1 Not to us, not to us, Jehovah,
But to Thy name give glory,
For the sake of Thy lovingkindness, for the sake of Thy troth.
2 Why should the nations say,
"Where, then, is their God?"
3 But our God is in the heavens,
Whatsoever He willed, He has done.
4 Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of the hands of men.
5 A mouth is theirs--and they cannot speak,
Eyes are theirs--and they cannot see,
6 Ears are theirs--and they cannot hear,
A nose is theirs--and they cannot smell.
7 Their hands--[with them] they cannot handle
Their feet--[with them] they cannot walk,
Not a sound can they utter with their throat.
8 Like them shall those who make them be,
[Even] every one that trusts in them.
9 Israel, trust thou in Jehovah,
Their help and shield is He.
10 House of Aaron, trust in Jehovah,
Their help and shield is He.
11 Ye who fear Jehovah, trust in Jehovah,
Their help and shield is He.
12 Jehovah has remembered us--He will bless,
He will bless the house of Israel,
He will bless the house of Aaron,
13 He will bless those who fear Jehovah,
The small as well as the great.
14 Jehovah will add to you,
To you and to your children.
15 Blessed be ye of Jehovah,
Who made heaven and earth!
16 The heavens are Jehovah's heavens,
But the earth He has given to the children of men.
17 It is not the dead who praise Jehovah,
Neither all they who descend into silence.
18 But we--we will bless Jehovah,
From henceforth and for evermore.
Hallelujah.
Israel is in straits from heathen enemies, and cries to Jehovah to
vindicate His own Name by delivering it. Strengthened by faith, which
has been stung into action by taunts aimed at both the nation and
its Protector, the psalmist triumphantly contrasts Jehovah in the
heavens, moving all things according to His will, with idols which
had the semblance of powers the reality of which was not theirs.
Sarcastic contempt, indignation, and profound insight into the effect
of idolatry in assimilating the worshipper to his god, unite in
the picture (vv. 3-8). The tone swiftly changes into a summons to
withdraw trust from such vanities, and set it on Jehovah, who can
and will bless His servants (vv. 9-15); and the psalm closes with
recognition of Jehovah's exaltation and beneficence, and with the vow
to return blessing to Him for the blessings, already apprehended by
faith, which He bestows on Israel.
Obviously the psalm is intended for temple worship, and was
meant to be sung by various voices. The distribution of its parts
may be doubtful. Ewald would regard vv. 1-11 as the voice of the
congregation while the sacrifice was being offered; vv. 12-15 as that
of the priest announcing its acceptance; and vv. 16-18 as again the
song of the congregation. But there is plainly a change of singer at
ver. 9; and the threefold summons to trust in Jehovah in the first
clauses of vv. 9, 10, 11, may with some probability be allotted to a
ministering official, while the refrain, in the second clause of each
of these verses, may be regarded as pealed out with choral force. The
solo voice next pronounces the benediction on the same three classes
to whom it had addressed the call to trust. And the congregation,
thus receiving Jehovah's blessing, sends back its praise, as sunshine
from a mirror, in vv. 16-18.
The circumstances presupposed in the psalm suit many periods of
Israel's history. But probably this, like the neighbouring psalms, is
a product of the early days after the return from Babylon, when the
feeble settlers were ringed round by scoffing foes, and had brought
back from exile a more intimate knowledge and contemptuous aversion
for idols and idolatry than had before been felt in Israel. Cheyne
takes the psalm to be Maccabean, but acknowledges that there is
nothing in it to fix that date, which he seeks to establish for the
whole group mainly because he is sure of it for one member of the
group, namely, Psalm cxviii. (_Orig. of Psalt._, 18 _sq._).
The prayer in vv. 1, 2, beautifully blends profound consciousness
of demerit and confidence that, unworthy as Israel is, its welfare
is inextricably interwoven with Jehovah's honour. It goes very deep
into the logic of supplication, even though the thing desired is but
deliverance from human foes. Men win their pleas with God, when they
sue _in formâ pauperis_. There must be thorough abnegation of all
claims based on self, before there can be faithful urging of the one
prevalent motive, God's care for His own fair fame. The under side of
faith is self-distrust, the upper side is affiance on Jehovah. God
has given pledges for His future by His past acts of self-revelation,
and cannot but be true to His Name. His lovingkindness is no
transient mood, but rests on the solid basis of His faithfulness,
like flowers rooted in the clefts of a rock. The taunts that had
tortured another psalmist long before (Psalm xlii. 3) have been flung
now from heathen lips, with still more bitterness, and call for
Jehovah's thunderous answer. If Israel goes down before its foes, the
heathen will have warrant to scoff.
But, from their bitter tongues and his own fears, the singer turns,
in the name of the sorely harassed congregation, to ring out the
proclamation which answers the heathen taunt, before God answers it
by deeds. "Our God is in heaven"--that is where He is; and He is not
too far away to make His hand felt on earth. He is no impotent image;
He does what He wills, executing to the last tittle His purposes; and
conversely, He wills what He does, being constrained by no outward
force, but drawing the determinations of His actions from the depths
of His being. Therefore, whatever evil has befallen Israel is not a
sign that it has lost Him, but a proof that He is near. The brief,
pregnant assertion of God's omnipotence and sovereign freedom, which
should tame the heathens' arrogance and teach the meaning of Israel's
disasters, is set in eloquent opposition to the fiery indignation
which dashes off the sarcastic picture of an idol. The tone of the
description is like that of the manufacture of an image in Isa. xliv.
9-20. Psalm cxxxv. 15-18 repeats it verbatim. The vehemence of scorn
in these verses suggests a previous, compelled familiarity with
idolatry such as the exiles had. It corresponds with the revolution
which that familiarity produced, by extirpating for ever the former
hankering after the gods of the nations. No doubt, there are higher
weapons than sarcasm; and, no doubt, a Babylonian wise man could have
drawn distinctions between the deity and its image, but such cobwebs
are too fine-spun for rough fingers to handle, and the idolatry both
of pagans and of Christians identifies the two.
But a deeper note is struck in ver. 8, in the assertion that, as
is the god, so becomes the worshipper. The psalmist probably means
chiefly, if not exclusively, in respect to the impotence just spoken
of. So the worshipper and his idol are called by the same name (Isa.
xliv. 9, _vanity_), and, in the tragic summary of Israel's sins and
punishment in 2 Kings xvii. 15, it is said, that "they followed after
vanity and became vain." But the statement is true in a wider sense.
Worship is sure to breed likeness. A lustful, cruel god will make his
devotees so. Men make gods after their own image, and, when made, the
gods make men after theirs. The same principle which degrades the
idolater lifts the Christian to the likeness of Christ. The aim and
effect of adoration is assimilation.
Probably the congregation is now silent, and a single voice takes up
the song, with the call, which the hollowness of idolatry makes so
urgent and reasonable, to trust in Jehovah, not in vanities. It is
thrice repeated, being first addressed to the congregation, then to
the house of Aaron, and finally to a wider circle, those who "fear
Jehovah." These are most naturally understood as proselytes, and, in
the prominence given to them, we see the increasing consciousness in
Israel of its Divine destination to be God's witness to the world.
Exile had widened the horizon, and fair hopes that men who were not
of Israel's blood would share Israel's faith and shelter under the
wings of Israel's God stirred in many hearts. The crash of the triple
choral answer to the summons comes with magnificent effect, in the
second clauses of vv. 9, 10, 11, triumphantly telling how safe are
they who take refuge behind that strong buckler. The same threefold
division into _Israel_, _house of Aaron_, and _they who fear Jehovah_
occurs in Psalm cxviii. 2-4, and, with the addition of "house of
Levi," in Psalm cxxxv.
Promises of blessing occupy vv. 12-15, which may probably have been
sung by priests, or rather by Levites, the musicians of the Temple
service. In any case, these benedictions are authoritative assurances
from commissioned lips, not utterances of hopeful faith. They are
Jehovah's response to Israel's obedience to the preceding summons;
swiftly sent, as His answers ever are. Calm certainty that He will
bless comes at once into the heart that deeply feels that He is its
shield, however His manifestation of outward help may be lovingly
delayed. The blessing is parted among those who had severally been
called to trust, and had obeyed the call. Universal blessings have
special destinations. The fiery mass breaks up into cloven tongues,
and sits on each. Distinctions of position make no difference in its
reception. Small vessels are filled, and great ones can be no more
than full. Cedars and hyssop rejoice in impartial sunshine. Israel,
when blessed, increases in number, and there is an inheritance of good
from generation to generation. The seal of such hopes is the Name of
Him who blesses, "the Maker of heaven and earth," to whose omnipotent,
universal sway these impotent gods in human form are as a foil.
Finally, we may hear the united voices of the congregation thus
blessed breaking into full-throated praise in vv. 16-18. As in ver. 3
God's dwelling in heaven symbolised His loftiness and power, so here
the thought that "the heavens are Jehovah's heavens" implies both
the worshippers' trust in His mighty help and their lowliness even
in trust. The earth is man's, but by Jehovah's gift. Therefore its
inhabitants should remember the terms of their tenure, and thankfully
recognise His giving love. But heaven and earth do not include all the
universe. There is another region, the land of silence, whither the
dead descend. No voice of praise wakes its dumb sleep. (Comp. Isa.
xxxviii. 18, 19.) That pensive contemplation, on which the light of
the New Testament assurance of Immortality has not shone, gives keener
edge to the bliss of present ability to praise Jehovah. We who know
that to die is to have a new song put into immortal lips may still be
stimulated to fill our brief lives here with the music of thanksgiving,
by the thought that, so far as our witness for God to men is concerned,
most of us will "descend into silence" when we pass into the grave.
Therefore we should shun silence, and bless Him while we live here.