10 He struck down great nations and slaughtered mighty kings
20 O Levites, praise the Lord!
All you who fear the Lord, praise the Lord!
MAIN POINT: God never changes; He is always to be feared. Jesus is God and Jesus is to be feared.
I just want to get this out here. The fear of God is a good thing. To fear, respect, feel the awesomeness of God’s power, even in Jesus, is healthy and wise. My first response to Psalm 135 is to praise. We are invited, instructed, commanded to praise God. And how can we not? The Psalm then gives us reasons to praise God.
The invocation of praise is focused first on the servants of God in His house. And I would firstly point out that God is served, and this isn’t an archaic, Old Testament idea of God that has to mature and evolve with society. This is every bit as much a New Testament idea, and I would encourage you to look into the Bible and consider what it means to serve God. Are you serving? Do you see yourself as a servant? Do you have the attitude of a willing servant who is in awe of all that God does? Hold on. We’ll see in a moment if you have an attitude of awe and worshipful service or not. I must say it again and again today. What we say about God in this Psalm we can say about Jesus today. Jesus the God King and willing servant of the Father agrees 100% with all the acts of God as being right and just and good. Do you? Really? Do you fear, worship and appreciate in praise the wonderful works of God?
God is worthy to be served and calls us to serve Him. Be a servant of God. Lowly, humble, submissive, obedient, in agreement and willing to agree and congratulate the work of God. Jesus is both King and obedient servant of the Father. We are not greater than Jesus.
God has a name that is to be praised. We need to not be ashamed of God. He is good. His name is good. The name of God is praiseworthy. Do you identify yourself with God and His name? I think of Paul who continually says he is a servant of God, a servant of Jesus Christ. Are you willing to say you are a Christian? Are you willing to claim God, His name and His works as your identity?
Look again at Psalm 135:4-6
God can do what He wants. God is answerable to no one. God is unrestricted and free to act as He will--and it is good. God is not bound by our ideas of righteousness, justice or fairness. God determines these qualities Himself. That is not to say that God is whimsical or unpredictable or a liar or fickle. NO WAY.
We see the transcendence and immanence of God. John M. Frame in his essay on the Gospel Coalition website defines it this way:
“Divine transcendence and immanence are the related Christian doctrines that while God is exalted in his royal dignity and exercises both control and authority in his creation (transcendence), he is, by virtue of this control and authority, very present to his creation, especially his people, in a personal and intimate way (immanence).”
Divine Transcendence and Immanence: AN ESSAY BYJohn M. Frame
And we see that clearly in Psalm 135 when we see God choosing and claiming Israel for His own special possession. Further, according to verse 10, He “slaughtered” mighty kings to give their land to Israel. We could say much about this, but I will summarise my thoughts here. Jesus is the king of Israel. He is the winner, owner and ruler of all the Earth and all the heavens. There is no Israeli, Jewish, chosen people or promise or rule or land or kingship apart from Him. And Jesus does not stop with Israel, or the rather small tract of land in the region of the Jordan river. Jesus is the rightful king above all Kings and eternal ruler above all people and He will have all things as His own special possession. He has bought all things with His blood. He made all things and He rules and owns all things. So we need not get too bothered by conflicts over Jerusalem. God has chosen Leuven too and New York, and Beijing and London and Paris and Dubai. In fact every nation, every language and every people are His to do with as He pleases.
Are you still a willing servant, who worships and fears God or have you risen up in rebellion to God’s plan? Are you with the raging nations in Psalm 2, trying to throw off the chains of servitude to God or are you praising God as Paul says he does even in chains?
If you are not a servant of God praising His name you may mistakenly think that God is unfair or cruel to expect service and to “slaughter” kings, peoples and nations. But the servant of God, who fears and worships and praises Him does not think that way, is not ashamed and does not fear the criticism of man. Look at verses 13 and 14:
Your name, O LORD, endures forever; your fame, O LORD, is known to every generation.
For the LORD will give justice to his people and have compassion on his servants.
Jesus our King is eternally famous for being just and compassionate. How dare you think or say otherwise.
You know what kind of ridiculous, worthless ideas of God you will end up with if you stand in judgement of God’s great and awesome works? Idols, no Gods at all, pretend dolls and action figures that can’t act and are not heroes. The people, cultures, nations and religions of the world that make idols are as senseless as the idol themselves. They are nothing to fear, nothing to praise, nothing to pray to and nothing to worship. All these so-called educated, so-called intelligent people of the world who give credence to the spirituality of worship of creation, creatures, nature, spirituality, gods of man’s imaginations with every sort of sexual innuendo and phallic symbolism of fertility are as fruitful and productive as the lifeless symbols man has made. Oh please, can we not see where this is going? Paul wrote about it in Romans 1 but here it is in Psalm 135. If you don’t fear and worship God then you will end up a fool.
Psalm 135 ends with one result of fearing and worshiping in praise the God who is self existent and self determining, all powerful and sovereignly right in all He does. HOLINESS.
Verses 19 and 20 remind us of God’s holiness and that He has holy laws and holy servants whose role is to teach and aid the worship of God. Priests, those called to serve God from Aaron’s Levitical line, are there to remind us, to teach us, to assist us in serving and praising God. And you servants of Jesus have that same role.
Can you see the similarities to Psalm 135 in these words of Jesus?
“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.””
Conclusion:
We praise God in fear and willing service because Jesus is a King worthy of being obeyed. Jesus is ruling above all things and yet He promises to be present with us who have been called into His holy service. Be a priest in this world and teach people to fearfully praise Jesus in obedience.
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| Handwritten Psalm 135 |
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