Psalm 135:5

For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(5, 6) Adapted from Psalm 115:3.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For I know - I, as the representative of Israel, and speaking in the, name of the people. This is said as the foundation or the reason for praise. It was the thorough conviction of the psalmist that God was great above all who were claimed to be gods, and that he only was worthy of worship.

That the Lord is great - See the notes at Psalm 95:3.

And that our Lord is above all gods - All that are worshipped as gods.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-7. God's choice of Israel is the first reason assigned for rendering praise; the next, His manifested greatness in creation and providence.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Above all that are called

gods, or worshipped as gods by the heathen people. And therefore seeing they commonly praise and extol their idols, it becometh you not to be silent as to the praises of your God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For I know that the Lord is great,.... Jehovah the Father is great in his perfections; in his power, wisdom, faithfulness, grace, and goodness; and in his works of creation, providence, and grace: and so is Jehovah the Son, who seems chiefly designed, who is called "our Lord" or "Adon" in the next clause; he is great, having the same perfections his Father has; and doing the same works, besides the miracles he wrought here on earth, and the great work of our redemption: he is the great God and our Saviour, and a great Saviour he is; and indeed he is great in all his offices of Prophet, Priest, and King: and so is the blessed Spirit, who is equal to the Father and Son, and greater than he that is in the world. Now all this the psalmist could say from his own knowledge; he knew the Lord was great, from the consideration and meditation of his wondrous works; he knew the greatness of Christ, from the revelation made to him of his person, offices, and grace; he knew the greatness of the divine Spirit, from the inward experience of his upon his heart, as well as from his being divinely inspired by him; and because of this greatness of the Lord, as well as his goodness, he is to be praised; it is mentioned as a reason of it;

and that our Lord is above all gods; the Lord our righteousness; Immanuel, God with us: our Lord, not only by right of creation, but of redemption; he is above all that the Heathens called gods, even the greatest of them; not the idols their hands made only, but the heavens and all the host of them, the sun, moon, and stars; his glory is above them, being the Maker of them, as God; and he is made higher than they, as man and Mediator: he is above civil magistrates, princes, and kings of the earth, called gods, Psalm 82:5; he is King of kings, and Lord of lords, he is higher than they; by him they reign, and to him they are accountable; and he is above the angels, sometimes called "Elohim", or gods, Psalm 8:5; he has a more excellent name and nature than they; he is the Creator of them, the object of their worship, to whom they minister, whose servants they are; and he is now exalted above them in the human nature, at the right hand of God; see Hebrews 1:4.

Geneva Study Bible

For I know that the LORD is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. For I know] A further reason for praising Jehovah. I is emphatic. Though the nations are ignorant of it, Israel in whose name the Psalmist speaks, knows the supreme greatness of Jehovah.

above all gods] It is clear from Psalm 135:15 ff. that the Psalmist does not intend by this comparison to imply that the gods of the heathen have any real existence.

5–7. Jehovah’s greatness and sovereignty exhibited in Nature.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 5. - For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods. Here is the second reason why God should be praised - he is great, greater far than any other being - "above all gods" - "more to be feared than all gods" (Psalm 96:4). This greatness is shown, firstly, in his power over nature, which is the subject of vers. 7, 8; and secondly, in his dealings with mankind, which form the subject of vers. 8-12. Psalm 135:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The praise itself now begins. כּי in Psalm 135:4 set forth the ground of the pleasant duty, and the כי that begins this strophe confirms that which warrants the summons out of the riches of the material existing for such a hymn of praise. Worthy is He to be praised, for Israel knows full well that He who hath chosen it is the God of gods. The beginning is taken from Psalm 115:3, and Psalm 135:7 from Jeremiah 10:13 (Psalm 51:16). Heaven, earth, and water are the three kingdoms of created things, as in Exodus 20:4. נשׂיא signifies that which is lifted up, ascended; here, as in Jeremiah, a cloud. The meaning of בּרקים למּטר עשׂה is not: He makes lightnings into rain, i.e., resolves them as it were into rain, which is unnatural; but either according to Zechariah 10:1 : He produces lightnings in behalf of rain, in order that the rain may pour down in consequence of the thunder and lightning, or poetically: He makes lightnings for the rain, so that the rain is announced (Apollinaris) and accompanied by them. Instead of מוצא (cf. Psalm 78:16; Psalm 105:43), which does not admit of the retreating of the tone, the expression is מוצא, the ground-form of the part. Hiph. for plurals like מחצרים, מחלמים, מעזרים, perhaps not without being influenced by the ויּוצא in Jeremiah, for it is not מוצא from מצא that signifies "producing," but מוציא equals מפיק. The metaphor of the treasuries is like Job 38:22. What is intended is the fulness of divine power, in which lie the grounds of the origin and the impulses of all things in nature.