Psalms 115

Psalms 115:1-18

In contrast with the idols of men. The next psalm takes up the old controversy between God and man; which (not merely in Israel’s history) proves the truth of the sentence passed upon man. He turns from God, when knowing Him, -turns then to the darkness; and out of this comes the substituting for the true God all the idols of his own heart. He manufactures the god he worships, -a thing so inherent in man that the light of Christianity has not sufficed to banish it from the world. Up to the time of the Babylonish captivity this was Israel’s besetting sin. After this, indeed, this unclean spirit went out of them, according to the Lord’s words (Matthew 12:43-45): alas, it was not cast out; nor the house possessed by One stronger than he. It is ready, therefore, to be occupied afresh by him; and this will take place in the last days, when idolatry will be again set up in the very temple of God, in the midst of those returned to their own land; and the open defiance given to Him there will bring in the desolating judgment which has been so often spoken of In this psalm we have, however, no allusion to the circumstances of that time. But the predictions which assure us of it, both in the Old Testament and the New, enable us better to understand the coming up of this subject of idolatry in the psalms of the latter days. Nor, indeed, is an evil done with till it has been judged: it is never allowed merely to drop out of sight unnoticed; but “God requireth,” as the preacher says, “that which is past.” (Ecclesiastes 3:15.) A solemn consideration! Nothing but a real judgment of a thing before God can give it effectual burial.

1. The psalm begins with a pleading that Jehovah will act for Himself and for the glory of His Name, and not allow the heathen to taunt His people, as if Jehovah were one of their own gods, not to be found in the time of need. It is, in fact, Israel’s sin which has given even the appearance of this; and therefore they urge that He give glory to His own Name, if He cannot to theirs: and this, not as if the account men made of Him were of such importance, save to them, and to the love therefore in Him which cared for them. And then again, He had pledged Himself to faith; and thus they could plead with Him for His truth’s sake also. Israel’s God, after all, if for the nation’s sin He were not found now in His place on earth, was still in heaven. He was a reality, accomplishing whatever He would, spite of all opposition. And this leads naturally to the comparison with idols.
2. What were they, these idol-images? Matter simply -silver and gold -shaped by men’s hands! Mouth and eyes there all right: both things that are said to “speak,” and are in different ways “witness” for the man himself, an index of what is in the heart. But the idol gives no response to his worshiper by word or look. Nay, he realizes nothing: the voice that cries to him he hears not, the odor of incense or of sacrifice he perceives not. No hand can tie stretch out to help, no foot of his will stir to bring relief, no murmur of sound even is in the idle throat. What can these senseless deities do but degrade the men who bow before them into beings as senseless? And this is the just penalty upon those who can forsake God, to follow palpably their own inventions.
3. From this the psalmist turns to exhort the people of God to cleave fast to Him who is not impotent nor impassive, but the help and shield of all that trust in Him. Israel, the house of Aaron; acid those that fear Jehovah, are separately exhorted nor is this mere amplification or embellishment. “Israel” is at once the nation as a whole, the people of Jehovah, the objects of His grace, who, crippled like their father in their human, strength, cleave to Him in their helplessness, and find it not in vain. The house of Aaron; on the other hand, are the recognized ministers of this grace, who speak of sacrifice -of the work of Another for them. While “those that fear Jehovah” declare by this character the work of the Spirit in them. Thus the living God has indeed shown Himself out for the people of His choice, not only in the grace which invites confidence, but in the activity of grace in Son and Spirit, -the work done for them; and the work done in them. I need hardly point out how completely the numerical structure justifies these thoughts.
4. After this exhortation; in which so much encouragement is wrapped up, we have the argument of experience as to this living God. To say “Jehovah has been mindful of us,” is, for those who know his unchangeableness, to be entitled to say “He will bless us.” But in accordance with this line of thought, the circles of blessing are differently divided. “Those that fear Jehovah” stand by themselves, I think, to show that under this as a principle blessing can come to others than to Israel, -with whom yet the house of Aaron remains, as in fact having the priesthood by which the whole earth draws near to God. (Isaiah 61:6.)
5. After this the blessedness of man with God can be told out. Blessing is continuous, just because it is Jehovah’s blessing, unchangeable as Himself, and they are in covenant-relation with the Creator of all. But the sphere of this blessing, as the Old Testament reveals it, is definitely pointed out: not the heavens, which are Jehovah’s, but the earth: this He has given to the children of men. But the dead then are out of it: the wicked have been turned into sheol, and the resurrection of the just has taken place, though the psalm says nothing of this. The New Testament here comes fully in to explain and supplement the Old. Death is now the doom only of those away from God; but “we,” says the psalmist, “we [the living] will praise Jehovah: from this time and forever.”