Charles Ellicott Commentary Psalms 135
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 135
Charles Ellicott Commentary
Psalms 135
"Praise ye Jehovah. Praise ye the name of Jehovah; Praise [him], O ye servants of Jehovah," — Psalms 135:1 (ASV)
The psalm opens with an adaptation and expansion of Psalms 134:1. As there, the priestly class is addressed. Some, however, think that the addition, “courts of the house of our God,” as well as Psalms 135:19, apply to all those standing in covenant relation to Jehovah. This is possible, but not proved by the evidence presented.
"Praise ye Jehovah; for Jehovah is good: Sing praises unto his name; for it is pleasant." — Psalms 135:3 (ASV)
Sing praises. — Rather, play.
For it is pleasant— i.e., in this way to sing hallelujah. (Proverbs 22:18.) Others take name as the subject, and the Prayer-Book version suggested to Crashaw the beautiful hymn beginning "Come lovely name," and so on.
"For Jehovah hath chosen Jacob unto himself, [And] Israel for his own possession." — Psalms 135:4 (ASV)
Peculiar treasure. This is a special covenant-name for Israel (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6, and so on) and is also applied to private property (1 Chronicles 29:3; Ecclesiastes 2:8).
"For I know that Jehovah is great, And that our Lord is above all gods. Whatsoever Jehovah pleased, that hath he done, In heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps;" — Psalms 135:5-6 (ASV)
Adapted from Psalms 115:3.
"Who causeth the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; Who maketh lightnings for the rain; Who bringeth forth the wind out of his treasuries;" — Psalms 135:7 (ASV)
Adapted from Jeremiah 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16.
Causeth the vapours to ascend.—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” (Genesis 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. That a different term is used in Genesis does not contradict this, since the Hebrew term here is a general one derived from the verb “to ascend.”
Lightnings for the rain—i.e., “to bring rain.” Such was the ancient Eastern notion (compare 1 Samuel 12:17). Both of these passages refer to showers outside the ordinary rainy season, such as thunderstorms in the harvest season. The sudden downfall of sheets of rain after a flash and peal is, even in this climate, striking enough to make such a notion as the dependence of rain on lightning quite conceivable. This is all the more true in tropical countries, where, except in the regular rainy season, rain would probably never fall without thunder and lightning.
Wind out of his treasuries.—Compare the Greek and Latin ideas of the “caves” of the winds.
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