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Scripture Reading: Psa. 135:1-3, 21; 136:1-3; 137:1-9; 138:1-2, 4-5; 139:7, 17; 140:7; 142:5; 143:6, 10; 144:9; 145:1-6, 10-13, 18, 21
The main psalms of Book Five that we have covered so far are Psalms 110 and 118 concerning Christ, Psalms 122, 126, and 132 concerning the house and the city, and Psalms 133 and 134 regarding the life in the house and in the city, that is, the life, or the living, of unity. I advise the young brothers and sisters to memorize all these psalms.
With all these main psalms and main points as a background, we come to the next group of psalms in Book Five, Psalms 135 to 145. In these, the saints’ praise to God in the house and the city of God eventually turns to the reigning Christ and His kingdom. There are eleven psalms to cover this point.
Psalm 135 opens with Hallelujah. Surely, whenever a psalm begins in this way, it must contain something marvelous. “Hallelujah! Praise the name of Jehovah; / Praise Him, you servants of Jehovah, / Who stand in the house of Jehovah, / In the courts of the house of our God. / Praise Jehovah” (vv. 1-3). God’s servants have to praise Him in His house. Bear in mind that these verses are an exhortation to the saints in ancient times, in the Old Testament. If these verses were written for them, how much more should they be applied to us! If in ancient times the saints should praise God in such a way, how much more should we! How greatly we have been led astray by Christianity! I have been a Christian for many years, but no one has ever told me that I must praise God like this. I was continually taught and even trained to be silent. Oh, the deplorable teaching of Christianity today concerning silence! “Hallelujah! Praise the name of Jehovah; / Praise Him, you servants of Jehovah, / Who stand in the house of Jehovah, / In the courts of the house of our God. / Praise Jehovah, for Jehovah is good; / Sing psalms to His name, for it is pleasant.” I can still remember attending the meetings in that kind of Christianity: I never felt free to laugh or rejoice; I was always careful to keep a sober face and not disturb the hushed atmosphere. But Psalm 135:3 says that to praise the Lord is pleasant. Oh, it is really pleasant to praise the Lord!
Psalm 135 closes with this verse: “Blessed be Jehovah from Zion, / Who dwells in Jerusalem. / Hallelujah” (v. 21). In Psalm 134 we have, “Jehovah...bless you from Zion,” but in Psalm 135 we have, “Blessed be Jehovah from Zion.” The Lord who dwells in Jerusalem is blessed from Zion. The last word in Psalm 135 is Hallelujah. Psalm 135 begins with Hallelujah and ends with Hallelujah.
Now we come to Psalm 136. “Give thanks to Jehovah, for He is good; / For His lovingkindness is forever” (v. 1). To give Him praise is one thing, and to give Him thanks is another. We must give Him both praise and thanks. “Give thanks to the God of gods, / For His lovingkindness is forever. / Give thanks to the Lord of lords, / For His lovingkindness is forever” (vv. 2-3). The psalmist here gives thanks to Jehovah, the God of gods, and the Lord of lords, for His lovingkindness is forever. What can we do but just give Him thanks?
Now we have another wonderful psalm, Psalm 137, one which we should never forget. This is a psalm regarding the remembrance of the experience of desolation, the remembrance of the experience of captivity. What I am about to say may sound strange to you, but please try to understand me. We must believe that our Lord is really sovereign. Since He is sovereign, if He had never allowed us to be captured, we could never be captured. Though we had attempted to be led into captivity, unless He had allowed it, it could not have been accomplished. He is sovereign, and all His people were brought into captivity. So many of us have had the same experience as the psalmist in Psalm 137. But we can even praise the Lord that we have been captured! In eternity, when we recall how we failed the Lord so miserably, how we were captured, and how the Lord eventually brought us back, the remembrance will be sweet. Do you not agree with me? When the captives of old returned, when they were enjoying the Lord together in His house, they reminisced concerning their time in captivity: “By the rivers of Babylon, / There we sat down; indeed, we wept / When we remembered Zion” (v. 1). This kind of remembrance is so sweet. Though the Lord allowed us to be captured, it was for our ultimate enjoyment. Many times when I have spoken concerning my experience in Christianity, I have bowed and worshipped the Lord and told Him, “Lord, without that experience I could never have realized how sweet Your house is.” If we have never fallen and been brought back, we have never tasted the sweetness of the Lord’s mercy in restoring us. Even that kind of failure and captivity is sovereignly a part of the Lord’s own economy. Just recall all your experiences throughout the past two years, and you will taste something of this sweetness.
Let us read this psalm. It shows how much Zion and Jerusalem were to the captives. I am much inferior to the psalmist; I could not utter anything better than he did — it is really poetic. “By the rivers of Babylon, / There we sat down; indeed, we wept / When we remembered Zion.” Zion was in the remembrance of the captives. When they remembered Zion, the tears flowed. There they were at some other rivers; they were not drinking at the river of the house of God, the river which gladdens the city of God. They were sitting by the rivers of captivity, and when they remembered Zion, they wept. “On the willows in the midst of it / We hung up our lyres” (v. 2). We went on strike. We shut our mouths. This was prison; this was not the place for us to worship. How meaningful! To sing praises to the Lord requires a certain place. How can we sing praises to the Lord in Babylon? We cannot play our lyres in Babylon. The only thing we can do in Babylon is weep. How significant! “There our captors required of us songs, / And those who tormented us required of us mirth, saying, / Sing for us / One of the songs of Zion” (v. 3). To sing one of the songs of Zion in Babylon would be a real shame to the Lord. So the saints said, “How can we sing the song of Jehovah / In a foreign land?” (v. 4). It is really good! I could never utter anything better than this.
Verses 5 and 6 say, “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, / Let my right hand forget its skill. / Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth, / If I do not remember you, / If I do not prefer Jerusalem / Above my chief joy.” The psalmist was saying, “If I would not strike, let my tongue and my hands strike. If I would not hang up my lyre, let my tongue and my right hand be hung up. Jerusalem is not only my chief joy but better than my chief joy. It is something which is better than the best.”
Psalm 137 is the sweet remembrance of the sorrowful experience of captivity. When we are in eternity, we will never forget all those experiences of Babylon.
Verse 7 says, “Remember, O Jehovah, / Against the children of Edom, / The day of Jerusalem, / Who said, Lay it bare! Lay it bare, / Down to its foundation!” This is poetry, but according to the present situation, the principle is exactly the same. You simply do not know how many of the so-called Christians (I do not say the unbelievers) hate the church life today. They hate the recovery of the local church. If the church in Los Angeles would close today, so many would clap their hands. Their desire is expressed in the words, “Lay it bare! Lay it bare, Down to its foundation!” In other words, “Get rid of the whole thing.”
Verse 8 says, “O daughter of Babylon, who are to be devastated, / Happy will he be who repays you / The recompense of what you have rendered to us.” In the book of Revelation we read of the rejoicing that occurs when Babylon is fallen: “He cried with a strong voice, saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great!” (18:2). “A second time they said, Hallelujah! And her smoke goes up forever and ever” (19:3). “Happy will he be who repays you / The recompense of what you have rendered to us.” This is the vengeance of God. Time will vindicate His word. The enemy of Jerusalem is to be punished, and Babylon is to be destroyed. Babylon will fall, but Jerusalem will stand forever. Regardless of how much the haters say of Jerusalem, “Lay it bare! Lay it bare!” we and God are saying, “Build it! Build it!” Eventually, Babylon will be laid bare, and Jerusalem will be built twelve thousand stadia high. Jerusalem will stand forever. Hallelujah, praise the Lord!
Now we must go on to Psalm 138. “I will give You thanks with all my heart; / Before the gods I will sing psalms to You. I will bow toward Your holy temple / And give thanks to Your name / For Your lovingkindness and Your truth, / For You have magnified Your word above all Your name” (vv. 1-2). The psalmist says, “I will bow toward Your holy temple.” At this point, all that was in the psalmist was the house and the city. In these last few psalms how many times the psalmist has referred to Zion and Jerusalem! “Blessed be Jehovah from Zion.” “If I forget you, O Jerusalem...” “If I do not prefer Jerusalem / Above my chief joy.” The psalmist was fully and thoroughly occupied by the experience of the house and the city. In the entire universe nothing was so precious. In the recovery of the church life you and I will come to such a stage. Day by day we will say, “Oh, the church! Praise the Lord for the church! Oh, look at the church! How much I prefer the church above my chief joy! I worship God for the church.” May the Lord bring us all to such a stage.
Psalm 138:4 says, “All the kings of the earth will give thanks to You, O Jehovah.” After the house and the city have been established, all the kings of the earth praise the Lord when they hear the words of His mouth. “They will sing of the ways of Jehovah, / For great is the glory of Jehovah” (v. 5). That means that they will praise the Lord’s way, the Lord’s doing. They will say, “Great is the glory of Jehovah.” This is the reigning of Christ; this is the kingdom of Christ, with Christ Himself reigning over the entire earth. In that day, all the kings of the earth will praise Him, they will sing praises regarding the way of the Lord, and they will say, “Great is the glory of Jehovah.”
In the meantime, while the saints were praising concerning the house and city of God, they were still in the enjoyment of God. We have read Psalm 136, verses 1 to 3, concerning giving thanks unto the Lord, the God of gods and the Lord of lords, for His enduring mercy. Undoubtedly that is a kind of enjoyment of God.
Psalm 139:7 says, “Where shall I go, away from Your Spirit, / And where shall I flee from Your presence?” The saints here were enjoying the Lord’s presence. It is clear from this verse that the Lord’s presence is simply the Spirit. I just cannot escape from this presence of His. What enjoyment this is! Hence, verses 17 and 18 say, “How precious are Your thoughts to me, O God! / How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more than the sand. / When I awake, I am still with You.” Oh, the thoughts of the Lord are so precious to us! We cannot tell how many thoughts the Lord has toward us, and all of them are so exceedingly great and precious. These verses tell us poetically how the saints, while they were praising the Lord for His move through the city to the earth, were still in the enjoyment of God. “When I awake, I am still with You” — this is the enjoyment of God.
Psalm 140:7 says, “O Jehovah Lord, strength of my salvation, / You have covered my head in the day of battle.” The psalmist spoke of the Lord as his helmet of salvation, his protection in the battle. We are still in the day of battle, but, praise the Lord, we are under His covering. He Himself is the helmet which covers our head in such a day. This is the enjoyment of God.
Psalm 142:5 says, “I cried to You, O Jehovah; / I said, You are my refuge, / My portion in the land of the living.” While they were praising the Lord, they were still enjoying the Lord. Do not wait until you die to praise the Lord. If you praise Him in the land of the dead, I do not think that praise will be so sweet. Praise the Lord, He is our portion today; He is our portion in the land of the living. When I was young, I was taught that today we must suffer a little; we must be patient and wait till we are brought to a wonderful place called heaven. In a sense, that is not wrong, but we must realize that within today’s sufferings there is more enjoyment. In today’s trials the Lord is our sweet portion. O Lord, You are our portion today in the land of the living. Praise the Lord!
Psalm 143:6 says, “I spread out my hands to You; / My soul thirsts for You like a parched land.” The psalmist is saying, “I am dry, but I am not in a dry place. I am parched, but the place where I am is not parched; it is a place full of water.” Then verse 10 says, “Teach me to do Your will, / For You are my God; / Let Your good Spirit lead me / In a plain country.” The plain country here means an even land, a place where nothing is unbalanced. Praise the Lord, if we are under His good Spirit, He will continually lead us to an even land, a plain country. Even though we may be subjected to some form of suffering on one hand, we will be balanced on the other hand by our enjoyment of God. On one hand, we may sense our poverty, but on the other hand, we will realize that we are so rich in Christ. If we had only the riches without the poverty, we could not be so even. Praise the Lord, we are in an even land. The land where we are spiritually, under the leading of God’s Spirit, is really a plain country. “Let Your good Spirit lead me / In a plain country.” This is the saints’ enjoyment of God.
Psalm 145:18 says, “Jehovah is near to all who call upon Him, / To all who call upon Him in truth.” This corresponds exactly with Romans 10: “‘Do not say in your heart, Who will ascend into heaven?’ that is, to bring Christ down; or, ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ that is, to bring Christ up from the dead...‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart,’ that is, the word of the faith which we proclaim...For ‘whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (vv. 6-8, 13). We need not ascend into heaven to bring Christ down; neither need we descend into the abyss to bring Him up. He is so near to us, even in our mouth and in our heart. All we need to do is call upon Him in truth, in reality. How good!
Psalm 145 tells how the saints praise God for His reigning in Christ and His kingdom. Verse 1 indicates that God is the King in Christ: “I will extol You, O my God and King; / And I will bless Your name forever and ever.” To extol is higher and deeper than to praise. Here the psalmist extols Christ as the King. Verses 10 to 13 reveal that God’s kingdom is an eternal kingdom with glory and splendor: “All Your works [all things on this earth] will praise You, O Jehovah; / And Your faithful ones will bless You. / They will speak of the glory of Your kingdom / And tell of Your power [power now comes from the city to the kingdom], / To make known to the sons of men [all peoples, races, and nations in the entire earth] Your mighty acts / And the glorious splendor of Your kingdom” (vv. 10-12). Now you can see how the praises of the psalmists have turned to the reigning Christ and His kingdom. In all the previous psalms the praises have been mostly occupied with Christ, the house, and then the city. Now the praise concerns the reigning Christ and His glorious kingdom over the entire earth. “Your kingdom is an eternal kingdom, / And Your dominion is throughout all generations” (v. 13).
Now verse 21 says, “My mouth will speak the praise of Jehovah, / And all flesh will bless His holy name forever and ever.” What can we do now but use our mouth to praise the Lord? Do not tell me that there is no need to shout, that you need only praise the Lord from within. The psalmist says here, “My mouth will speak the praise of Jehovah.” You must use your mouth. “And all flesh [the human race, all people] will bless His holy name forever and ever.” My mouth will speak His praise, and all flesh will bless His holy name through all eternity.
We must never forget these psalms concerning Christ, concerning the house and the city, concerning the life of unity, and now concerning the kingdom:
Psalms 110, 118 — Christ
Psalms 122, 126, 132 — the house and the city
Psalms 133, 134 — the life of unity
Psalms 137 to 145 — the kingdom
