Psalms 135

Praise him, you servants of the LORD. Clarke frames the whole as exhortation for goodness, greatness, wonders in nature and Egypt, then the vanity of idols. Servants are named as the choir, not as spectators.

Hallelujah is a sincere summons to willing praise under grace. The name is praised because it is worthy; servants answer freely, not as mute instruments.

Calvin: exhortation to praise for goodness to the chosen and for power apparent in the world. Servants and name come first so gratitude is not skipped for invented rites.

Praise reiterated because we undervalue it and are tardy. Praise the LORD; servants of the LORD.

You who stand in the LORD’s house, in the courts of our God’s house. Wesley: ye—ye priests and Levites. Clarke: priests and Levites. Courts widen the call beyond the inner house alone.

Ordered servants lead, yet the courts include the people. Praise is public liturgy, not private mood.

Calvin: not Levites only—reasons apply to all God’s children; priests lead, people in the courts respond (plural courts: priestly and common).

Ordered worship that includes the whole congregation. The worshipers stand in the LORD’s house and in its courts.

Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good. Sing praises to his name, for that is pleasant. Clarke: first reason—He is good; second—it is becoming and truly comfortable to an upright mind to acknowledge this infinite Being.

Goodness sincerely invites song. Pleasant praise is fitting response, not flattery of a reluctant deity.

Calvin: no sacrifice delights God more than thanksgiving; reiteration censures our tardiness. “Pleasant” may mean the name is sweet, or singing praises is comely.

Gratitude is the heart of worship. Both affirm: the LORD is good; pleasant to sing His name.

For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own possession. Clarke: He has taken the Israelites for His peculiar people, His peculiar treasure. Covenant belonging is the third reason for praise.

Election here names treasured peoplehood that stirs gratitude and vocation—Jacob chosen for the LORD, not abandoned to idols.

Calvin: chosen as peculiar treasure while the Gentile world was passed by—incomparable mercy. Praise of election given to God proves no excellency of their own, but free mercy.

Particular adoption of Jacob. Shared with Clarke: Israel as the LORD’s own possession.

For I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is above all gods. Clarke: unlimited in power; Fountain of existence above every class of being, whether idolized or not. “I know” is confessed experience.

Where they meet: greatness over rival gods. Classical Arminians preach a living God who eclipses idols without denying the hearer’s duty to know and confess.

Calvin: from his own knowing he stirs others—immensity incomprehensible, yet glory manifested enough to leave ignorance without excuse. The covenant God is Creator; departure from His law is renunciation of the true God.

Retain Israel in the one true God. Both traditions hear: the LORD is great, above all gods.

Whatever the LORD pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. Clarke: all He has done is right and therefore pleasing in His sight; all realms are under His control.

Sovereignty that is wise and righteous—not random force. What He pleases is what is right; creation is not orphaned from His will.

Calvin: not idle in heaven resigning reins to chance—practical power; special providence; nothing by chance; will implies counsel; nothing without divine will and decree; mysterious will still fountain of justice.

Whatever He pleases, He does—against fortune and bare “general providence.” Common reading: heaven, earth, seas, deeps.

He makes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth, lightnings with the rain. He wind from His storehouses. Wesley: rain—an eminent instance of His good providence; from all parts of the earth.

Ordinary weather is praise-material. Good providence in clouds and wind is meant to be noticed and sung, not treated as blind nature only.

Calvin: examples that nothing happens of itself—vapors, lightning mixed with rain, winds. Not philosophers’ bare order only: when it rains, by divine commission, not blind instinct of nature.

God’s providence reaches down to clouds, lightning, and rain. Wesley says as much: rain as providence.

He struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and animal. Deliverance history enters the hymn: judgment that opened Israel’s way out.

The death of Egypt’s firstborn was a stroke in history. Arminians refuse a God who cannot act; praise names mercy to Israel through Egypt’s loss.

Calvin: reverts to special benefits that obliged the Church—God opposed great kingdoms for His people’s sake. Firstborn struck as memorable proof of regard for their safety.

Egypt’s blow as fatherly love to the chosen. Firstborn of Egypt struck.

He sent signs and wonders into the middle of you, Egypt, on Pharaoh and on all his servants. Egypt is addressed as the theater of signs—Pharaoh’s court is not a rival providence.

The fork is not whether God sent them.

Calvin’s frame: signs and wonders in Egypt abundantly testify power and mercy in delivering the people.

Pharaoh’s servants under the same hand. Either reading: signs against Pharaoh.

He struck many nations, and killed mighty kings. Conquest follows exodus in the praise list—many nations, not one night only.

The LORD’s hand in history is moral and purposeful; kings fall under judgment that serves the heritage of His people.

Calvin: He did not lead them out to wander aimlessly but to settle them in the promised inheritance—continued power after Egypt.

God’s kindness did not tire until his people possessed the land. Both sides agree: nations and kings struck down.

Named foes keep memory concrete—anonymous “nations” become faces at the border.

Particular kings under the LORD’s strike. Praise refuses vague spirituality detached from the story.

Calvin: Sihon and Og first formidable at the entrance; people not yet habituated to war. Preference for a multitude of inconsiderable persons over mighty kings.

Divine goodness in the preference. Sihon, Og, kingdoms of Canaan.

And gave their land for a heritage, a heritage to Israel, his people Israel. Double “heritage” stresses gift—land as covenant grant, not mere spoil.

Gift-language invites gratitude and faithful living in the land, not boast in Israel’s sword alone.

Calvin: crowning goodness—firm possession; keeping no less achievement than acquiring, with deadly enemies around.

Heritage held by the LORD’s hand. Both traditions see: land as heritage to Israel.

Your name, LORD, endures forever; your renown, LORD, throughout all generations. Name and memorial outlast empires and the idols about to be mocked.

Both note: forever name. Listen here for enduring fame that still calls living servants to bless Him now.

Calvin: everlasting praise due for preserving Church and people; the whole world is theater of divine attributes, but the Church is the orchestra—most conspicuous part.

Name forever tied to Church preservation. Name and renown forever.

For the LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants. Wesley: Judge—will in due time plead their cause; Repent—He will recall that severe sentence which for their sins He had passed upon them.

Vindication and compassion arrive in history’s due time. Severe sentence for sin is not in doubt; so is recall in mercy toward servants who remain His.

Calvin: judging = just government; God watches and preserves; under affliction sustain hope—help at proper season when sufficiently humbled; temporary displeasure; mercy in wrath; He cannot bear to be left childless of His people.

God’s compassion restores his people as a father would. Wesley concurs: vindicate and show compassion.

The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. Clarke notes the near-parallel to Psalm 115. Handmade gods are demoted by their metal and their makers.

Common confession: idols are human workmanship. Classical Arminians and Reformed unite against trust in crafted deities.

Calvin: heathen stupidity seeking nearness by idols; Israel reminded of signal mercy to abide in pure worship.

The psalm sets idol superstition against the simplicity of true worship. Both readings hold: idols of silver and gold, human hands.

They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they can’t see. Sensory organs without life—parody of the living God who speaks and sees.

Both agree: dead images cannot answer. The contrast with the speaking, seeing LORD needs no genre detour.

Calvin’s contrast (with Ps 115): vain show of divinity against the God who proved Himself by clear proofs—so the people praise and submit more cheerfully.

Mouths that do not speak; eyes that do not see.

They have ears, but they can’t hear, neither is there any breath in their mouths. Breathlessness is the punchline—no life-breath, no answer.

Do not trust what cannot hear your cry. The God of vv. 1–14 breathes wind from storehouses; idols have none.

No breath in their mouths—Calvin’s larger point: lying vanities cannot claim deity beside the LORD who governs deeps and wind.

Breathless idols vs the living God. Agreed: ears that do not hear.

Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them. Trust reshapes the trustor—makers and trusters go numb like their craft.

Imitation runs both ways. Trust the living LORD and become responsive; trust silver silence and grow like it.

Calvin: the more zealous for idols, the heavier the judgment; aim is to deter those under the Word from following their example.

Makers and trusters become like their trust. Become like them.

House of Aaron, praise the LORD! People and priestly house are named to bless—liturgy for the whole covenant family.

Both hear: blessing commanded. Classical Arminians hear sincere corporate duty under grace.

Calvin: here bless (as Ps 115 says trust); house of Aaron with Israel—priestly lead in blessing.

Blessing as the people’s work. Israel and Aaron bless the LORD.

O house of Levi, praise the LORD! You who fear the LORD, praise the LORD! Levi added; then all who fear—so the circle is not bloodline alone.

Fear of the LORD widens the choir. The summons is toward all who fear His name.

Calvin: Levites added—two orders of priesthood; and those who fear Jehovah. Everything else matches the twin psalm’s close.

Fearers included with Levi. Levi and all who fear, bless.

Blessed be the LORD from Zion, who dwells in Jerusalem. Praise the LORD! Blessing is located where He pledged presence, then sealed with Hallelujah.

Zion-praise is not escape from obedience elsewhere—it is the fountain-place of blessing for servants who stand in His courts.

Calvin: blesses out of Zion because God promised to hear and display favor there; “dwells in Jerusalem” is visible manifestation of favor, not cramped localism—majesty fills heaven and earth.

Zion as pledged meeting-place. Blessed be the LORD from Zion; Praise the LORD!