Why do we praise the LORD? It sounds like a terrible question to ask, and perhaps the instinctive—and correct, as far as it goes—answer is, “Because He is the Lord; He deserves to be praised just because of who He is!” But Psalm 135 doesn’t stop with that answer. In an astonishing medley of quotes and paraphrases from all over the Old Testament,[1] the psalmist calls us to worship the LORD, the Almighty Creator, the Invincible Protector, the Irreplaceable Giver of Life.
Praise the LORD! A Call to Worship (v. 1-4). The opening verses call us, those who serve God, to praise Him. And, not content to simply call us to praise and refer us to verses 5 and following to see why, here in the psalm’s introduction the writer gives us three reasons right from the start:
1. Because the LORD is good (v. 3a). He does what is right. His actions are made for the right reasons. He loves what is good and hates what is evil. His every word and deed shows Him to be worthy of praise.[2]
2. Because His name is delightful[3] (v. 3b). When verse 3 says to sing praises to His name, for it is pleasant, the psalmist isn’t simply saying it’s fun to sing hymns (though it can be). The name of the LORD, reflecting His character and His nature, brings us pleasure when we rightly understand Him. There’s something in us that delights to speak or write the name of our beloved (have you noticed how many times a newly engaged couple can work each others’ names into a conversation?), and Christ has truly shown Himself to be our Beloved as He takes us to be His bride.
3. Because He has chosen to love us (v. 4). God didn’t get stuck with us, obligated to take care of us as if He had found us lying on the doorstep. No, He chose Israel to be His special treasure, intentionally identifying Himself with a specific people and actually declaring them to be His delight! And He didn’t choose this people because He needed their strength, resources, or moral support; the psalmist quotes from Deuteronomy 7, where Moses reminds Israel that
the LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage (Deut. 7:6-8).
Not only that, but He has expanded Israel, bringing all sorts of people—former outsiders like us—into one new nation, one new people (Rom. 11:11-18, Eph. 2:11-22). He has taken proud, hateful, hopeless outsiders and has decided to love us into His family forever. Praise the LORD!
Praise the Almighty Creator (v. 5-7). This God who is good and delightful, this one who has loved us, isn’t just any god. He is not only good, but great; He is unstoppable as He rules over every part of heaven and earth and sea. He isn’t one among many competing deities, each with his or her own sphere; He stands above all of creation, ordering every part of nature, shaping lightning and permitting or forbidding winds to blow. Every storm is a testimony to the vast power of the God who is sovereign even in a troubled, broken world; every calm when a storm passes is a testimony to the promise of a God who will one day restore perfect peace. When we see this incomparable God on His throne, we bow in silence—and praise Him in awe-struck admiration.
Praise the Invincible Protector (v. 8-14). This good and unstoppable God who does as He pleases doesn’t merely sit above the fray and watch. He is not only the Creator, but the Protector of those on whom He has set His love. His destruction of Egypt, Sihon, Og, and the Canaanites was not a fit of caprice; it was a mark of His love for the Israelites they had sought to destroy. God wreaks havoc and upends empires for the sake of His beloved; He puts down Middle Eastern superpowers for the sake of a few Hebrew slaves whom He has determined to make His sons and daughters, and drives child-sacrificing idolaters from the Land to keep promises to His long-dead followers (v. 8-12). In doing so, He preserves a people who will tell of His character and His mighty acts forever (v. 13) in a song ringing from the banks of the Red Sea, to the time of the psalmists, to the eternal banqueting hall of the New Jerusalem. He will show compassion by bringing His people justice (v. 14), and we will have eons to praise Him for rescuing us from enemies and from ourselves.
Praise the LORD, and Accept No Substitutes (v. 15-18)! And because no other so-called god has loved an undeserving people, made the heavens and earth, and brought justice to the weak and oppressed like the LORD, only a fool will turn away from the true and living God to serve idols. Here the psalmist turns to one of the classic statements of the pointlessness of idols, Psalm 115, to remind us that nothing created rises above its creator; gods made by men remain helpless, unable to speak or to act to rescue their makers. In the end, those who count on dead idols end up dead (v. 18); only the living God who first breathed life into Adam can save lives! Don’t waste your time counting on things that cannot save—whether officially named false gods, or security, or a sense of control in an out-of-control world, or a person or place that seems to make you safe. None of these made heaven and earth, and none of these can deliver us in the end.
Bless the LORD! A Concluding Call to Worship (v. 19-21). And so the psalmist finishes where he began, inviting us to lift our voices to the LORD who has gathered His people and has come to live among them. He begins with all Israel, the entire people of God, then zooms in to the house of Aaron, and then expands again to include all those who are set apart for the Lord’s service and finally to all who fear the LORD, regardless of their origins. Kidner observes that, while the parallel passage in Psalm 115 calls us to honor God by fully trusting Him, the blessing commanded here is an “outward display of gratitude and praise.”[4] Yet genuine outward praise will stem from a heart that is resting on the LORD as our help and shield. And it is fitting for that praise to begin in Zion (v. 21), beginning with those who have already experienced the presence and the abiding nearness of our King, our Maker and Protector.
It’s not enough to tell others (or ourselves) to praise the LORD; we will end up simply going through the motions. But when we see afresh who He is and what He has done, then our lives will overflow into praise.
Grace and peace, Mike Yates
For further thought and discussion: Where have you seen God’s almighty rule and protection at work lately?
[1] Every verse in this psalm either repeats or echoes other Scripture. Derek Kidner’s commentary draws out the parallels and their significance beautifully; see Kidner, Psalms 73-150 (Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1973), 455-457.
[3] Kidner’s excellent rendering of the word the NKJV translates as “pleasant.” Psalms, 455.
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