Psalm 135: 1 Hallelujah! Praise the name of Yahweh; praise Him, O you servants of Yahweh! 2 You who stand in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God. 3 Praise Yah, for Yahweh is good; sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant. 4 For Yahweh has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure. 5 For I know that Yahweh is great, and our Adonay is above all gods. 6 Whatever Yahweh pleases He does, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deep places. 7 He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain; He brings the wind out of His treasuries. 8 He destroyed the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast. 9 He sent signs and wonders into the midst of you, O Egypt, upon Pharaoh and all his servants. 10 He defeated many nations and slew mighty kings— 11 Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan— 12 and gave their land as a heritage, a heritage to Israel His people. 13 Your name, Yahweh, endures forever, Your fame, O Yahweh, throughout all generations. 14 For Yahweh will judge His people, and He will have compassion on His servants. 15 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 16 They have mouths, but they do not speak; eyes they have, but they do not see; 17 They have ears, but they do not hear; nor is there any breath in their mouths. 18 Those who make them are like them; so is everyone who trusts in them. 19 Bless Yahweh, O house of Israel! Bless Yahweh, O house of Aaron! 20 Bless Yahweh, O house of Levi! You who fear Yahweh, bless Yahweh! 21 Blessed be Yahweh out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem! Hallelujah!
“This glorious psalm of universal praise, placed at the end of the ‘Songs of Up-goings,’ which flow into it, and find their response in it, may be likened to a large and beautiful lake, into which rivers discharge their waters, and lose themselves in its calm expanse.” (Christopher Wordsworth) “Israel cleansed and redeemed is now His servant (Zechariah 3:7). They are His peculiar treasure (Psalms 135:4; Exodus 19:5). Then once more the remembrance of the deliverances of the past, the contrast with the idols of the nations (like Psalms 115:1-18) and the call to the house of Aaron, the house of Israel, the house of Levi and all that fear Him, to bless the Lord.” (Arno Gaebelein)
“’Praise Yah. ‘The first discovery of the name I AM, which signifies the Divine eternity, as well as immutability, was for the comfort of the oppressed Israelites in Egypt: Exo 3:14-15. It was then published from the secret place of the Almighty, as the only strong cordial to refresh them. It hath not yet, it shall not ever, lose its virtue in any of the miseries that have or shall successively befall the church. 'Tis as durable as the God whose name it is: He is still I AM and the same to the church as He was then to His Israel. His spiritual Israel have a greater right to the glories of it than the carnal Israel could have.” (Stephen Charnock) “Praise Him, O you servants of Yahweh! You who stand in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God.’ (1) Ye priests and Levites, as in the former Psalm, or the people; that stand in the courts of the house of our God.” (Benson)— “’You who stand in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God.’ (2) Where the people also had a place, 2 Chronicles 4:9, and are required to bear a part in this heavenly Hallelujah.” (Trapp) “And if ye were to be for ever only servants, ye ought to praise the Lord; how much more ought those servants to praise the Lord who have obtained the privilege of sons?” (Augustine)
“‘Praise Yah, for Yahweh is good.’ The last words may also he translated, ‘He is lovely,’ i.e. an object worthy of supreme attachment.” (Joseph Addison Alexander) “‘For it is pleasant.’ (3) And it is not only a reasonable service, but a pleasant service, when we praise Him.” (Robert Hawker) “True joy of the Holy Ghost will not endure to be kept and cooped up in any one man's breast and bosom, but it striveth to get companions both for the pouring out and imparting of itself unto them, that they may be filled and refreshed out of this spring of joy; as also that itself may be the more increased and inflamed by the united rejoicing of many good hearts together, that are all baptized in one spirit, and are made able to inflame and to edify one another.” (Thomas Brightman)
“‘For Yahweh has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His special treasure.’ (4) Many have not the knowledge of God, and others live in the church but are carnal; and for me to be one of His peculiar people, a member of Christ's mystical body, oh! what a privilege is this! And then what moved Him to all this? Nothing but His own free grace. Therefore praise the Lord.” (Thomas Manton) He has chosen Israel for His special treasure. “Will not a man that is not defective in his prudentials secure his jewels ‘They shall be mine in that day when I make up my jewels, and I will spare them as a father his son that serveth him:’ Mal 3:17. If a house be on fire, the owner of it will first take care of his wife and children, then of his jewels, and last of all, of his lumber and rubbish. Christ secures first His people, for they are his jewels; the world is but lumber and rubbish.” (Richard Mayhew)—> “‘For I know that Yahweh is great!’ Whatever may be the case with others, I have had personal and precious experience of the greatness of Jehovah's power, and of his infinite supremacy above all other gods. The author of the psalm may either speak for all Israel as a unit, or he may have framed his song so that every worshipper might say this for himself as his own testimony.” (Henry Cowles)—
“’and our Adonay is above all gods.’ (5) “David, in the Court of Achish, would have found his declaration as unwelcome, as it would have been rejected as untrue…. and even of Jehovah's peculiar treasure, all were not Israel that were of Israel. There is a knowledge that plays round the head, like lightning on a mountain's summit, that leaves no trace behind; and there is a knowledge that, like the fertilizing stream, penetrates into the very recesses of the heart, and issues forth in all the fruits of holiness, of love, and peace, and joy for evermore.” (Barton Bouchier)
“All” Yahweh pleases He does, etc. (6)— The word ‘pleaseth’ limits the general note or particle ‘all’ unto all works which in themselves are good, or else serve for good use, and so are pleasing to the Lord for the use sake. He doth not say that the Lord doth all things which are done, but all things which He pleaseth, that is, He doth not make men sinful and wicked, neither doth He work rebellion in men, which is displeasing unto Him; but he doth whatsoever is pleasing, that is, all things which are agreeable to His nature. And whatsoever is according to His will and good pleasure, that He doth, for none can hinder it.” (George Walker)
Jehovah is the rightful Owner of celestial artillery (Horne). “He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth.’ Mr. Burgess is undoubtedly right in referring this to the mist which went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground ‘before the useful trouble of the rain’ (Gen 2:6), since the original passage in Genesis has a plain reference to the story of the Creation, and the rain is immediately mentioned as coming into existence after the vapours.” (C. J. Ellicott)
“No mention is made of rain on the earth until the Flood (Gen. 7:4,12). The original earth and the Garden of Eden were watered by streams, rivers, and mist instead of by rain (Genesis 2:5,6,10). These sources may have been replenished from groundwater. Humidity and mist are still effective today in watering plants.” (Donald B. DeYoung) “’He makes lightning for the rain;’ It is a great instance of the divine wisdom and goodness, that lightning should be accompanied by rain, to soften its rage, and prevent its mischievous effects. Thus, in the midst of judgment, does God remember mercy. The threatenings in His Word against sinners are like lightning; they would blast and scorch us up, were it not for His promises made in the same word to penitents, which, as a gracious rain, turn aside their fury, refreshing and comforting our frightened spirits… ‘He brings the wind out of His treasuries.’ (7)“ (Bishop Horne) “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.” (Exodus 14:21) Israel passed through.
Who smote the firstborn, many nations and mighty kings, including all of the kingdoms of Canaan— “Let us not stand in fear of any enemies that rise up against us, and conspire to hinder the peace of the church, and stop the passage of the gospel; when God begins to take the cause of His people into His own hand, and smiteth any of His enemies on the jaw-bone, the rest are reserved to the like destruction.” (William Attersoll) Who smote the mighty kings of the earth- Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan. “When Israel arrived on the borders of the Promised Land they encountered Sihon. (Num 21:21.) He was evidently a man of very great courage and audacity. Shortly before the time of Israel's arrival he had dispossessed the Moabites of a splendid territory, driving them south of the natural bulwark of the Arnon with great slaughter and the loss of a great number of captives (21:26-29). When the Israelite host appears, he does not hesitate or temporize like Balak, but at once gathers his people together and attacks them. But the battle was his last. He and all his host were destroyed, and their district from Arnon to Jabbok became at once the possession of the conqueror.” (Smith's Dictionary of the Bible)
“Of the King of Bashan was much more formidable even than Sihon, but he seems to have fallen yet more easily, judging from the brief notice of the conquest.” (Pulpit Comm.) “The idols of the nations are silver and gold. ‘Like them shall be those making them, every one who (is) trusting in them.’ If the meaning had been simply, those who make them are like them, Hebrew usage would have required the verb to be suppressed. Its insertion, therefore, in the future form éäÀéåÌ requires it to be rendered strictly shall be, i.e., in fate as well as character. Idolaters shall perish with their perishable idols. See Isa 1:31.” (Joseph Addison Alexander)
“‘Bless Yahweh’— And not an idol (Isa 66:3), as the Philistines did their Dagon, and as Papists still do their he-saints and she-saints.” (Trapp) “The fourfold division of the chosen race deserves our thought, Psalms 135:19-21. Some belonged to the great commonwealth of Israel, some to the priestly family of Aaron, some to the meaner and humbler ranks of Levi, and some were proselytes who just feared the Lord; but none could be excused from the offering of praise. Whoever and whatever we may be, let us never fail to add our quota of adoration to that song which John tells us he heard arising from all in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and on the sea, Revelation 5:13—And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 'Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations!'" (F.B. Meyer)—“’out of Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem! The conclusion, Psa 135:21, alludes to the conclusion of the preceding Psalm. There, Yahweh blesses thee out of Zion; here, let Him be blessed out of Zion.” (E. W. Hengstenberg) Hallelujah! (21b) Praise the Great I AM! Jesus, boldly declared. "Before Abraham was I AM." (John 8:58)