James Nisbet's Church Pulpit Commentary
Psalms 134:1
MUTUAL BENEDICTION
‘Bless ye the Lord.… The Lord … bless thee.’
I. This psalm forms a worthy close to these exquisite psalms of ascents.—The stream of pilgrims has reached the city, visited the holy Temple, and is on the point of retiring; but before they do so they greet the priests who had charge of the nightly service of the Temple, and had just come on duty. ‘Farewell,’ cries the pilgrim band: ‘see to it that ye fill the night with adoration and prayer. Let your voices arise through the silent watches of the night, and form a canopy of peace over the sleeping city.’
II. God has many night watchmen still.—Large numbers of His saints, such as policemen on duty, night nurses, watchmen, Christian sentries, and specially those who rarely get a night’s full rest, because pain keeps them tossing on their weary couches, compose the Lord’s night-watch. And as we, who are privileged to sleep deeply and soundly, consign ourselves to slumber, it becomes us to send a loving thought to all such—the day-watch saluting the night-watch; the active workers consigning the charge of the world to the intercessors and choristers.
III. And these in turn transmit their benediction.—‘The Lord bless thee out of Zion.’ It is an individual blessing, thee. It is well, in our intercessions, not to pray generally, but specifically and particularly. We do our work best when we make individuals the subjects of our solicitude—taking them as representatives of a class. Each one whom we pray for is dear to God, our Creator and Redeemer. We are in the current of His will when we bless in His Name.
SENTIMENT AND ARGUMENT
‘Praise ye the Lord.’
This psalm both begins and ends with the word hallelujah; and we have this word or equivalents for it many times besides in the other verses. The psalm is a jet, or series of jets, of joyous emotion; and yet it is not at all lacking in solid substance. The emotion is held in check by logic, as is indicated by the frequency of the argumentative ‘for.’
I. Those who sing Hallelujah.—At the beginning and at the end of the psalm different groups of people are called upon to join in the hymn of praise; and, if we think of the psalm as having been used at one of the feasts or on some other great ceremonial occasion, we can understand how piquant must have been this appeal to the different sections; and it is quite possible that the singing may have been so arranged that the various bodies joined in when their names were mentioned. Every country has its own reasons for praising God; so has every class or profession. The piety of the young is not exactly the same as that of the old, nor is that of the man identical with that of the woman. But this is all the better; because it enriches the music that rises from the world to the ear of God.
II. The reasons for singing Hallelujah.—As I have said, there is in this psalm a fine blending of logic and emotion; nowhere are the reasons for praising God more fully or suggestively stated.
The first is (Psalms 135:3) that ‘He is good’; and perhaps we ought also to read, ‘He is pleasant.’ It is hardly in accordance with modern feeling to speak of God as beautiful; but the Scripture does not shrink from this statement. And we need a strong word to designate the attractive side of God.
The second reason given for praising Him flows directly out of this one. It is the choice of His people, which is the highest exercise of His love (Psalms 135:4). The whole idea of the Old Testament religion dates back to a Divine choice, springing out of free grace, by which Israel was separated from the rest of the world to be a people to Jehovah. In the New Testament the same mystery still continues under another form. ‘He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,’ that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace.
The third reason for singing Hallelujah is the power of God (Psalms 135:5). His love is first, His power second. He is able to carry out what His love has purposed: nothing in heaven or on earth or under the earth can resist Him. Here the inspired singer is glancing at the heathen deities, on whom he swoops down in scorn towards the close (Psalms 135:15), ridiculing the impotence of gods that are the work of men’s hands. What he there says is not without a message for our own times.
The fourth reason for praising God is the exhibition of His power in nature (Psalms 135:7). To this only a single verse is given, but the instances selected would admit of endless expansion. The process of evaporation alone, which is first touched on, is one of the most extraordinary phenomena of nature, and the more it has been investigated by modern science the more remarkable has it appeared. The seers of old had a genuine feeling for nature; and it performed for them its highest service, when it evoked from their hearts the praise of God.
The fifth reason for singing Hallelujah is the exhibition of God’s power in history (Psalms 135:8). This was a theme of which the harp of Israel never tired.
Lastly, hallelujahs are to be sung for blessings yet to come (Psalms 135:13). The Psalmist acknowledges that God already has done enough to be worthy of everlasting praise; the memory of His great acts, just touched upon in the preceding verses, must remain for all generations. But God is not going to live on His past renown. His power is not exhausted. On the contrary, the future will witness far more than the past has seen.
Illustration
‘It is difficult to understand God, but we may always praise Him for what He is in Himself, and for what He has promised to be to those who trust Him.
Here are arguments for praise! That He is good, that praise-singing is pleasant: that He has chosen His people to be His peculiar treasure: that He is great as well as good: that His good pleasure is love: that vapours, lightnings, rain, and wind, obey His absolute behest: that He will smite our foes to the ground: that out of our dark times He will give lands for an inheritance: and that His name will be unchanged amid the fret and passage of the generation of time.’