Latest / Reformed Thinking / The Living God vs. Lifeless Idols (Psalm 135) | Charles Spurgeon

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The Living God vs. Lifeless Idols (Psalm 135) | Charles Spurgeon · Reformed Thinking

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Imagine trying to boil the ocean.
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Like literally. If you wanted to artificially
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evaporate just the water that naturally ascends from the
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Earth's surface on a single summer day, you would have to
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burn 6 trillion tons of coal. It is just a staggering number
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to even visualize. It is a violent amount of
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energy. I mean, it is more coal than you
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could fit inside half a dozen planets the size of ours.
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And yet this massive transfer of energy happens, you know,
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seamlessly, silently, right over our heads every single day.
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Yeah, without us even noticing. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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We are going to look at the sheer scale of the universe
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today and the sweeping events of human history.
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Because usually when you look at the billions of gallons of water
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swirling in the oceans or, say, the sudden collapse of a global
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empire, your mind assumes it is all random, right?
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You assume you're watching a storm with no one at the wheel.
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Yeah, that is, that is the default human assumption.
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We feel very small. We really do.
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We assume history is just a series of unguided collisions,
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like a massive improvisation with no director.
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But then you step into the world of Psalm 135, and that
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assumption of chaos is well, it is completely shattered.
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It really is. We are going to take an
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extensive look at this text today.
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We are using the rigorous theological analysis provided by
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Charles Spurgeon's The Treasury of David.
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A fantastic source. And the mission for this deep
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dive is to see how this text presents a universe where every
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single drop of rain and every single political shift is
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meticulously orchestrated. And what is fascinating about
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this specific Psalm is how it is actually put together.
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The commentators call it a tessellated pavement.
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Which is such a great phrase. It is a mosaic.
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It pieces together lines from Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, and other
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Psalms. It is a brilliant literary
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technique. I mean, the writer is taking
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fragments of older revelation, older experiences and arranging
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them into a cohesive, fresh song, right?
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It takes the established history of the people and refocuses it
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entirely on divine sovereignty. I like to think of it like a
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master producer in a music studio.
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Oh yeah, I like that. You know, sampling tracks from 5
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different classic records and layering them into a completely
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original masterpiece. It feels familiar, but it is
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doing something entirely new. Precisely so to you listening
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right now. If you have ever felt
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overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the universe or the
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unpredictability of history, stick with us.
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Yes, please do. By the end of this deep dive,
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you will see the precise, intentional hand of a Creator
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orchestrating everything from the evaporation of the oceans to
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the rise and fall of ancient kings.
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It covers everything. It really does.
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So let us unpack the beginning of the text.
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It starts with a call to Hallelujah, a triple exhortation
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to praise Jehovah. Yeah, first one and two quote.
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Praise ye the Lord, praise ye the name of the Lord, praise
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him, O ye servants of the Lord, and quote.
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Why the repetition? Well, that repetition stands out
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immediately. The Holy Spirit uses repetition
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here not for a lack of vocabulary, but for our
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instruction. Human beings suffer from this
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chronic spiritual lethargy. We fall asleep at the wheel.
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Exactly. When a teacher repeats a concept
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three times, it is an alarm clock for the soul.
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The text is acknowledging that we are quite unequal to the work
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of praising God on our own. We get distracted, we forget.
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We do. So we have to stir ourselves up.
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We have to stir up everyone around us.
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It is a persistent call to wake up and recognize reality.
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And it gets very specific about who needs to wake up and offer
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this praise. It mentions those who, quote,
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stand in the House of the Lord. Yes.
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So who are these people, historically and practically?
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Historically, these are the domestics of the palace.
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They're the attendants who are closest to the king.
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The inner circle. Right.
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They have the privilege of abiding in the temple occupying
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its various courts. The text makes a clear logical
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argument based on proximity. OK, how so?
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If you are that close to the sovereign, if you're privileged
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to find your home in his house, you must.
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Beyond all, others abound in Thanksgiving.
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That makes sense. Those who shun his courts might
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neglect his praise, but those who are his personal servants
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should naturally be his court musicians.
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I was reading a note from David Dixon in the source material and
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he points out something counterintuitive about this.
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He notes that praising God has a built in reward.
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The text explicitly says sing praises unto his name, for it is
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pleasant. Dixon observes that when we
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offer praise, the mind expands, the heart warms and it brings
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actual benefit to the person doing the praising.
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That shifts our entire perspective on worship, doesn't
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it? It really does.
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We often view worship as a tax, like an extraction demanded from
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us by an austere deity. Right.
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Like paying a toll? Yeah.
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But Dixon is highlighting that the text frames worship is
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something that cheers the Spirit.
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The sources know that the English word God is actually a
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shortened form of good. Really, I did not know.
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That yeah, he is the essence of goodness.
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So directing your attention to the ultimate source of goodness
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is like walking into a garden of flowers and breathing in the
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perfume. It heals you.
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There is an analogy from God hold in the sources that
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illustrates this lack of awareness we often have.
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He asks, are we like swine that gorge on acorns under an oak
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tree without ever looking up to acknowledge the tree?
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I love that one. It is so vivid, the swine just
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tear up the sod, eat the acorns and grunt.
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Or on the other hand, are we like a flower that exhales
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perfume or incense melting in the fire of love?
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The contrast there is aggressive but highly accurate.
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It really paints a picture. The swine receives the benefit
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the acorns, but remains completely brutalized and
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unaware of the source. The flower receives the gentle
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influence of heaven and, as if in gratitude, exhales a sweet
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fragrance back into the air. Right God Hold takes the thought
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even further. Actually, he compares true
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gratitude to a martyr willing to be consumed so that from his
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ashes a new flower might spring up to fertilize the ground of
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the church. I look at the swine analogy and
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I think about how we interact with modern infrastructure
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today. Oh, that's a great comparison.
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Like you connect to a Wi-Fi network, you download massive
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amounts of data from space, and you never once think about the
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thousands of engineers, the satellite launches and the fiber
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optic cables running across the ocean floor.
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You just complain when it buffers.
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Exactly. You just consume the benefit.
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We treat the universe like that. We consume gravity, oxygen,
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time, completely ignorant of the source.
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We really do. But once we wake up and
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recognize who we are praising, we have to ask a much harder
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question. Why do we have the privilege to
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stand in this House at all? How did we get into the palace?
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Right. What is the entry ticket?
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And that brings us to verse 4, which introduces the concept of
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divine election. For the Lord hath chosen Jacob
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unto himself. This is where the text anchors
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all the praise we just discussed.
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The choice is the absolute foundation of the relationship.
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Jehovah have chosen Jacob. I have to stop right here and
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push back on behalf of the listener.
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OK, go ahead, because Jacob is an incredibly problematic
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figure. I mean his name literally
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translates to Supplanter which basically means a heel grabber
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or a con artist. He was a trickster, yes.
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He swindled his own brother out of a birthright while his
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brother was starving. He lied to his blind father on
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his deathbed to steal a blessing.
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Not a great track record. If you are picking a patriarch
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to build a holy nation around, Jacob seems like the absolute
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worst candidate on the resume pile.
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Why choose someone based on no inherent merit?
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What is the rationale for elevating this specific, deeply
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flawed individual? That tension you're feeling is
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the core of the theology present in this text.
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The choice was dictated by pure sovereign grace.
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So there was no hidden goodness in him.
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None. There was nothing in Jacob that
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deserves special choice. As the commentary points out,
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Jehovah gave no reason for his love except that he chose to
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love. The choice was made before Jacob
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had done good or evil. It is the scandal of grace.
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If God only chose pristine, perfect candidates, no human
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being would qualify. It is entirely unmerited.
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It flies in the face of our human meritocracies.
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Absolutely, and the reason for elevating this manipulative,
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flawed individual was not just for his own personal comfort.
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What was it for them? Jacob's descendants were chosen
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by God to answer divine ends for all mankind.
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They were selected be trustees of truth, maintainers of
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worship, and mirrors of mercy for the entire world.
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I see. And God's choice actually alters
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the nature of the person. We see this later in Jacob's
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life when his name is changed from Jacob the Supplanter to
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Israel the Prince. The sovereign love of God gives
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a new name and imparts a new objective value.
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The text uses a very specific phrase for this elevated status,
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Israel for his peculiar treasure.
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I was looking at the Hebrew word used here, segula.
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Yes, Segula. Thomas Brooks defines it as a
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King's private stash of jewels. It is the secret gain.
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That is a brilliant way to frame it.
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Sculla refers to the most items that a Prince refuses to put in
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the general treasury. He keeps them separate.
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Right. He locks them up with his own
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hands for his own special delight.
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It represents supreme wealth and glory to the owner.
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Richard Mayhew has an intense analogy for this and the sources
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he says imagine a house. Fire.
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Oh, I remember this one. The owner secures his family
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first, then he grabs his jewels, and last of all he leaves the
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lumber and the rubbish to burn. Mayhew argues that the world is
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the lumber and rubbish, but God's chosen are the jewels.
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It is a stark image that prioritizes the value God places
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on his people. It makes me think of a major
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server crash at a tech company. How so?
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When the mainframes go down and data is corrupting, the IT team
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does not care about saving the custom desktop Wallpapers or the
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temporary cache files. Right, they abandon the trivial.
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Stuff. They bypass all of that and go
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straight for the encrypted user data, the core database.
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The priority is absolute. They save the jewels and let the
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rubbish delete. That is a perfect modern
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parallel. The owner does not hesitate.
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Christ secures his people because they are his jewels.
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This elevates the concept of sovereign grace from a cold,
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detached administrative decree into an intensely personal
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protective ownership. So, having established God's
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absolute right to choose his people, the text broadens the
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lens. It asks, does his jurisdiction
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end at the borders of this chosen nation, or does it apply
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to the physical ground we walk on?
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Right, stepping back to look at the whole earth.
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We move to verse 5. For I know that the Lord is
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great, and that our Lord is above all gods.
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Notice the phrasing there. I know it is not I hope or I
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suspect. Yes, the epistemology of
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certainty. The writer is no agnostic.
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There is 0 hesitation. Barton Bouchier provides a
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fantastic contrast here regarding the nature of that
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knowledge. What does he say?
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He suggests there is a kind of knowledge that plays around the
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head like lightning on a mountain peak.
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It flashes brilliantly for a second, illuminates the crags
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and then vanishes, leaving no trace behind.
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Like intellectual trivia? Yeah, exactly.
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And then there is knowledge that penetrates the heart like a
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fertilizing stream, soaking into the soil and producing fruit.
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The psalmist possesses that second kind of knowledge.
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He knows by observation, by historical record, and by
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realization that Jehovah is infinitely superior to all
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imaginary deities. And verse 6 spells out the
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terrifying extent of that superiority.
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Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in
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earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
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Augustine's commentary on this verse is incredibly insightful
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because it highlights the difference in motivation between
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humans and God. Unpack that for us.
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Augustine points out that humans act out of necessity.
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You build a house because if you do not, you will be exposed to
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the elements and you will freeze.
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Yeah. Or you plant a field, because if
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you do not, you will starve. Right.
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Everything we do is driven by a lack of vulnerability or a need
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to secure our fragile existence. We are constantly reacting to
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our own weaknesses. Precisely.
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But God needs nothing that He made.
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He acts out of pure goodness and absolute free will.
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He made all things simply because He willed to do so.
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There is no external pressure forcing his hand.
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Furthermore, Augustine notes that even in our own houses,
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where we supposedly have authority, we cannot do
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everything we please. A spouse might disagree, a child
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might disobey, or a tool might break.
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Our wills are constantly frustrated.
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Oh, tell me about it. But God's will is never
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frustrated. I want to pause on that because
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the theological implications are massive.
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If you look at most ancient cultures, their mythologies are
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full of God's constantly fighting each other.
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We're getting tricked. Right, Zeus and Poseidon going
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at it. Yeah, Jupiter does not roll the
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sea. Neptune does and they bicker.
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Zeus gets thwarted by human actions or the trickery of other
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Olympians. It's also petty.
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Even in modern therapeutic deism, people often imagine a
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deity who's trying his best to make the world good, but humans
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just keep messing up his plans. This text utterly rejects the
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notion of a baffled God. It obliterates the idea.
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The text stays unequivocally whatsoever the Lord pleased that
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did He? His warrant runs in every single
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portion of the universe. It is total coverage.
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The commentary explicitly states that this theology teaches no
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such degrading notions of the eternal as that he can be
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baffled by man. His divine pleasure travels post
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over all the realm of nature. None can stay his hand.
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There is no region too high, no abyss too deep.
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In the seas and all deep places, it covers the Mariana Trench
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just as much as the orbit of Jupiter.
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The decree is never defeated. God is not sitting in heaven
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wringing his hands, wondering how to salvage a broken plan.
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So what does this unbaffled absolute will look like in
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physical practice? It's a big question.
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The text suggests the best way to visualize it is to look up at
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the seemingly chaotic forces of nature.
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We move into the realm of the Divine Meteorologist.
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Verse 7. He causes the vapors to ascend
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from the ends of the earth. He maketh lightnings for the
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rain. He bringeth the wind out of his
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treasury. I want to spend a massive amount
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of time here. Oh, we definitely should.
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Because the physics and the math provided in the source material
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to illustrate this verse are staggering.
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We mentioned the coal analogy in the intro, but let us look at
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Doctor Halley specific findings first.
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OK, He calculated the evaporation happening just from
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one body of water, the Mediterranean Sea.
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The numbers stretch the limits of human comprehension.
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Honestly. Halley found that on a single
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summer day, 5 billion tons of water evaporate from the surface
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of the Mediterranean alone. 5 billion tons.
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In one day. Converted from heavy liquid
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water into invisible vapor, lifted into the atmosphere and
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transported. And that process goes on
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silently, constantly, without any human engineering or
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oversight. The text tells us it is God who
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causes these vapors to ascend. We just.
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Call it a law of nature. Right.
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But what is a law without a law giver or a force at the back of
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it? A law written on paper does
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nothing unless a police force or a physical mechanism enforces
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it. To put the raw force of that
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mechanism into perspective, the sources site Mr. Jewell he
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calculated the energy required to force this kind of
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evaporation. Yeah, his calculations are mind
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bending. Jewell stated that if you had a
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pool of water just one square mile wide and six inches deep
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and you wanted to evaporate it by artificial heat, you would
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have to burn 30,000 tons of coal. 30,000 tons of coal just
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to dry up 1 shallow mile wide puddle.
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Right, so Jewel extrapolates that out to the entire earth.
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To artificially evaporate all the water that naturally ascends
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from the earth to form clouds, it would take 6 trillion tons of
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coal. Unbelievable.
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He notes that this is more coal than you could Stow away in half
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a dozen worlds like ours. We do not have the resources in
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our solar system to run the Earth's weather system for a
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single week artificially, yet this massive transfer of energy
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and matter happens seamlessly. This is where Professor
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Helmholtz's observations on the balancing act of nature becomes
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so critical. He looks at the specific
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thresholds of physics. What did he find?
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For instance, water boils and turns to vapor at 212°F.
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There is no inherent unavoidable physical necessity for water to
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boil at exactly that temperature.
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It is a dialed in setting. The what ifs here are
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terrifying. Let us walk through Helmholtz's
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scenarios. Let's do it.
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What if water boil at a lower temperature, say the same
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temperature as alcohol? If water boiled like alcohol,
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the vapor given off by the ocean would be 2 1/2 times as much as
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it is now. Which would mean.
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The result would be continuous apocalyptic rains and massive
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global inundations. The air would be so heavily
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saturated with dampness that animal life would drown in the
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open air. Wow, drowning in the air.
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Yeah, and the sky would be so perpetually cloudy that
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vegetable life would fail due to lack of sunlight.
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OK, what if we push it further? What if water boiled like ether?
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Then the vapor would be 25 times its current amount.
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No one would ever see the sun. The rain would tear up the
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topsoil globally, rivers would become permanent, unnavigable
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Torrance, and a single day's snow could bury entire cities.
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Just a completely hostile planet.
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Completely. And on the flip side, what if we
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raise the boiling point? What if water boiled like oil of
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turpentine? The vapor in the atmosphere
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would drop to less than 1/4 of what we have now.
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Rain would be as rare as a total solar eclipse to a.
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Drought A. Permanent one.
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The globe would quickly resemble the Sahara Desert, completely
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incapable of sustaining agricultural life.
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Springs would dry up, rivers would vanish, and the earth
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would be scorched. So this highly specific
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temperature 212° is a calibrated dial.
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It is adjusted perfectly to the capacity of empty space to hold
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vapor, the demand of plants for water, the texture of the soil
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to absorb it, and the elevation of the continents to catch it.
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And the psalmist recognizes this divine management.
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The text goes on to say he maketh lightnings for the rain.
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This is another fascinating detail where ancient observation
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meets physical reality. How so?
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Lightning and rain are intimately connected in the
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machinery of a storm. Doctor Russell's observations
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from Aleppo are cited in the sources.
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He noted that in his region, lightning in the West or
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southwest was an absolute sure prognostic of rain.
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So it is not random. No, lightning is not a lawless
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discharge of plasma. It is part of the atmospheric
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machinery. The sources even mentioned that
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lightning softens the destructive rage of the storm.
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George Horne says it beautifully.
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Lightning accompanied by rain is an instance of divine wisdom
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preventing mischievous effects. That is a great quote.
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The rain cools the heat of the lightning, and the lightning
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breaks up the heavy concentration of the rain.
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In the midst of terrifying judgement, God remembers mercy.
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And then there is the wind. He bringeth the wind out of his
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treasuries. Wind seems like the most
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lawless, chaotic force of all. It really does.
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We literally cannot tell where it comes from or where it goes
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on a macro level, but the text pictures God as a monarch who
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has the wind locked up in secret storehouses.
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I love that imagery. Princess, do not squander their
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treasure without keeping a strict accounting of it, and God
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does not permit the wind to be wasted without a specific
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calculated purpose. As the commentator notes, if
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even one bandit force were wandering through the Lord's
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domains, defying his control, A rogue hurricane?
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A completely random tornado. It would cast fear and trembling
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over the whole universe. Because if he cannot control.
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That exactly because if God does not control that one windstorm,
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what else is out of his control? But there are no bandit forces.
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Every drop of rain, every gust of wind, every strike of
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lightning is decreed. So if God has this level of
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meticulous control over the vast oceans, the exact temperature of
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evaporation and the chaotic winds, we have to ask the next
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logical question, which is how does he handle the chaotic
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rebellious wills of human empires?
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Because managing mindless weather is one thing.
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Managing defiant human kings is another.
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This brings the deep dive from the physical universe directly
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into human history. The text moves to God's dealings
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with the superpower of the ancient world, Egypt, verse 8,
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who smote the first born of Egypt, both of man and beast.
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This is a heavy, dark moment in history.
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The text says He sent tokens and wonders into the midst of Egypt,
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upon Pharaoh and upon all his servants.
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It is heavy, but the commentators are very clear this
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was not random violence. It was an act of exact,
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targeted, retributive justice. We have to remember the context
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here. Yes, the Egyptians had
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mercilessly cast Israelite infants into the River Nile.
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They used the river as a mass grave for Hebrew babies.
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The midnight smiting of the Egyptian first born was a direct
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response to that policy. Eye for an eye on a national
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scale. It was meant to astound and
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overwhelm a nation that had built its immense wealth on
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brutal, genocidal oppression. The sources stressed that these
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judgments struck right at the heart of the proud nation.
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They bypassed the flattering courtiers who usually shield a
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king from the consequences of his actions.
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Right. The yes men couldn't help him.
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Pharaoh was the ringleader in defying Jehovah, asking Who is
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the Lord that I should obey his voice, and he was made
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personally too smart for it. The plagues were not random
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natural disasters. They were highly specific tokens
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aimed at exposing the impotence of the Egyptian deities.
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That is a crucial point. The God of the Nile was turned
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to blood. The sun God was blotted out by
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darkness. Yes, the judgments touched Egypt
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on the very points it prided itself on.
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The text explicitly says into the midst of the O Egypt.
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It was a central, unavoidable blow.
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God's servants were delivered, but Pharaoh's servants, the ones
21:47
who actively partook in his evil deeds and benefited from the
21:50
slave labor, we're all smitten. The historical sweep continues
21:54
in verses 10 and 11, who smote great nations and slew mighty
21:58
kings. Sahan, king of the Amorites, and
22:00
Ogg, king of Bashan. I want to dig into the military
22:03
and psychological context here, especially regarding Saihon.
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Saison was an incredibly formidable adversary in the
22:09
ancient Near East, the source material notes his audacity and
22:13
aggressive military record. He wasn't just a minor
22:15
Chieftain. Far from it.
22:17
Shortly before Israel arrives on the borders of his territory,
22:20
Saihon had attacked and dispossessed the Moabites of a
22:24
splendid fertile territory, driving them South of the Arnon
22:27
River with great slaughter. He was a seasoned conqueror.
22:30
And when a wandering group of former slaves, Israel, shows up
22:34
on his border, he does not hesitate.
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No. Unlike other regional kings who
22:38
tried to temporize or negotiate, Cyhon immediately gathers his
22:42
entire army and attacks. But Josephus, the ancient
22:45
historian, records some fascinating tactical details
22:48
about this battle. He does.
22:50
He states that the Amorite army, while terrifying, was unable to
22:53
fight effectively when drawn away from the shelter of their
22:56
fortified cities. They were severely gulled by the
22:59
slings and arrows of the Hebrews.
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Let us look at the psychology of ancient warfare for a second.
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In the ancient world, people believed gods were
23:06
geographically bound. Right, local jurisdictions.
23:09
You had gods of the hills, gods of the valleys, gods of the
23:12
river. When Sihan leaves his cities, he
23:14
is testing the jurisdiction of Israel's God.
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And Josephus notes the Amorite suffer from terrible thirst
23:21
during the battle, right? Yes, they panicked and rushed to
23:23
the stream and the recesses of the ravine of the Arnon for
23:26
water and shelter, but Israel pursued them into those ravines
23:30
and slaughtered them in vast numbers.
23:33
The sheer scale of Sihan's defeat and then the subsequent
23:36
defeat of the giant king Ogg of Bashan fixed itself permanently
23:40
in the national memory of Israel.
23:42
It proved that Jehovah's authority was not geographically
23:44
bound. He could defeat the Amorites in
23:47
the plains and in the ravines. I have to stop you there because
23:49
we need to address the elephant in the room.
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OK? To a modern listener, the idea
23:54
of a divine executioner wiping out whole nations, slaughtering
23:57
armies and ravines, taking their land sounds terrifying.
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It does. It sounds a lot like the exact
24:02
justification used for historical atrocities,
24:05
colonialism, and human imperialism.
24:08
How does Thomas Arnold's text separate God's sovereign decree
24:12
from a human king? Just using religion to grab more
24:14
territory. That is a critical push back,
24:17
and Arnold addresses this head on.
24:19
Arnold argues that the Israelites were not acting as
24:22
imperialists, expanding an empire for their own glory.
24:25
They were acting strictly as executioners, carrying out a
24:28
judicial sentence to preserve the seed of eternal life for all
24:32
mankind. So it was a penal action, not a
24:34
land grab. Exactly.
24:35
This was not a petty territorial dispute over resources.
24:39
The Canaanite nations have become entirely loathsome, with
24:42
abominable practices, including widespread child sacrifice.
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Their iniquity was, in the words of Genesis, full.
24:49
Arnold points out the sheer danger of assimilation, too.
24:52
Yes, he argues that if the heathen populations have been
24:54
left in the land or intermarried with the Israelites, the tiny,
24:58
fragile sparks of God's truth would not have survived.
25:00
It would have been snuffed out entirely.
25:02
The Israelites, who are highly prone to idolatry themselves,
25:05
would have fully assimilated into the worship of Timosh or
25:08
Dagon. The lively oracles of God, the
25:11
very truth of salvation, the moral law, the prophecies of the
25:14
Messiah, might have been lost to the world entirely.
25:17
Arnold makes the striking claim that the sword of the Israelites
25:22
in its bloodiest executions, actually wrought a work of mercy
25:26
for all the countries of the earth to the very end of the
25:28
world. It is a heavy paradox.
25:30
By preserving that separate nation, with its strict
25:33
monotheism and moral laws, they preserve the lineage and the
25:36
theological framework that would eventually bring blessing to all
25:39
nations. The commentary also uses a legal
25:42
metaphor here that helps clarify the divine right over the land.
25:46
Let's hear it. It says Jehovah is the Lord
25:48
paramount of the whole earth. He permits men to hold their
25:51
lands upon a lease determinable at his pleasure.
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Like a cosmic landlord. Exactly.
25:57
The Canaanites had thoroughly defiled the country, violating
26:00
the terms of human morality, and the great judge of all the earth
26:03
ended their lease. The land was then given to
26:06
Israel as a fee for acting as his executioners, fulfilling a
26:09
promise made centuries earlier to Abraham.
26:12
It is a stark, sobering reality that empires fall, kings turn to
26:16
dust, and national leases are terminated by the ultimate
26:20
landlord. But the text pivots beautifully
26:23
here, pointing out that amidst all this geopolitical turnover,
26:27
there is one thing that outlives all human memorials.
26:30
Verse 13. Thy name, O Lord, endureth
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forever, and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all
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generations. God's name outlives the Bronze
26:39
Age collapse, the Roman Empire, and every modern superpower.
26:43
But what does he do with that eternal unbaffled authority?
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Verse 14 says For the Lord will judge his people, and he will
26:50
repent himself concerning his servants.
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We need to clarify the word judge here.
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Good idea. In modern English, judging
26:57
usually means condemning or criticizing, but when the text
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says the Lord will judge his people, it means he will
27:02
exercise personal, active discipline over them.
27:05
So it's a protective governance. He will vindicate them when they
27:07
are wronged, He will preserve them, and He will rule them.
27:10
He will not leave it to their foes to maltreat them at
27:13
pleasure. And that second phrase, He will
27:15
repent himself concerning his servants.
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That is a fascinating contradiction to what we just
27:20
discussed. We just established that God has
27:23
an absolute unbaffled will. He does not make mistakes.
27:26
He does not learn new information.
27:27
So how can an omniscient God? Repent sources explain this
27:31
using a theological term anthropomorphism.
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OK, stop. Explain anthropomorphism to me
27:36
like I am a 5 year old. Imagine a parent talking to a
27:39
toddler. The family car runs out of gas
27:41
and stops. The toddler asks why the car
27:43
died. The parent says the car is
27:46
thirsty and needs a drink of juice.
27:48
OK, I'm falling. Now the car does not experience
27:50
biological thirst, and gasoline is not juice, but the parent
27:55
uses human biological concepts to explain a mechanical reality
27:59
the toddler cannot fully grasp Anthropomorphism.
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Is God doing that with us? It is speaking after the manner
28:05
of men. It is the nearest description
28:08
human words can give of the Lord's complex feeling toward
28:10
His suffering servants. He acts as if he regrets smiting
28:14
them. When he sees his children
28:16
smarting under the rod of discipline, he feels a fatherly
28:19
pang. I want to compare this with what
28:21
we discuss regarding Pharaoh. Pharaoh's servants were
28:23
completely destroyed by the plagues, but God's servants,
28:27
even when they sin and require severe discipline, are pitied.
28:31
Yes, there is a clear distinction.
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Why does God use these wicked nations like Babylon or Assyria
28:37
as a rod to discipline his people only to later destroy the
28:41
rod? It highlights the vast
28:43
difference in the relationship. A father might use a wooden
28:47
paddle to correct a rebellious child, but the father does not
28:50
love the paddle, he loves the child.
28:53
When a discipline is over, he might throw the paddle into the
28:55
fire. The commentary knows that it is
28:58
remarkable how the Empire's used to afflict Israel were
29:00
subsequently destroyed, as if the tender father hated the very
29:04
instruments of his children's correction.
29:06
That is profound. I mean, it is very moving.
29:09
He is most. Tender to his own, he plays
29:11
Pharaoh's servants to death, but he spares his own son who serves
29:15
him. It is an incredibly intimate,
29:17
active portrayal of God, a compassionate judge who actively
29:21
manages global history, commands the weather, and intimately
29:25
cares for his people. And the text uses this vibrant,
29:28
living reality of Jehovah to set up a sharp, almost sarcastic
29:32
contrast. Yes, the text takes a sudden
29:35
turn into mocking the utter absurdity of human idolatry.
29:38
Verses 15 through 17 describe the heathen idols.
29:42
The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of
29:44
men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak
29:47
not. Eyes have they, but they see
29:50
not. They have ears, but they hear
29:51
not. Neither is there any breath in
29:53
their mouths. The irony is dripping from every
29:55
word. Their essential material is dead
29:58
metal. They only possess the attributes
29:59
of senseless substances. Just shiny rocks basically.
30:02
Whatever glorious form they have, they derived entirely from
30:05
the skill, labor, and imagination of the very people
30:08
worshipping them. The commentator calls it the
30:10
height of insanity to worship metallic manufacturers.
30:13
Right. You dig the ore out of the dirt,
30:15
you melt it down, you fashion the form with your own hands,
30:18
and then you bow down to it and ask it to save you.
30:20
It makes no logical sense. One source says it would be less
30:24
absurd to just worship your own hands, since your hands actually
30:27
have life and created the object.
30:29
There's a great historical anecdote in the sources about
30:32
the Reverend John Thomas, a missionary in India.
30:34
Yes, I was just reading that account.
30:36
Walk us through it. He walks into a local idol
30:38
temple where a large crowd is waiting and worshipping.
30:43
He goes right up to the idol, asks the crowd for silence, and
30:47
literally puts his fingers on the idols metallic eyes.
30:50
Which is incredibly bold. It is, he shouts to the crowd.
30:54
It has eyes, but it cannot see. It has ears, but it cannot hear.
30:58
It has hands, but it cannot handle.
31:00
And the reaction of the crowd is the most telling part.
31:02
Yeah, you would expect a riot. Instead of forming a mob and
31:05
attacking him for blasphemy, an old Brahman in the crowd is
31:09
struck by the undeniable physical logic of the
31:11
demonstration. Right.
31:12
The Brahman yells out. It has feet but cannot run away.
31:16
And the people were so ashamed of their own stupidity in that
31:18
moment that they just left the temple and went home.
31:20
It is a funny story, but it exposes a very dark
31:24
psychological reality. The text asks why would you
31:28
adore a blind image? Even a blind human being is not
31:32
adored simply for being blind. Good point.
31:35
If these idols could actually speak, they would rebuke their
31:38
worshippers for their foolishness.
31:40
Their dead silence is a massive rebuke in itself.
31:42
I was looking at the analogy the sources bring in to explain the
31:45
psychology behind why humans manufacture these idols.
31:48
The specter of the Brachen in Germany walk us through that
31:51
phenomenon. Vector of the Brocken is a
31:53
fascinating meteorological optical illusion.
31:56
A traveler at dawn stands on the topmost Ridge of the Brocken
31:59
Mountain. The sun rises directly behind
32:02
him, and IT projects his own shadow onto the thick morning
32:05
mists floating in the valley in front of him.
32:06
Creating a giant shadow. It creates A colossal shadowy
32:09
specter in the sky. And of course, because it is his
32:12
shadow, the specter imitates every single movement.
32:14
The traveler makes a few waves, the giant and the sky waves.
32:17
So he is just looking at himself magnified and projected onto the
32:21
clouds. Absolutely, and the commentary
32:24
argues that this is precisely the psychological mechanism of
32:28
heathen idolatry. Nations have mistaken their own
32:31
image for deity. They are worshipping mirrors.
32:33
They project their own human frailties, their own lusts,
32:36
their own capacity for anger, and their own scanty virtues
32:40
onto the heavens. Like a magic Lantern projecting
32:42
an image onto a white sheet. They are worshipping A
32:45
magnified, distorted version of their own flawed nature.
32:49
Zeus is just a magnified human king with a temper and a
32:53
wandering eye. Think about how we do this
32:55
today. We might not be carving silver
32:57
statues or bowing to golden calves in a literal temple, but
33:01
do we still manufacture deities out of modern culture?
33:04
I would say absolutely. When you scroll through social
33:06
media or look at modern hustle culture or political ideologies,
33:10
aren't we just building ideological idols that validate
33:13
our own existing desires? We want wealth, so we build a
33:15
philosophy that makes wealth the ultimate good.
33:18
We are still projecting our shadows onto the mist and bowing
33:21
down to them. The sources confirm this
33:23
explicitly. People today deny a God who
33:27
speaks with actual moral authority and replace him with
33:30
philosophies and self help mantras that are just as dumb
33:34
and blind as metal statues. They cannot offer real help.
33:37
They cannot save you when the cancer diagnosis comes or when
33:40
the economy collapses. And the chilling warning for
33:43
anyone engaging in this is found in verse 18.
33:46
They that make them, or like unto them, so is everyone that
33:50
trusteth in them. Like unto them, the fate and the
33:53
character of the worshipper become identical to the object
33:56
of worship. Yes, idolaters suffer a severe
33:59
spiritual numbness. They become as blockish,
34:02
senseless and deaf to truth as the dead objects or hollow ideas
34:06
they adore. That makes perfect sense.
34:08
If you focus on a dead thing, you absorb its traits.
34:10
If you worship something that has no inherent life, you lose
34:13
the life of God in yourself. Your eyes do not see the moral
34:16
truth, your ears do not hear the voice of the Lord and the
34:19
Scriptures. You shrink down to the exact
34:21
dimensions of your God. That is a terrifying thought.
34:24
You become the dead thing you worship.
34:26
So escaping that deadness, escaping the gravity of our own
34:30
projected shadows, requires a return to the living worship we
34:34
saw at the very beginning of the Psalm.
34:36
Right, bringing us back to the start.
34:38
The text brings everything full circle.
34:40
We reach the concentric circles of blessing in the final verses
34:44
of the deep dive. Bless the Lord, O House of
34:46
Israel, bless the Lord. O House of Aaron, bless the
34:50
Lord. O House of Levi, ye that fear
34:52
the Lord, bless the Lord. The call to praise widens out
34:56
systematically, drawing everyone in.
34:58
It starts with the whole chosen seed, the Grand House of Israel.
35:00
Then it moves to the central ring, the leaders in the church,
35:04
the House of Aaron, the priests who have the closest access to
35:07
the altar. In the House of Levi, the
35:09
assistance in the holy service who maintain the temple.
35:11
And finally it throws the doors wide open to the widest possible
35:14
circle. Ye that feel the Lord.
35:16
This includes all proselytes, all foreigners, all individuals
35:20
from any nation across history who truly reverence God.
35:23
The text makes a point to define this fear too.
35:26
What kind of fear is it? The fear of the Lord mentioned
35:28
here is not a guilty, terrified distrust.
35:31
It is not the terror that drives despairing sinners to hide in
35:34
the mountains from judgement. It is a fear characterized by
35:38
deep humility, filial subjection, and adoring
35:41
gratitude. It is the awe of a child looking
35:45
at a good and powerful father. I want to get a precise
35:48
definition here on the verbs being used.
35:50
The text shifts from praise the Lord at the beginning of the
35:53
Psalm to bless the Lord at the end.
35:55
In everyday language we use those interchangeably.
35:58
What is the actual theological distinction between praising God
36:01
and blessing God? Thomas Manton makes a beautiful
36:04
razor sharp distinction in the sources.
36:07
Let's hear it. He suggests that we bless God
36:09
for what He is to us. His benefits, His daily
36:11
interventions, His mercies, the fact that He provides our food
36:14
and protects our families, OK, But we praise Him for what He is
36:17
in Himself, His sheer excellencies, His absolute
36:20
sovereignty, His Holiness, regardless of what we receive
36:23
from him. So blessing relates to the
36:25
benefits received. Praise relates to the inherent
36:28
majesty of the giver. Spun on and there is a
36:30
geographical symmetry to how the song concludes that ties all of
36:33
this together. Verse 21 Blessed be the Lord out
36:38
of Zion, which dwelleth at Jerusalem.
36:40
It grounds the theology in a specific place.
36:43
The Lord blesses His people out of Zion.
36:45
That is where the temple was, where the presence of God
36:47
manifested, and the community's response, their praise and
36:51
blessing, proceeds back to that exact same geographical place.
36:56
The blessing from God and the praise from humanity form a
36:59
continuous, unbroken circuit of grace.
37:01
This has been a massive scope of material to cover today.
37:04
It's been incredible. We started by looking at the
37:06
sheer, staggering physics of evaporating oceans. 5 billion
37:11
tons of water a day lifted from the Mediterranean, calibrated by
37:15
boiling points so specific that a few degrees of change would
37:18
turn the earth into a flooded tomb or a scorched desert.
37:21
Just unbelievable precision. We looked at the sovereign
37:24
decrees over ancient empires. The audacity of kings like
37:26
Saihan wiped out in the ravines of the Arnon, proving God's
37:30
jurisdiction is absolute. Yes, no bandit forces.
37:33
We examine the other absurdity of dead idols, how we project
37:36
our own shadows onto the Mist to avoid bowing to a real
37:39
authority, and contrasted that deadness with the intimate,
37:43
fatherly pity of a God who protects his peculiar treasure,
37:47
his jewels, from the fire. It is a comprehensive view of
37:51
reality. It leaves zero room for a
37:53
baffled God or a chaotic universe.
37:57
Everything from the mass of storm clouds to the intricate
38:00
rise of nations is under meticulous sovereign control.
38:04
Which brings us to a final thought for you to Mull over.
38:06
We mentioned at the start that this Psalm is a tessellated
38:09
pavement, A beautiful mosaic built entirely from fragments of
38:13
earlier Scriptures, earlier historical experiences, earlier
38:16
revelations. Yeah, look at your own life.
38:18
Think about the borrowed fragments of your past, the
38:21
strict disciplines, the unexpected joys, the sovereign
38:23
interventions that felt like total chaos at the time, the
38:26
times you were spared from the fire while the rubbish burned.
38:29
That is a powerful roughly. If you were to gather all the
38:31
specific scattered pieces of your own history, what kind of
38:35
unified, original song of praise would those fragments create
38:38
today? Thank you for joining us on this
38:40
extensive deep dive into Psalm 135.
38:44
We wish you well as you reflect on the sovereign hand
38:47
orchestrating the mosaic of your own life.