Whatever Yahweh pleased, that he has done, in heaven and in earth, in the seas and in all deeps.
He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings with the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasuries.
He struck the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and animal.
He sent signs and wonders into the middle of you, Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his servants.
He struck many nations, and killed mighty kings,
Sihon king of the Amorites, Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Canaan,
and gave their land for a heritage, a heritage to Israel, his people.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10 6. Whatsoever doth please him, etc. This is that…
6. Whatsoever doth please him, etc. This is that immeasurable greatness of the divine being, of which he had just spoken. He not only founded heaven and earth at first, but governs all things according to his power. To own that God made the world, but maintain that he sits idle in heaven, and takes no concern in the management of it, is to cast an impious aspersion upon his power; and yet the idea, absurd as it is, obtains wide currency amongst men. They would not say, perhaps, in so many words, that they believed that God slept in heaven, but in imagining, as they do, that he resigns the reins to chance or fortune, they leave him the mere shadow of a power, such as is not manifested in effects; whereas Scripture teaches us that it is a real practical power, by which he governs the whole world as he does according to his will. The Psalmist expressly asserts every part of the world to be under the divine care, and that nothing takes place by Chance, or without determination. According to a very common opinion, all the power necessary to be assigned to God in the matter, is that of a universal providence, which I do not profess to understand. The distinction here made between the heavens, earth, and waters, denotes a particular governments. The term חפר, chaphets, is emphatical. The Holy Spirit declares that he does whatsoever pleases him. That confused sort of divine government which many talk of, amounts to no more than a certain maintenance of order in the world, without due counsel. No account whatever is made of his will in this way, for will implies counsel and method. Consequently there is a special providence exerted in the government of the various parts of the world, there is no such thing as chance, and what appears most fortuitous, is in reality ordered by his secret wisdom. We are not called to inquire why he wills events which contradict our sense of what his administration should be, but if we would not unsettle the very foundations of religion, we must hold by this as a firm principle, that nothing happens without, the divine will and decree. “Neantmoins si nous ne voulons arracher tons les rudimens de la vraye religion, ceci doit demeurer ferme,” etc. — Fr.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv6, 12 He joined God’s power with his will, to the…
He joined God’s power with his will, to the intent that we should not separate them, and hereby he willeth God’s people to depend on his power which he confirmeth by examples.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv6–12 Psa 135:6 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, [that] did he…
Psa 135:6 Whatsoever the LORD pleased, [that] did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.
Ver. 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased] This the heathens did never seriously affirm of any their dunghill deities; sure it is that none of them could say, I know it to be so. De diis utrum sint, non ausim affirmare, said one of their wise men.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, either in, the creation or…
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, either in, the creation or government of them,
that did he in heaven and in earth; his power and jurisdiction is universal, and not like that of the heathen gods, which is confined to their several countries.
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In the seas, and all deep places; in the visible seas, and in those invisible depths, both of earth, and of the waters which are contained in the bowels of the earth.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv6–12 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he,.... In creation,…
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he,.... In creation, producing into being what creatures he thought fit; in providence, doing according to his will in heaven and in earth; in grace, predestinating men to grace and glory, according to the good pleasure of his will, and calling by his grace whom he pleased: so Christ quickens whom he will; and the Spirit dispenses his gifts and grace severally to men as he pleases. Sovereignty, or acting according to will and pleasure, is peculiar to the Lord; the heavens, the sun, moon, and stars, are at his direction, and act by the laws of creation, which are at his control; angels do his will, and not their own: the most arbitrary and despotic princes cannot do everything they please; but the Lord can and does, even everything;
in heaven and in earth, in the seas and all deep places; in the formation of them, and filling them with inhabitants, and fitting them to perform the several ends and uses for which they were designed; as well as performing many wonderful things in them out of the ordinary course of nature, as did our Lord, or as were done when he was here on earth: a wonderful star appeared in the heavens, which guided the wise men to the place of his birth; unusual voices were heard from heaven at his baptism, transfiguration, and other times; the Spirit, with his extraordinary gifts, descended from hence after his ascension thither: surprising miracles were done by him on earth; the great work of redemption was finished here, where he glorified his divine Father; and throughout it he sent his apostles to publish his everlasting Gospel. He did wonders in the mighty waters; more than once he made the boisterous sea a calm, and walked upon the surface of it: and as of old he broke up the fountains of the great deep, and drowned the world; and at another time dried up the sea, and led his people through the depths, as through a wilderness; so he will hereafter bind the old serpent the devil, and cast him into the abyss, into the great deep, into the bottomless pit; where he will continue during the thousand years' reign of Christ with his saints.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv6–7 Seas - In the visible seas, and in the…
Seas - In the visible seas, and in the invisible depths both of the earth and of the waters.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv6–8 Verse 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased] All that he…
Verse 6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased] All that he has done is right, and therefore it is pleasing in his sight. He is the author of all existence. Angels, men, spirits, the heavens, the earth, and all their contents, were made by him, and are under his control.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv6, 7, 8, 10 Psa 135:6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased — Either in…
Psa 135:6. Whatsoever the Lord pleased — Either in the creation or government of the world; that did he in heaven and in earth — His power and jurisdiction are universal, and not like those of the heathen gods, confined, as their worshippers allowed, to their several countries; in the seas, and all deep places — In the visible seas, and in the invisible depths, both of the earth and of the waters. Here, then, the psalmist evinces the pre-eminence of Jehovah above the gods of the nations, by this consideration, that he at the beginning “created and formed those powers of nature whose operations in the heavens, the earth, and the waters, led the heathen world, after it had lost the knowledge of the Creator, to adore the creature as independent.”
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv6–12 Whatsoever the Lord pleased - God is an absolute…
Whatsoever the Lord pleased - God is an absolute sovereign. He has formed a plan, and has carried it out. He has made the world as he chose, and he has ordered all its arrangements according to his own pleasure. As a universal sovereign, he has a right to universal adoration. See the notes at Psa 115:3.
In heaven, and in earth ... - These are put for the universe; these are the universe. In these places - in all worlds - on the land and in the ocean - even in the profound depths of the sea, there is nothing which has not been placed there by his will, and which he has not arranged according to his eternal plan.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 10 7. Here is a quotation from Jer_10:13. See Gen_2:6;…
7. Here is a quotation from Jer_10:13. See Gen_2:6; Psa_115:3. Lightnings for the rain, may signify “lightnings” as an accompaniment of “rain,” or as having a causal influence upon the formation of rain drops, both of which are true.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv6–12 6. Whatsoever Jehovah pleased hath he done,
6. Whatsoever Jehovah pleased hath he done,
In heaven, and in earth, in the seas and all deeps.
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The first line is identical with Psa_115:3 b: the second is based on Exo_20:4. The deeps are “the waters under the earth,” the subterranean abyss of waters on which the earth was thought to rest. Cp. Psa_24:2; Psa_136:6.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7, 8, 12 (7) Adapted from Jer_10:13; Jer_51:16.
(7) Adapted from Jer_10:13; Jer_51:16.
Causeth the vapours to ascend.—Mr. Burgess is undoubtedly right in referring this to the mist which went up from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground “before the useful trouble of the rain” (Gen_2:6), since the original passage in Genesis has a plain reference to the story of the Creation, and the rain is immediately mentioned as coming into existence after the vapours. That a different term is used in Genesis does not make against this since the Hebrew term here is a general one derived from the verb “to ascend.”
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Lightnings for the rain—i.e., “to bring rain.” Such was the Oriental notion, see Zec_10:1 and compare 1Sa_12:17. Both of these places refer to showers out of the ordinary rainy season, such as thunder-storms in the harvest season. The sudden downfall of sheets of rain after a flash and peal is even in this climate sufficiently striking to make such a notion as the dependence of rain on lightning quite conceivable, how much more in tropical countries, and where, except in the due rainy season, it would never probably fall without thunder and lightning.
Wind out of his treasuries.—Comp. the Greek and Latin ideas of the “caves” of the winds.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv6–12 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he. (comp. Psa_115:3)…
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he. (comp. Psa_115:3) God"s power is only limited by his own attributes of truth and goodness. He cannot contradict his own reason, or his own moral qualities. Otherwise he can do anything and everything. In heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. This is intended as a complete division of space:
(1) the heavens above the earth;
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(2) the earth and seas, in the middle sphere; and
(3) the abysses, or depths below the earth, as far as they can be conceived of as extending.
God"s power can carry out God"s will.
"All that Jehovah willeth he hath done." Observe the contrast with idols. If it were conceivable that they had the power to will, it is manifest that they have not the power to carry out, or execute, their will. Observe the contrast with men. They, undoubtedly, have the power to will, but the inability to perform oppresses them continually. "I would, but cannot," is the constant cry of man"s feebleness. But a limitation on God"s power to execute what he wills is inconceivable; and if we could conceive it, we should find we had lost all worthy ideas of God. "With God all things are possible" that are not ridiculous in the statement. Calvin says, "The specification of Jehovah"s doings according to his pleasure, in heaven, earth, sea, and all deep places, puts before us in a graphic manner his particular care always and everywhere.
I THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GOD"S WILL AND GOD"S POWER. That can be seen in all the three spheres of God"s relations.
1. In the material world of things. It always was, and it always is, true that "he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood forth?" Laws in their working may seem to cross other laws; but they cannot hinder the outworking of what God wills.
2. In the world of people. God "doeth as he wills among the armies of heaven, and inhabitants of the earth.
3. In the spiritual world. Because that world is so difficult to apprehend, the connection between God"s will and power escapes our attention, though it is as sure as anywhere else.
II THE HINDRANCES PUT IN THE WAY OF THE CONNECTION. They never come from things. The disturbances of nature are not real; they only represent human conceptions based on what is humanly observed. Tempests, earthquakes, etc., are in the Divine order. The hindrances can only come from intelligent creatures, to whom is entrusted a limited self-will. Man has this awful possibility given to him; he can come in between God"s will and the carrying out of that will.
III THE TRIUMPH OVER THE HINDRANCES. That must sometimes be accomplished by the putting forth of Divine power; but it is the marvel of Divine grace that it is usually done by persuading the human will, bringing it into full harmony with the Divine will, and so getting the man himself to take the hindrances out of the way. R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain On vv6–12 Ver. 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he…
Ver. 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. His will is carried out throughout all space. The king's warrant runs in every portion of the universe. The heathen divided the great domain; but Jupiter does not rule in heaven, nor Neptune on the sea, nor Pluto in the lower regions; Jehovah rules over all. His decree is not defeated, his purpose is not frustrated: in no one point is his good pleasure set aside. The word "whatsoever" is of the widest range and includes all things, and the four words of place which are mentioned comprehend all space; therefore the declaration of the text knows neither limit nor exception. Jehovah works his will: he pleases to do, and he performs the deed. None can stay his hand. How different this from the gods whom the heathen fabled to be subject to all the disappointments, failures, and passions of men! How contrary even to those so called Christian conceptions of God which subordinate him to the will of man, and make his eternal purposes the football of human caprice. Our theology teaches us no such degrading notions of the Eternal as that he can be baffled by man. "His purpose shall stand, and he will do all his pleasure." No region is too high, no abyss too deep, no land too distant, no sea too wide for his omnipotence: his divine pleasure travels post over all the realm of nature, and his behests are obeyed.
Ver. 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he, etc. He was not forced to make all that he made, but all that he willed he made. His will was the cause of all things which he made. Thou makest a house, because if thou didst not make it thou wouldest be left without a habitation: necessity compels thee to make a home, not free will. Thou makest a garment, because thou wouldest go about naked if thou didst not make it; thou art therefore led to making a garment by necessity, not by free will. You plant a mountain with vines, you sow seed, because if thou didst not do so, thou wouldest not have food; all such things thou doest of necessity. God has made all things of his goodness. He needed nothing that he made; and therefore he hath made all things that he willed.
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He did whatsoever he willed in the heaven and earth: do you do all that you will even in your field? You will many things, but can not do all you wish in thy own house. Thy wife, perchance, gainsays thee, thy children gainsay thee, sometimes even thy servant contumaciously gainsays thee, and thou doest not what thou wiliest. But thou sayest, I do what I will, because I punish the disobedient and gainsayer. Even this you do not when you will. Augustine.
Ver. 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he, etc. God's will obtains and hath the upper hand everywhere. Down man, down pope, down devil; you must yield; things shall not be as you will, but as God will! We may well say, "Who hath resisted his will?" Ro 9:19. Many, indeed, disobey, and sin against the will of his precept; but none ever did, none ever shall, frustrate or obstruct the will of his purpose; for he will do all his pleasure, and in his way mountains shall become a plain. William Slater (-1704), in "The Morning Exercises."
Ver. 6. Upon the Arminian's plan (if absurdity can deserve the name of a plan), the glorious work of God's salvation, and the eternal redemption of Jesus Christ, are not complete, unless a dying mortal lends his arm; that is, unless he, who of himself can do nothing, vouchsafe to begin and accomplish that which all the angels in heaven cannot do; namely, to convert the soul from Satan to God. How contrary is all this to the language of Scripturehow repugnant to the oracles of truth "Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he in heaven and in earth." Ambrose Serle (-1815), in "Horoe Solitariae."
Ver. 6. In heaven and in the earth, etc. His power is infinite. He can do what he will do everywhere; all places are there named but purgatory; perhaps he can do nothing there, but leaves all that work for the Pope. Thomas Adams.
Ver. 6. In the seas, and all deep places. He did wonders in the mighty waters: more than once he made the boisterous sea a calm, and walked upon the surface of it; and as of old he broke up the fountains of the great deep, and drowned the world; and at another time dried up the sea, and led his people through the depths, as through a wilderness; so he will hereafter bind the old serpent, the devil, and cast him into the abyss, into the great deep, the bottomless pit, where he will continue during the thousand years' reign of Christ with his saints. John Gill.
Ver. 6. The word "pleaseth" limits the general note or particle "all" unto all works which in themselves are good, or else serve for good use, and so are pleasing to the Lord for the use sake. He doth not say that the Lord doth all things which are done, but all things which he pleaseth, that is, he doth not make men sinful and wicked, neither doth he work rebellion in men, which is displeasing unto him; but he doth whatsoever is pleasing, that is, all things which are agreeable to his nature. And whatsoever is according to his will and good pleasure, that he doth, for none can hinder it. This is the true sense and meaning of the words. George Walker, in "God made visible in his Works", 1641.
Ver. 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did, etc. With reference to, the government of Providence, it is said of God, that "he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth." Even insensible matter is under his control. Fire and hail, snow and vapour, and stormy wind, fulfil his word: and with reference to intelligent agents, we are told that he maketh the most refractory, even the Wrath of man, to praise him, and the remainder of wrath he restrains. The whole Bible exhibits Jehovah as so ordering the affairs of individuals, and of nations, as to secure the grand purpose he had in view in creating the world, viz., the promotion of his own glory, in the salvation of a multitude which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues. One of the most prominent distinctions between divine revelation and ordinary history is, that when the same general events are narrated, the latter exhibits(it is its province so to doit is not able indeed to do more,)the agency of man, the former, the agency of God. Profane history exhibits the instruments by which Jehovah works; the finger of divine revelation points to the unseen but almighty hand which wields and guides the instrument, and causes even Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Jews and the people of Israel, to do what the hand and the counsel of God determined before to be done. George Payne, in "Lectures on Christian Theology", 1850.
Ver. 6. Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he. God's good pleasure in the work of grace. Seen, not in the death of the wicked, Eze 33:11; but in the election of his people, 1Sa 12:22; in the infliction of suffering on the substitute, Isa 53:10; in the provision of all fulness for his people in Christ, Col 1:19; in the arrangement of salvation by faith in Christ, Joh 6:39; in instituting preaching as the means of salvation, 1Co 1:21; in the adoption of believers as his children, Eph 1:5; in their sanctification, 1Th 4:3; in their ultimate triumph and reign, Lu 12:32. C. A. D.
Ver. 6. (last words). The power of God in places of trouble, change, and dangerseas;and in conditions of sin, weakness, despair, perplexityin all deep places.
Ver. 6-12. The Resistless Pleasure of Jehovah.
1. Behold it as here exemplified:
a) Ruling all nature.
b) Overturning a rebellious nation.
c) Making sport of kings and crowns.
d) Laying a fertile country at the feet of the chosen.
2. Be wise in view thereof.
a) Submit to it: it sweeps the seas, and lays hands on earth and heaven.
b) Think not to hide from it: the "ends of the earth" and "all deep places" are open to it; it is swifter than its own lightnings.
c) Be awed by its majesty: God's way is strewn with crowns and the bones of kings.
d) Seek its protection: its mightiest efforts are in defence of those it favours.
e) Let the Lord's people fear not with so great a God, and so exhaustless an armoury. W. B. H.
Psalms 135:7*
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v6 Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He.
Psa_135:6
Whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did He.
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The activity of God
I. God acts. He is the great worker,--never resting, never failing, never wearying,--the worker of all workers, the motor in all motions.
II. God acts everywhere. In the heavens He rolls the massive orbs of space; on the earth He maketh the grass to grow and clotheth the earth with verdure.
III. God acts from and for himself.
1. From Himself. Our activity is often excited and controlled by something external to ourselves. His never. Nothing is extra. No ruling principles or persons, not all the hierarchies of intelligences, nor the rushing forces and forms of universal matter can excite Him. His action is that of absolute spontaneity. He is responsible to no one.
2. For Himself. There is no other reason for His activity but what pleases Him. The chief measure of any moral intelligence is the gratification of His predominant disposition. In God this is love. Hence His pleasure in creating the universe and sustaining it is the diffusion of His own happiness. His pleasure is the pleasure of His creatures; His happiness and theirs are identical. (David Thomas, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 8, 10, 12 bringing the wind out of his storehouse
bringing the wind out of his storehouse
A storehouse is a place where things are kept for future use. This imagery shows God's power to control the wind. AT: "causing the wind to blow by his power" (See: Metaphor)
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translationWords
storehouse
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv6–8 135:6 God is sovereign over the whole created order—he…
135:6 God is sovereign over the whole created order—he does whatever pleases him him. • The phrase heaven and earth refers to all of creation.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.