1Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD! Praise him, you who serve the LORD,2you who serve in the house of the LORD, in the courts of the house of our God.3Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; celebrate his wonderful name with music.4For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own special treasure.5I know the greatness of the LORD -- that our Lord is greater than any other god.6The LORD does whatever pleases him throughout all heaven and earth, and on the seas and in their depths.7He causes the clouds to rise over the earth. He sends the lightning with the rain and releases the wind from his storehouses.8He destroyed the firstborn in each Egyptian home, both people and animals.9He performed miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt; Pharaoh and all his people watched.10He struck down great nations and slaughtered mighty kings --11Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan.12He gave their land as an inheritance, a special possession to his people Israel.13Your name, O LORD, endures forever; your fame, O LORD, is known to every generation.14For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants.15Their idols are merely things of silver and gold, shaped by human hands.16They cannot talk, though they have mouths, or see, though they have eyes!17They cannot hear with their ears or smell with their noses.18And those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them.19O Israel, praise the LORD! O priests of Aaron, praise the LORD!20O Levites, praise the LORD! All you who fear the LORD, praise the LORD!21The LORD be praised from Zion, for he lives here in Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
(the following is from Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary -- www.christnotes.org)
"Chapter Contents
God to be praised for his mercy. (1-4) For his power and judgments. (5-14) The vanity of idols. (15-21)
Commentary on Psalm 135:1-4
The subject-matter of praise, is the blessings of grace flowing from the everlasting love of God. The name of God as a covenant God and Father in Christ, blessing us with all spiritual blessings in him, is to be loved and praised. The Lord chose a people to himself, that they might be unto him for a name and a praise. If they do not praise him for this distinguishing favour, they are the most unworthy and ungrateful of all people.
Commentary on Psalm 135:5-14
God is, and will be always, the same to his church, a gracious, faithful, wonder-working God. And his church is, and will be, the same to him, a thankful, praising people: thus his name endures for ever. He will return in ways of mercy to them, and will delight to do them good.
Commentary on Psalm 135:15-21
These verses arm believers against idolatry and all false worship, by showing what sort of gods the heathen worshipped. And the more deplorable the condition of the Gentile nations that worship idols, the more are we to be thankful that we know better. Let us pity, and pray for, and seek to benefit benighted heathens and deluded sinners. Let us endeavour to glorify his name, and recommend his truth, not only with our lips, but by holy lives, copying the example of Christ's goodness and truth."
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