Psalms 115

i. In a time of national humiliation Israel supplicates Jehovah to vindicate the honour of His name by raising His people from their degradation. Why should the heathen be allowed to mock, when Israel knows Him to be supreme and omnipotent (Psalms 115:1-3)? ii. How utterly different is He from the speechless, powerless idols which the heathen make and call gods: gods which must drag down their worshippers to their own level of senselessness and impotence (Psalms 115:4-8). iii. Exhortations to trust Jehovah and await His blessing (Psalms 115:9-13). iv. Prayers for blessing and resolves to praise Jehovah (Psalms 115:14-18). This Psalm was probably composed for use in the Temple services after the Return from Babylon, perhaps when the first flush of enthusiasm had died away, and the little community in Jerusalem realised how contemptibly weak it was in the eyes of its neighbours (Ezra 3:3; Ezra 4:1 ff.), perhaps at a later period (Nehemiah 4:1-5); but the sarcastic description of idols in Psalms 115:4 ff. points rather to the earlier time, when the memories of Babylonian idolatry were still fresh. Israel’s sense of its own weakness adds strength to its faith in Jehovah, to Whom alone it can look for help and protection. The precise manner in which the Psalm was intended to be sung cannot be determined with certainty. Psalms 115:1-8 may have been sung by the choir of Levites; Psalms 115:9 a, 10 a, 11 a by the precentor, answered in Psalms 115:9 b, 10 b, 11 b by the choir; and Psalms 115:12-18 by the choir. But it is not improbable that Psalms 115:12-15 at any rate were distributed between the two halves of the choir. An allusion to such antiphonal singing is found in Ezra 3:11. The priests and Levites “sang one to another (lit. answered) in praising and giving thanks unto Jehovah.” Cp. Nehemiah 12:40. The opening words of the Psalm, though properly a prayer, have commonly been used as a thanksgiving, as by Henry V after Agincourt[74]: [74] “The king … gathering his armie togither, gaue thanks to almightie God for so happie a victorie; causing his prelats and chapleins to sing this psalme: ‘In exitu Israel de Aegypto’: and commanded euerie man to kneele downe on the ground at this verse: ‘Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam.’ ” Holinshed, quoted by Verity, Henry V, p. 227. In the Vulg. Psalms 114, 115 are one Psalm; the first part would have been sung for the dead and dying (see above, p. 680), and the second part as a thanksgiving.“Do we all holy rites; Let there be sung ‘Non nobis’ and ‘Te Deum.’ ” Shakespeare, Henry V., iv. 8. 128. In some Heb. MSS and in the LXX and versions dependent on or influenced by it (Vulg., Arab., Aeth., Syr., Theodotion, Jerome) this Psalm is united with Psalms 114. But in tone, structure, and style the two Psalms are quite distinct and cannot originally have been one.

Psalms 115:1-3

1–3. An appeal to God to vindicate His honour by succouring His people.

Psalms 115:2

2. So Psalms 79:10. Cp. Psalms 42:3; Psalms 42:10; Exodus 32:12; Numbers 14:13 ff.; Joe 2:17; Micah 7:10. Now does not mean at the present time as contrasted with the past, but is a particle emphasising the question, where, prithee?

Psalms 115:3

3. But] Or, Whereas. Though its outward circumstances may seem to give ground for the taunts of the heathen, Israel knows that its God is supremely exalted and omnipotent. If His people suffer, it is because He wills it, not because He lacks power to help them. He does whatsoever He wills in chastisement (Isaiah 53:10) and in redemption (Isaiah 55:11). Cp. Wis 12:18, “Thou, being sovereign over thy strength, judgest in gentleness, and with great forbearance dost thou govern us; for the power is thine whensoever thou hast the will.”

Psalms 115:4-8

4–8. Do the heathen taunt us with the impotence of our God? What are their own gods? Nothing but their own handiwork, destitute of ordinary human senses, though represented with organs of sense. For similar sarcastic descriptions of idols and the contrast between them and the living God, see Isaiah 44:9-20; Jeremiah 10:1-16 Deuteronomy 4:28; Isaiah 2:20; Habakkuk 2:18-19; Wis 15:15. The passage recurs in Psalms 135:15-18. Observe how completely the Psalmist identifies the god with the image: it has no separate existence.

Psalms 115:5-6

5, 6. They cannot teach their worshippers (Habakkuk 2:19) or see their needs; they cannot hear prayers offered to them or smell the sweet savour of sacrifices. Jehovah, though He has no bodily form, can truly be said to speak (Isaiah 1:20) and see (Psalms 113:6) and hear (Psalms 6:8) and smell (Genesis 8:21).

Psalms 115:8

8. Like unto them shall their makers become, Even everyone that trusteth in them. Such gods drag down their worshippers to the same level of senseless stupidity: they must perish, for their protectors are powerless. Cp. 2 Kings 17:15; Isaiah 44:9-10; Jeremiah 2:5; Romans 1:21-23.

Psalms 115:9-13

9–13. An exhortation to Israel to trust Jehovah, Who will surely bless His people.

Psalms 115:12

12. Jehovah who hath remembered us will bless (us)] By bringing them back from Babylon Jehovah proved that He had not forgotten His people (Isaiah 49:14-15; Psalms 98:3; Psalms 136:23), and the Psalmist points to this deliverance as a pledge that He will still further bless them.

Psalms 115:13

13. both small and great] One and all without distinction of rank or condition. Cp. Jeremiah 6:13; Jeremiah 16:6; Jeremiah 31:34.

Psalms 115:14-18

14–18. Prayers for blessing and resolves to employ life in Jehovah’s praise.

Psalms 115:15

15. The prayer is still continued, Blessed be ye of Jehovah. The designation Maker of heaven and earth is characteristic of the later Psalms (Psalms 121:2; Psalms 124:8; Psalms 134:3; Psalms 146:6). It contrasts Jehovah the omnipotent Creator with the powerless idols of the heathen (Jeremiah 10:11; and often in Isaiah 40-66). Here it also implies that He has the power to dispense the blessings of earth. Cp. also Isaiah 37:16; Psalms 96:5; Nehemiah 9:6.

Psalms 115:16

16. The closing words of Psa 115:15 are developed. The heaven is Jehovah’s heaven; He has made it for His own dwelling-place (Psalms 115:3; Psalms 2:4); He is “the God of heaven” (Psalms 136:26; and often in the Aramaic of Ezra and Daniel). The LXX renders ungrammatically, ‘the heaven of heaven’ (Vulg. caelum caeli); hence P.B.V. ‘all the whole heavens.’ the earth &c.] Cp. Isaiah 45:18.

Psalms 115:17

17. From heaven the poet passes to earth, and from earth to Sheol, which here, as in Psalms 94:17, is termed ‘silence.’ The dead raise no Hallelujahs; they are cut off from communion with God and from the power of rendering Him service of lip and life. For this gloomy view of the state of the dead cp. Psalms 6:5; Psalms 30:9; Psalms 88:4-5; Psalms 88:10-12; Isaiah 38:11; Isaiah 38:18; and many passages in Job, e.g. Job 7:9; Job 10:21 ff.; Job 10:14 : and see Introd. pp. xciii ff. The verse is partly a stimulus to employ life rightly; partly (in effect) a plea, for if Jehovah suffers his people to perish, He will lose their praises.

Psalms 115:18

18. But we (emphatic), we the living (as the LXX adds), will bless Jah. Cp. Psalms 118:17; Isaiah 38:18 ff. for evermore] In the spirit of faith the congregation sees no limit to the continuance of its existence or to its tribute of praise. What in the O.T. is a national hope becomes in the N.T. a personal hope. The LXX and Jer. transfer the concluding Hallelujah to the beginning of Psalms 116.