies in the fact that
that's a quotation from Exodus 33, verse 19.
And in that context,
it's an interpretation of God's name,
the Lord, Jehovah.
So the logic of Paul's argument
is that God's unconditional election
is connected to the revelation of God's name,
the Lord, Jehovah.
It says in Exodus 33, 18-9,
I will make all my goodness pass before you
and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord,
and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious
and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.
So then God's showing mercy to whomever He wills
is connected to His name.
And that's the name that occurs
as a main theme of this psalm.
The word name occurs three times in the psalm,
verses 1, 3, and 13.
And the actual name of God, Jehovah,
in all caps of the Lord,
occurs 19 times in this psalm.
And it's intricately connected
to the idea of God's election.
And that's because the Lord, Jehovah,
means I am who I am.
I have mercy on whom I have mercy.
I show compassion to whom I show compassion.
In other words, dispensing mercy to whomever God wants
is part and parcel of the name of God.
It's part of God's essential nature
to bestow mercy on whomever He pleases
without being constrained by anyone else,
anyone else's desire or will.
That's essentially what it means to be God.
That's what it means to be sovereign,
to not have anyone else with authority over you,
to control, constrain anything that you do.
I am who I am.
I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.
And that actually increases God's glory,
His stature.
But not only that,
it also magnifies God's grace.
Because if God chooses us
because we are in one way or another
better than other people,
whether it's because we're smarter
or more moral or more faith-filled
or more sincere,
then we deserve at least some of the credit
for God's choosing us,
for being chosen,
because we deserve it.
But if God's election is unconditional,
if the reason for God's choosing us
doesn't lie in us,
not in our merit,
but in God's mysterious will,
if it lies in His grace,
then He deserves all the credit
for our salvation.
And so in his autobiography,
Charles Spurgeon once said this,
he says,
I believe the doctrine of election
because I am quite certain
that if God had not chosen me,
I should never have chosen Him.
And I am sure He chose me
before I was born,
or else He never would have chosen me afterwards.
And He must have elected me
for reasons unknown to me,
for I never could find in myself
why He should have looked upon me
with special love.
So I am forced to accept
that great biblical doctrine.
And then in verses,
that's the invitation to praise the Lord
because He has chosen us
as His people.
And then in verses 5 to 18,
the psalmist kind of talks about
the worthiness of the Lord
and the worthlessness of idols in turn
to convey what an immense privilege it is
to be chosen by the Lord.
It says in verses 5 to 7,
We will see clearly in verses 15 to 18
that the so-called gods
that these verses are speaking of
are actually no gods at all.
But verse 5 makes the rhetorical point
that our Lord is above all gods.
Whatever the Lord pleases, He does.
Once again, that's what it means to be God,
to be the Lord, Yehovah,
who does what He pleases.
This doesn't make Him a tyrant
because He's good.
He's not evil.
But there is no God or man
that constrains Him in any way.
No one is above Him.
He doesn't owe anyone anything.
And if you look at the pagan religions
of the ancient world,
sky, which is what it's referring to here
as heaven,
earth,
seas,
deeps,
referring to the subterranean depths,
lightning,
rain,
these were all attributed
to various gods
within their pantheon, right?
They all represented deities.
But the psalmist tells us
that all of these powers
and all of these realms
belong exclusively
to the one God,
the Lord,
the Yehovah.
He's the only God
who rules over all these things.
And He is our God.
That's the amazing thing about it.
And then in verses 8 to 12,
the psalmist reminds us
of Israel's exodus from Egypt
and of their conquest of Canaan,
both of which display God's power and glory.
He it was who struck down
the firstborn of Egypt,
both a man and a beast,
who in your midst, O Egypt,
sent signs and wonders
against Pharaoh and all the servants,
who struck down many nations
and killed mighty kings,
Sion king of the Amorites,
and Og king of Bashan,
and all the kingdoms of Canaan,
and gave their land as a heritage,
a heritage to his people Israel.
And it's really a remarkable piece
of ancient history
that a nation as small
and insignificant as Israel
escapes the slavery
in the most powerful nation
in the ancient Near East, Egypt.
And then after a period
of wandering in the wilderness,
with no city or home base
to speak of,
they successfully conquer
numerous nations
more powerful than they
in the land of Canaan.
And this was all God's doing.
This Psalm is telling us
He's the one that sent
signs and wonders in Egypt.
He's the one who struck down
many nations
and killed mighty kings.
And once again,
why did God do this for them?
Verses 13 to 14 tell us,
Your name, O Lord,
endures forever.
Your renown, O Lord,
throughout all ages.
For the Lord will vindicate
His people and have compassion
on His servants.
God did it for the glory
of His name.
When He vindicates
His own people
and delivers them,
has compassion on them,
He vindicates His own glory.
It's showing that He is faithful
to His covenant,
that His name is holy,
that He is the glorious one.
That's the worth,
the worthiness of God,
of the Lord.
And then in contrast to the Lord,
it says in verses 15 to 18,
The idols of the nations
are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths,
but do not speak.
They have eyes,
but do not see.
They have ears,
but do not hear,
nor is there any breath
in their mouths.
Those who make them
become like them,
so do all who trust in them.
So the Lord created
the heavens and the earth,
as we saw in the first half,
but these so-called gods
of the nations
are mere idols
that have been created
by human hands.
Instead of being creators,
they are creatures,
and not even live creatures.
They're dead, right?
They're powerless to do anything
because they're mute,
they're blind,
they're deaf,
and they're dead.
They have no breath
in their mouths.
And that's the irony of it all,
of idolatry,
is that people create
in the image of God
dignified creatures,
human beings
with the breath of God in them.
They are the pinnacle
of God's creation.
They have mouths
and they speak.
They have eyes and they see.
They have ears and they hear.
And they have the breath of God
in their mouths.
And yet they,
the image bearers of God Almighty,
they worship idols
who can do nothing for them.
It's tragic, right?
In the U.S.,
most people don't worship
idols made by human hands,
but we worship idols
made by human minds.
We worship the idols
of power and platform.
We worship the idols
of beauty,
and affection.
We worship the idol
of money.
We crave the approval
of our fellow creatures
to be loved and liked
by people
and forsake the approval
of our God creator.
But God warns us here,
those who make them
become like them.
So do all who trust in them.
So we're not to trust
in the idols of our world.
Instead,
we're to trust
in the true God
who alone satisfies.
And then at the conclusion,
it comes back to inviting us
to praise the Lord
in verses 19 to 21.
And it includes
all the different groups
of people among God's people.
O house of Israel,
representing all of them,
bless the Lord.
O house of Aaron,
representing the priests,
bless the Lord.
O house of Levi,
representing the Levites
who work as attendants
in the temple,
bless the Lord.
You who fear the Lord,
bless the Lord.
Blessed be the Lord
from Zion,
he who dwells in Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord.
And this is again
an exclusive invitation.
It addresses
the house of Israel,
God's chosen people.
It calls them to worship
the God who dwells
in Jerusalem.
And this is great news.
If you belong to Him,
if you are part
of His special chosen people,
but for those other nations
that He spoke of,
that God,
the mighty kings
that God defeated,
for sinners who,
by their sin,
leave the God
of their covenant,
as Israel does
over and over again
so that they get exiled,
being kicked out
of the promised land,
this is bad news.
They are cut off
from this great favor
of this great mighty God,
the Lord.
And that's
what ultimately
points to Jesus
and is that
praise be to God.
I mean,
we are,
I think we're all
right now,
we're all Gentiles,
if I'm not mistaken.
that means none of us
deserved this.
We were all
cut off from this
because of our sin
and we had no hope
of salvation
and no privilege
of worshiping Him.
But Jesus comes
and He
dies
on the cross
and by the cross,
as it says
in Ephesians chapter 2,
He breaks down
the dividing wall
of hostility
between God and man
and between Jews
and Gentiles
so that we too
can have
this privilege
of calling
this great God,
the Lord Almighty,
as our God
and worshiping Him.
And then to be called
His chosen people
as 1 Peter chapter 2
verses 9 to 10 says,
but you,
you are a chosen race,
a royal priesthood,
a holy nation,
a people
for His own possession
that you may proclaim
the excellencies of Him
who called you
out of darkness
into His marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God's people.
Once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
that's us, right?
God says,
I have mercy
on whom I have mercy.
We were not
one of those people
on whom God had mercy
apart from Jesus.
But Jesus comes,
dies for our sins,
and now,
once you had not
received mercy,
but now you have
received mercy,
that's what God says
of us.
And in the same way,
before,
Israel had nothing
about them
to commend them to God.
Likewise,
now there's nothing
about us,
to commend us to God,
nothing about us
that deserves this.
We were,
as Paul says
in 1 Corinthians 1,
not wise,
not powerful,
not of noble birth,
but God chose
what is foolish
in the world
to shame the wise.
That's the grace
that God has shown us.
And how can we not
praise the Lord?
How can we not
sing His praises
all our days
and look forward
to eternity
of praising Him?
That's our privilege
as God's people.
People for His own
special possession.
Thank you.