Psalms 115

Psalms 115:1-18

Psalms 115GOD is entreated by his people to vindicate not their honour but his own, Psalms 115:1-2, which is contrasted with the impotence of idols and their worshippers, Psalms 115:3-8, and urged as a reason why his people should trust in him, for a large increase, Psalms 115:9-15, and a fulfilment of his purpose to glorify himself by the praises of the living, not the dead, Psalms 115:16-17, in the promotion of which end the church declares her resolution to co-operate for ever, Psalms 115:18. The general tenor of the psalm, thus stated, and its particular contents, make it perfectly well suited to the state of things in which the series is supposed to have been written, namely, that succeeding the return from exile, but before the actual rebuilding of the temple.

1. (Psalms 115:1) Not unto us, Jehovah, not unto us, but to thy name give glory, for thy mercy, for thy truth. The glory meant is not that of former but of future deeds. The implied petition is, that God would interpose for the deliverance of his people, not to do them honour, but to glorify himself, and especially to vindicate his mercy and fidelity, which seemed to be dishonoured by his desertion of the chosen people. See above, on Psalms 79:9, and compare Numbers 14:15, Isaiah 43:7; Isaiah 43:25; Isaiah 48:9; Isaiah 48:11, Daniel 9:18. The favour sought is the completion of the work of restoration, still imperfect, though auspiciously begun.

2. (Psalms 115:2) Why should the nations say, Where now is their God? Why should they have occasion so to ask? The form of expression is borrowed from Psalms 79:10, with the addition of now, which is not a particle of time, but of entreaty, or, in this connection, of triumphant demand. Where, pray, is their God? This verse is explanatory of the one before it, by shewing that there really was need of something to silence the reproaches of the heathen, a description exactly corresponding to the state of the Jews at the Restoration.

3. (Psalms 115:3) And our God (is) in heaven; all that he pleased he has done. The and, though foreign from our idiom, adds sensibly to the force of the expression. They ask thus, as if our God were absent or had no existence; and yet all the while our God is in heaven, in his glorious and exalted dwelling-place. Compare Psalms 2:4; Psalms 11:4; Psalms 103:19. The same phrase, but in the future tense, is used by Solomon (Ecclesiastes 8:3). The same idea is expressed in other words, Genesis 18:14, Job 23:13.

4. (Psalms 115:4) Their idols (are) silver and gold, the work of the hands of man. Here begins the contrast between the true God and all others. Their idols, those of the Gentiles, who reproach us with the absence or indifference of our God. For the associations coupled with the word for idols, see above, on Psalms 106:38. Hands of man, not of a man, but of mankind, i.e. human hands. With this whole passage compare Isaiah 40:18-20; Isaiah 41:7; Isaiah 44:9-20; Isaiah 46:5-7, Jeremiah 10:3-15.

5. (Psalms 115:5) They have a mouth and speak not; they have eyes and see not. As the verb to have is wanting in the Hebrew and its cognate languages (see above, on Psalms 114:5), it is not a literal translation of the original expression, (there is) a mouth to them, (there are) eyes to them. The future includes not only a simple affirmation, they speak not, they see not, but the future and potential sense, they never will or can speak or see.

6. (Psalms 115:6) They have ears and hear not, they have a nose and smell not. The antithesis is that expressed in Psalms 94:9, that God is the former of the eye and the planter of the ear in man; much more than can he see and hear himself.

7. (Psalms 115:7) They have hands, and feel not; they have feet, and walk not; they do not mutter in their throat. The sameness of this long enumeration, the force of which is logical and not poetical, is partially relieved by a change in the form of the original, which cannot well be imitated in translation. Their hands, and they feel not; their feet, and they walk not. Some make the first words in each clause nominatives absolute; their hands— they feel not; their feet— they walk not. But in the preceding parts of the description, the verbs relate not to the particular members, but to the whole person. It is better, therefore, to supply a verb— their hands (are there), and (yet) they feel not— their feet (are there), and (yet) they go not.

The English feel is to be taken in its physical and outward sense, corresponding to the Latin palpo, here used by the Vulgate and Jerome. A less equivocal translation would be touch. The other verb denotes all progressive movements of the body, comprehended in the English go. See above, on Psalms 104:8. The meaning of the last clause is, that they cannot even make the faintest and most inarticulate guttural noise, like the lower animals; much less speak as men do. See above, on Psalms 35:28; Psalms 71:24.

8. (Psalms 115:8) Like them shall be those who made them, every one who trusts in them. The last clause forbids the application of the fast to the mere artificers, as such, and fastens it on those who trust in idols, whether made by them or by others for them. However formidable now, they shall hereafter be as powerless and senseless as the gods they worship. The translation are is contrary to Hebrew usage, which requires the present tense of the substantive verb to be suppressed.

9. (Psalms 115:9) O Israel, trust thou in Jehovah; their help and their shield (is) He, This is the practical application of the contrast just presented. Since idols are impotent and God almighty, it is folly to fear them or their servants; it is worse than folly not to trust in Him. The last clause is borrowed from Psalms 33:20. After addressing Israel directly in the first clause, he resumes the third person in the second, and, as if speaking to himself, assigns the reason for the exhortation. The first clause is, as it were, uttered in a loud voice, and the second in a low one.

10. (Psalms 115:10) O house of Aaron, trust ye in Jehovah; their help and their shield (is) He. Before the exile this particular address to the priests would have been surprising. It is perfectly natural, however, after the return from Babylon, when the priests bore so large a proportion, not only to the other Levites, but to the whole nation, and naturally exercised a paramount influence in its affairs.

11. (Psalms 115:11) Fearers of Jehovah, trust ye in Jehovah; their help and their shield (is) He. He turns again to the people at large, who are here described as fearers of Jehovah, not in reference to the actual character of all the individual members, but to the high vocation of the body. See above, Psalms 22:23; Psalms 111:5.

12. (Psalms 115:12) Jehovah hath remembered us; he will bless, he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron. The exhortation to confide is God does not imply that he has yet done nothing. He has already shewn his gracious recollection of us by beginning to bless us, and he will still go on to bless us; an idea simply but beautifully expressed by the repetition of the verb, the effect of which is spoiled in the common version by needlessly supplying us.

13. (Psalms 115:13) He will bless the fearers of Jehovah, the small with the great. There is no need of explaining the great to be the priests and the small the laity. It is much more natural to understand this as an instance of a common Hebrew idiom, which combines small and great in the sense of all, just as neither good nor evil means neither one thing nor another, i. e, nothing. Compare 2 Kings 18:24, Jeremiah 16:6, Revelation 13:16; Revelation 19:6.

14. (Psalms 115:14) May Jehovah add to you, to you and to your children! This implies a previous diminution of the people, such as really took place in the Babylonish exile. The optative meaning of the verb, both here and in Genesis 30:24, is clear from Deuteronomy 1:11, 2 Samuel 24:3. The Hebrew preposition strictly means upon you, and conveys the idea of accumulation much more strongly. See above, on Psalms 71:14, where we have an example of the same construction.

15. (Psalms 115:15) Blessed are ye of Jehovah, Maker of heaven and earth. Ye are the people blessed of old in the person of your father Abraham, by Melchizedek, priest of the Most High God, saying, “Blessed be Abraham of the Most High God, creator of heaven and earth,” Genesis 14:19. Of Jehovah, literally to Jehovah, as an object of benediction to him. Or the Hebrew preposition, as in many other cases, may be simply equivalent to our by. The creative character of God is mentioned, as ensuring his ability, no less than his willingness, to bless his people.

16. (Psalms 115:16) The heavens (are) heavens for Jehovah, and the earth he has given to the sons of man. This verse suggests another reason why God would increase them, namely, that although he reserved heaven for himself, he designed the earth to be filled and occupied by man, and hence in the primeval blessing on mankind, as originally uttered, and as repeated after the flood (Genesis 1:28; Genesis 9:1), the command to increase is coupled with that to fill the earth. Now if it is not God’s will that the race should be diminished and reduced to nothing, much less can such be his intention with respect to his own people. The form of expression in the first clause is unusual. The construction given in the English Bible (the heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s) is entirely gratuitous, the distinction of numbers (heaven, heavens), and the emphatic even, being both supplied by the translators. The Hebrew word is plural in both cases, and is indeed used only in that number.

17. (Psalms 115:17) (It is) not the dead (that) are to praise Jah, and not all (those) going down in silence. This may be regarded as a further reason for expectingthe divine protection. God has chosen a people, from among the nations of the earth, to praise him, not when dead but living, not in the silence of the grave, but with their voices in the present life. Thus understood, the verse teaches nothing as to the employments of the disembodied spirit, or of soul and body in the future state. All that is affirmed here (and perhaps in other places like it) is that the praises of the chosen people, as such, must be limited to this life. See above, on Psalms 6:5; Psalms 30:9; Psalms 88:10-12, and compare Isaiah 38:18. Silence, a poetical description of the grave or the unseen world, as in Psalms 94:17.

18. (Psalms 115:18) And (therefore) we will bless Jah from now even to eternity. Hallelujah! As it is not the dead who are to do it, and as we are still preserved alive, let us answer our vocation and the very end of our existence. The insensible transition from temporal to eternal praise is altogether natural. The hallelujah refers back to the expression praise Jah (hallelujah) in Psalms 115:17. As if he had said, Let us do what, the dead can not, shout Hallelujah!