Psalm 135:4
For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.
Sermons
A Strange Yet Gracious ChoicePsalm 135:4
The Selection of IsraelR. Tuck Psalm 135:4
God's PraisesC. Short Psalm 135:1-21
The March of MercyS. Conway Psalm 135:1-21
The Sublime Object of WorshipHomilistPsalm 135:1-21














Peculiar treasure is a special covenant-name for Israel (Exodus 19:5; Deuteronomy 7:6). As used in the Scripture, "election" is not a theological term. It is not what it has been made, a doctrinal term, on which a sectarian system can be based. It stands for a fact or method of Divine dealing. It does not apply exclusively to any one thing, or any one people. God is always working in this way, electing, or selecting, the best agencies for carrying out his various purposes, now of wisdom and mercy, now of judgment and destruction. It is a poetic setting, and a comfortable self-glorifying, for the psalmist to speak of Jehovah as having "chosen Jacob unto himself, and Israel for his peculiar treasure." The sober fact is that this particular nation was selected to carry out a particular Divine mission in the world; and it would have done better if it had thought more of its responsibility, and less of its privilege. Dr. T. Arnold wrote of Rome, Athens, and Jerusalem as representing the three people of God's election - two for things temporal, and one for things eternal. Since his time we have learned to extend his thought, and to see in every nation a distinct Divine election to some ministry for the blessing of the whole of humanity. To us the election of Israel is no more than a representative and suggestive election.

I. IF WE TAKE THE TERM "ELECTION," WE THINK OF A PRIVILEGE. The old Jews did this, regarding themselves as a petted nation, standing in the favor of God in an altogether unique manner. Consequently, they presumed on their privilege, and let it encourage self-pleasing. Those do it in modern times who make the sovereignty of their election the foundation of their religious hope. Antinomian presumptions always attend on the conception of God's election as privilege. Frail man easily turns privilege into favoritism.

II. IF WE TAKE THE TERM "SELECTION," WE THINK OF DUTY AND RESPONSIBILITY. And this is in every way healthier for us. God wants co-workers, agents in the sense-spheres, the human spheres; and he is always looking for such, always selecting such, always separating such. It is indeed an honor unspeakable to be selected; but if we think of ourselves as such, we almost forget the honor and the privilege, because we are so fully urged to noble endeavor by the burden of our responsibility. - R.T.

The Lord hath chosen Jacob unto Himself.
: — This is a psalm of praise all through. It is to be sung to the highsounding cymbals. There is not a low note anywhere; it is all robust, exhilarating, joyful. It is "Hallelujah!" from beginning to end; and it did not seem possible to the psalmist that he could omit from it the high jubilant note of election; for if there is anything that makes believers' hearts sing unto the Lord, it is the recollection that He has chosen them, and fixed His love upon them.

I. THE CHOICE.

1. Divine.

2. Sovereign — irrespective of character.

3. Most gracious.

4. Very wonderful.When you have told me why He chose Jacob, I shall then try to find out why He chose me; and if I should find that out, probably you will at the same time discover why He chose you. God never acts unreasonably; yet He does not find His reasons for acting in men, but within Himself, in His compassion, in the eternal counsels of His own will.

II. THE REASON OR RESULT OF GOD'S CHOICE.

1. That we might know Him.

2. That we might keep His truth alive in the world.

3. To keep up His worship.

4. That He might commune with us.

III. THE SEPARATION WHICH GROWS OUT OF THIS CHOICE. He led Israel out into the wilderness that there He might speak to their hearts. He drew them away from men; He made them live solitary and alone, like eagles on the rock, that they might dwell there with Him, and have no strange god among them. Blessed are the people who enjoy this separation; but unhappy are the men and women who talk about election, and yet have never known the separation which stamps their election as being a matter of fact.

IV. THEIR ELEVATION. "His peculiar treasure." God's people are everything to Him; there is nothing that you have, that you account rich or rare, that is anything to you in value in comparison with what God's people are to Him. His delight is in them: the pleasure which God has in His people is truly wonderful.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

People
Aaron, Amorites, Jacob, Levi, Og, Pharaoh, Psalmist, Sihon
Places
Jerusalem
Topics
Chosen, Jacob, Jah, Peculiar, Possession, Property, Treasure, Treasured, Yah
Outline
1. An exhortation to praise God for his mercy
5. For his power
8. For his judgments
15. The vanity of idols
19. An exhortation to bless God

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Psalm 135:4

     5096   Jacob, patriarch
     5591   treasure
     5717   monogamy
     6640   election, privileges
     7125   elect, the
     7141   people of God, OT
     8341   separation

Psalm 135:3-4

     7135   Israel, people of God
     8666   praise, manner and methods

Library
What Pleases God.
"Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places."--Psalm 135:6. "Was Gott gefaellt, mein frommes Kind." [74]Gerhardt. transl., Sarah Findlater, 1858 What God decrees, child of His love, Take patiently, though it may prove The storm that wrecks thy treasure here, Be comforted! thou needst not fear What pleases God. The wisest will is God's own will; Rest on this anchor, and be still; For peace around thy path shall flow, When only wishing here
Jane Borthwick—Hymns from the Land of Luther

From Kadesh to the Death of Moses.
Num. 14-Dt. 34. The Pathos of the Forty Years. The stories of this period have running through them an element of pathos arising especially from two sources. (1) Perhaps the experiences of Moses are most sorrowful. That he should now, after faithfully bringing this people to the very border of the land which they sought, be compelled to spend forty monotonous years in this bare and uninteresting desert must have been a disappointment very heavy to bear. During these wanderings he buried Miriam,
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period

Excursus on the Present Teaching of the Latin and Greek Churches on the Subject.
To set forth the present teaching of the Latin Church upon the subject of images and the cultus which is due them, I cite the decree of the Council of Trent and a passage from the Catechism set forth by the authority of the same synod. (Conc. Trid., Sess. xxv. December 3d and 4th, 1563. [Buckley's Trans.]) The holy synod enjoins on all bishops, and others sustaining the office and charge of teaching that, according to the usage of the Catholic and Apostolic Church received from the primitive times
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils

Notes on the First Century:
Page 1. Line 1. An empty book is like an infant's soul.' Here Traherne may possibly have had in his mind a passage in Bishop Earle's "Microcosmography." In delineating the character of a child, Earle says: "His soul is yet a white paper unscribbled with observations of the world, wherewith at length it becomes a blurred note-book," Page 14. Line 25. The entrance of his words. This sentence is from Psalm cxix. 130. Page 15. Last line of Med. 21. "Insatiableness." This word in Traherne's time was often
Thomas Traherne—Centuries of Meditations

Christ's Kingly Office
Q-26: HOW DOES CHRIST EXECUTE THE OFFICE OF A KING? A: In subduing us to himself, in ruling and defending us, and in restraining and conquering all his and our enemies. Let us consider now Christ's regal office. And he has on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written, "King of kings, and Lord of lords", Rev 19:16. Jesus Christ is of mighty renown, he is a king; (1.) he has a kingly title. High and Lofty.' Isa 57:15. (2.) He has his insignia regalia, his ensigns of royalty; corona est insigne
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

Introduction. Chapter i. --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers.
St. Hilary of Poitiers is one of the greatest, yet least studied, of the Fathers of the Western Church. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple
St. Hilary of Poitiers—The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers

Psalms
The piety of the Old Testament Church is reflected with more clearness and variety in the Psalter than in any other book of the Old Testament. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Its words are as simple and unaffected as human words can be, for it is the genius
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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