We Praise The Name Of Yahweh (Psalm 135) Series

Today, we continue our very sporadic and haphazard study of the psalms, by turning to Psalm 135. This is a beautiful psalm-- it's the type of psalm that lends itself to being used as an opener for Sunday morning worship. I hope today that you'll leave differently, in two ways. The first, is that you'll become aware of one of the ways in which we find Jesus in the OT. And second, I hope you'll leave today worshipping God big, and worshipping God better. Let's start by simply reading verse 1 (Hebrew numbering throughout-- not sure if it's different):

(1) Praise Yah! , [Hallelu- Yah]

Praise the Name of Yahweh!,

Our psalmist begins with a call to praise. "Praise Yah!, Praise the name of Yahweh!" Always a nice way to start worship. :)

The second line here was this: "Praise the Name of Yahweh." We maybe think there's not much here to talk about. But you maybe find yourself wondering, why did I accidentally capitalize Name?

We read verse 1, and we assume the psalmist means something like, "when you are praising God, the name you praise is Yahweh. Yahweh is the Elohim you should praise." That's maybe what this means. Maybe. But I'll come back to this in a minute.

The psalmist then narrows this call to praise, to the people who are at Yahweh's house. He says this, still in verse 1:

Praise!, servants of Yahweh,

(2) who are standing in the house of Yahweh,

in the courts of the house of our God.

This idea, that Yahweh has a house, is maybe new. The psalmist is talking about the temple that Solomon built. Let's turn to 1 King 8:27-30. Solomon here is dedicating the temple to Yahweh, and praying to him. And even as he looks at the temple, which is a magnificent building, he thinks about Yahweh, and he marvels that Yahweh could possibly live in any house, however amazing (ESV modified):

27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 28 Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O Yahweh my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you this day, 29 that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you have said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may listen to the prayer that your servant offers toward this place. 30 And listen to the plea of your servant and of your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. And listen in heaven your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.

While Solomon was dedicating the temple to Yahweh, Yahweh's glory very visibly, very obviously filled the temple. There is some sense in which Yahweh moved in, and accepted this house as his home. But Solomon knows, Yahweh can't possibly fit in a house, however magnificent. Earth and the heavens can't contain Yahweh-- so how could a house?

We find ourselves reading Solomon's prayer, and we want to say, "Well, God is everywhere, right?" We don't see any problem with Yahweh being in the temple, and at the same time, in the heavens. Because we think Yahweh is everywhere.

But this is NOT what Solomon is saying. Yahweh is present in the house Solomon built for him, in a way that he is not present anywhere else on earth. There is something special about the temple.

What is this? Why is this house special?

What Solomon says is that Yahweh has placed his Name in the house/temple.

Yahweh dwells in the heavens, but he placed his Name in the temple.

We read this, and we just don't get it. Our brains hurt. What does this mean?

Let's reread verses 1-2:

(1) Praise Yah!,

Praise the name/Name of Yahweh!,

Praise, servants of Yahweh!,

(2) who are standing in the house of Yahweh,

in the courts of the house of our God.

Our psalmist knows 1 Kings 8. He knows that Yahweh placed his Name at the temple. And so when we calls the priests, specifically, to praise the Name of Yahweh, this makes sense. They are serving, and worshipping, and helping others worship, at Yahweh's house-- at the place Yahweh put his Name.

So when the psalmist says, praise the Name of Yahweh, I don't think he's saying, "Praise Yahweh, instead of a differently named elohim (like, 1 Kings 18:24)." He's pointing back to 1 Kings 8. He's calling on the people serving at the temple to praise the Name of Yahweh, because it's the Name of Yahweh that Yahweh placed in His house.

But in saying this, our heads still hurt. What does this mean? What, or Who, is the Name of Yahweh?