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Psalms 135:14

in Psalms 135

For the LORD will vindicate His people and will have compassion on His servants.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

For Jehovah will judge his people, And repent himself concerning his servants.

KJV

For the Lord will judge his people, and he will repent himself concerning his servants.

This verse in Psalms 135

Commentary

8 notes on this verse
For the Lord will judge his people,.... Rule and govern, protect and defend them; plead their cause, and avenge them of their enemies; judge between them, distinguish them by his care and providence, make them visible, so that others shall see the difference between them; especially at the last day, when he will judge them, and, as the righteous Judge, give them the crown of righteousness.

This site's exposition

Your name, O LORD, endures forever

on Psalms 135:13-14

Verse 13 puts the LORD's name and renown beyond every generation. Verse 14 stands almost word for word at Deuteronomy 32:36, where the LORD vindicates His people and has compassion on His servants. The Hebrew behind compassion is nacham, glossed to be sorry and to comfort.

This site's exposition

will vindicate His people

Vindicate translates din, to judge. The line comes from the Song of Moses at Deuteronomy 32:36, where the LORD judges for His people and servants once their strength is gone. The praise of what He did in Egypt and Canaan turns here to what He will do.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Augustine of Hippo

Exposition on Psalm 135 · Written before 430.

proposed

"The Lord has judged His people, and will be called upon among His servants" [Psalm 135:14]. Already has He judged the people. Save the final judgment, the people of the Jews is judged. What is "judged"? The just are taken away, the unjust are left. But if I lie, or am thought to lie, because I have said, it is already judged, hear the Lord saying, "I have come for judgment into this world, that they who see not may see, and they who see may be made blind." [John 9:39] The proud are made blind, the lowly are enlightened. Therefore, "He has judged His people." Isaiah spoke the judgment. "And now, thou house of Jacob, come ye, let us walk in the light of the Lord." [Isaiah 2:5] This is a small matter; but what follows? "For He has put away His people, the house of Israel." The house of Jacob is the house of Israel; for he who is Jacob, the same is Israel....Therefore God had judged His people, by separating the evil and the good; that is to say, "He shall be called upon among His servants." By whom? By the Gentiles. For how vast are the nations who have come in by faith. How many farms and desert places now come in to us? They come thence no one can tell how numerously; they would believe. We say to them, What will you? They answer, To know the glory of God. Believe, my brethren, that we wonder and rejoice at such a claim of these rustic people. They come I know not whither, roused up by I know not whom. How shall I say, I know not by whom? I know indeed by whom, because He says, "No one comes to Me, save whom the Father draws." [John 6:44] They come suddenly from the woods, the desert, the most distant and lofty mountains, to the Church; and many of them, nay, near all hold this language, so that we see of a truth that God teaches them within. […]

The Nineteenth Century4 voices

A commentator

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)

For the Lord will judge his people. He will exercise personal discipline over them, and not leave it to their foes to maltreat them at pleasure. When the correction is ended he will arise and avenge them of their oppressors, who for a while were used by him as his rod. He may seem to forget his people, but it is not so; he will undertake their cause and deliver them. The judges of Israel were also her deliverers, and such is the Lord of hosts: in this sense—as ruling, preserving, and delivering his chosen—Jehovah will judge his people.

A commentator

Charles Spurgeon

1834–1892

The Treasury of David, Vol. 7 (1885)

proposed

For the Lord will judge his people. He will exercise personal discipline over them, and not leave it to their foes to maltreat them at pleasure. When the correction is ended he will arise and avenge them of their oppressors, who for a while were used by him as his rod. He may seem to forget his people, but it is not so; he will undertake their cause and deliver them. The judges of Israel were also her deliverers, and such is the Lord of hosts: in this sense—as ruling, preserving, and delivering his chosen—Jehovah will judge his people. And he will repent himself concerning his servants. When he has smitten them, and they lie low before him, he will pity them as a father pitieth his children, for he doth not afflict willingly. The Psalm speaks after the manner of men: the nearest description that words can give of the Lord's feeling towards his suffering servants is that he repents the evil which he inflicted upon them. He acts as if he had changed his mind and regretted smiting them. It goes to the heart of God to see his beloved ones oppressed by their enemies: though they deserve all they suffer, and more than all, yet the Lord cannot see them smart without a pang. It is remarkable that the nations by which God has afflicted Israel have all been destroyed as if the tender Father hated the instruments of his children's correction. The chosen nation is here called, first, "his people", and then "his servants:" as his people he judges them, as his servants he finds comfort in them, for so the word may be read. He is most tender to them when he sees their service; hence the Scripture saith, "I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him." Should not the "servants" of God praise him?

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

The Lord will judge his people - He will do them justice against their enemies.
For the Lord will judge his people - He will interpose in their behalf by his judgments, or by directing the course of events in their favor. This language is copied literally from Deu 32:36: “For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants.” It is there a part of the song of Moses after the journey through the wilderness, after smiting the kings of the Amorites and of Bashan; and when, delivered from their enemies, the Israelites had come to the borders of the promised land, Deut. 31. The language was, therefore, especially appropriate to the design of this psalm. And he will repent himself concerning his servants - In behalf of his people. That is, he will do as if he repented, or had changed his mind. He will stay his judgments. He will not suffer his people to be destroyed. He will not permit the judgments which seemed to threaten their entire ruin to be carried out to the full. They shall be arrested midway as if God had then changed his mind. Of course, all this is language accommodated to human weakness, and to the manner of speaking among people.

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

For the Lord will judge His people He will judge their judgment from their enemies.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Psalms 135:14:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
O Lord, Your name is eternal Like Your greatness and Your authority then, so is it also now, and You have the power to judge and to avenge us.
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Psalms 135:13:1, via Sefaria, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

7 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כִּֽי־for

    ki-H3588 →4482 times

  • יָדִ֣יןhe vindicates

    yadinH1777 →24 times

  • יְהוָ֣הYahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • עַמּ֑וֹpeople his

    amoH5971 →1873 times

  • וְעַל־and on

    veal-H5921 →5755 times

  • עֲ֝בָדָ֗יוservants his

    ʾavadavH5650 →799 times

  • יִתְנֶחָֽם׃he has compassion

    yitnechamH5162 →108 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Jonah 4:2

    So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish.…

    it leads to

    • Psalms 86:15

      But You, O Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness.

    • Exodus 34:6–7

      Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness,

    • Numbers 14:18–19

      ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion, forgiving iniquity and transgression. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon…

    • Joel 2:13–14

      So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.

    • Psalms 145:8

      The LORD is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in loving devotion.

  • Through

    Psalms 7:8

    The LORD judges the peoples; vindicate me, O LORD, according to my righteousness and integrity.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 96:13

      before the LORD, for He is coming— He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in His faithfulness.

    • Romans 14:10–12

      Why, then, do you judge your brother? Or why do you belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.

  • Through

    Psalms 50:4

    He summons the heavens above, and the earth, that He may judge His people:

    it leads to

    • Deuteronomy 31:28

      Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officers so that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them.

Where this verse is studied

About Psalms

The Hunters in the Snow. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.
The Hunters in the Snow. Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565. Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes on the Book of Psalms; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 135; Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David, Vol. 7; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament.