Context No. 2431 of 4322 · Psalms

Psalms 135:1-16: in context

1Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD’s name! Praise him, you servants of the LORD, 2you who stand in the LORD’s house, in the courts of our God’s house. 3Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good. Sing praises to his name, for that is pleasant. 4For the LORD has chosen Jacob for himself, Israel for his own possession. 5For I know that the LORD is great, that our Lord is above all gods. 6Whatever the LORD pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps. 7He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasuries. 8He struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and animal. 9He sent signs and wonders into the middle of you, Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his servants. 10He struck many nations, and killed mighty kings— 11Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan— 12and gave their land for a heritage, a heritage to Israel, his people. 13Your name, LORD, endures forever; your renown, LORD, throughout all generations. 14For the LORD will judge his people and have compassion on his servants. 15The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 16They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they can’t see.

This psalm calls the servants of the LORD to praise, and grounds the praise in who God is and what he does: the LORD is great, above all so-called gods; whatever he pleases he does, in heaven and earth and sea. It recounts the exodus and the conquest, and then it turns to the idols of the nations, silver and gold, the work of human hands, with mouths that cannot speak and eyes that cannot see.

The contrast is the whole point. On one side is the living God who does whatever he wills and acts in real history; on the other, manufactured gods that cannot say a word or see a thing. The psalm's sharpest edge comes just after, in the line that those who make idols become like them. We take on the character of what we worship. Give your life to something deaf and blind and lifeless, and you slowly grow deaf and blind and lifeless yourself. Worship shapes the worshiper.

What am I actually worshiping, and am I becoming more alive in God, or more like something that cannot speak or see?

Sources

Psalm 135:15: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
Psalm 135:16: They have mouths, but they can't speak. They have eyes, but they can't see.
Psalm 135:18: Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.