Psalm 135:5

Psalm 135:5, in plain English

The psalmist moves from talking about what God has done for Israel to declaring something universal: the Lord is genuinely great, and no other power—no other god that people worship—compares to Him. You can trust this because it's simply true.

Why it's here

Israel lived surrounded by pagan nations who worshipped many gods. This wasn't abstract theology—it was a lived reality. The psalmist is making a claim that would have been countercultural: that all those other gods pale beside the Lord. This took courage and conviction to declare.

Who's speaking

The psalmist, testifying from personal conviction

Where it sits in the story

This echoes the Shema from Deuteronomy 6—the central confession of Israel's faith that God alone is God—and it became the foundation for what Christians understand as monotheism, carried forward through Jesus's teaching about the one true God.

The scholarly reading

The speaker transitions from historical recollection to a personal declaration of knowledge: God's greatness is not merely asserted but known through experience and contemplation. This greatness is comparative—the LORD surpasses all competing divine claims.

Language and setting

The shift from 'the LORD has chosen' to 'I know that the LORD is great' marks a movement from collective memory to individual conviction. The polytheistic environment of the ancient Mediterranean world made the affirmation of YHWH's supremacy (אֲדֹנֵינוּ מִכֹּל אֱלֹהִים, 'our Lord [is] above all gods') a necessary assertion. This verse likely served an apologetic function, reassuring Israelite worshippers of their God's superiority to the competing religious systems of surrounding cultures.

Voice

An individual worshipper now speaks, likely the psalm's composer or a representative worshipper articulating personal-yet-communal conviction.

Significance

This anticipates the theological conflict evident in texts like Daniel 3 and the Maccabean literature, where Israel's exclusive loyalty to YHWH in a polytheistic world required confident assertion of His supremacy. It also presages New Testament Christological claims about Christ's preeminence (Col. 1:15-17).

3Hallelujah, for the LORD is good; sing praises to His name, for it is lovely.

4For the LORD has chosen Jacob as His own, Israel as His treasured possession.

5For I know that the LORD is great; our Lord is above all gods.

6The LORD does all that pleases Him in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and in all their depths.

7He causes the clouds to rise from the ends of the earth. He generates the lightning with the rain and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

Read all of Psalm 135 — The Lord chose Israel as His treasured possession. A hymn that celebrates divine choice and power with borrowed phrases from across the Psalter.