42 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Psalms 115 This psalm is by the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, joined to the former, and makes one psalm with it: and Kimchi says, that in some books the psalm does not begin here; but in the best and correct copies of the Hebrew, and in the Targum, it stands a distinct psalm; and the different...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,.... There is no glory due to men; no, not to the best of men, not to be given them on any account whatever; neither on account of things natural, civil, and temporal, nor on account of things spiritual and eternal; but all to be given to the Lord: for, as for their beings and the...
Matthew Henry - Complete Commentary - Matthew Henry
Many ancient translations join this psalm to that which goes next before it, the Septuagint particularly, and the vulgar Latin; but it is, in the Hebrew, a distinct psalm. In it we are taught to give glory, I. To God, and not to ourselves, ver. 1. II. To God, and not to idols, ver. 2-8. We must give glory to God, 1. By trusting in him, and in his...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. It was very natural that the heathen should say, “Where is their God?” because they had no outward emblem, no...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? They talk about what he did when he brought his people up out of Egypt; but they tauntingly ask, “Where is now their God?” Thou art not dead, O God! Nor art thou even waxing weak; wilt...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Wherefore should the Heathen say,.... The nations about Israel, the nations of the world; the Gentiles in any age; the Papists in ours, sometimes called the Heathen, Psalms 10:16. The church expostulates with the Lord why those should be suffered to say, in a reproachful, insulting, manner, and by way of triumph, where is now their God? that they...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
But our God is in the heavens,.... His habitation is in the heavens, as the Targum; the Septuagint and Arabic versions add, "and in earth": he is in both, and fills both with his presence; and cannot be contained in either. He is the Maker and Possessor of heaven and earth; the one is his throne, and the other is his footstool: he dwells in the...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
But our God is in the heavens: Where they cannot see him. But that is just where he should be-in his own royal pavilion, seated upon his own throne,-out of gunshot of all his enemies,-where he can survey the whole world, where he is dependent upon none, but absolutely supreme over all: “Our God is in the heavens. Psa_115:3. He hath done whatsoever...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Their idols are silver and gold,.... The idols of the Gentiles; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions. The gods they serve and worship are not in the heavens; but the matter of which they are made is dug out of the earth: and this is the greatest excellency and value that there is in them; and such as are made of...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. It is a grim piece of sarcasm...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. Mere metal,-called precious metal, yet, if made into idols, no better than any other metal. This shows the amount that a man will spend upon making to himself a god that is no god; but what a fool he is to do so! How can a man call that a “god”, which did not make him, but which he himself...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They have mouths, but they speak not,.... These idols are carved with mouths, but they make no use of them; if any cry to them for they cannot answer them, nor save them from their troubles. Baal's priests cried to their idol, but was no voice heard, nor answer returned; they are rightly called dumb idols, Habakkuk 2:18 1 Kings 18:26, but our God...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They have mouths, but they speak not: I want you to notice how the psalmist seems to have an image before him, and he points first to its head, and mocks at its different parts; and then he points to its hands, and its feet, and he utters scathing sarcasm’s about the whole person of the idol god.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
Eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. “They have mouths.” To carry out their idea of God, the makers of idols have given them mouths; but they cannot speak through...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They have ears, but they hear not,.... The makers of them have taken care to place a pair of ears to their heads, but could not convey the faculty of hearing to them; so that though their priests may cry from morning to noon, as Baal's worshippers did, saying, O Baal, hear us; and even tonight, and one day and night after another, nothing is...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They have hands, but they handle not,.... So as to feel any thing that is put into their hands; they cannot make use of their hands to stretch them out, and receive anything from their worshippers; nor can they give anything to them: but our God receives and accepts the sacrifices of his people, their prayers and their praises; and opens his hand,...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
They that make them are like unto them,.... As stupid as the matter of which they are made; as sottish and as senseless as the idols themselves, see Isaiah 44:9. Aben Ezra and Kimchi interpret it as a petition, "let them that make them be like unto them"; and so the Targum, the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions: they...
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. They are as doltish and as stupid, as blind and as deaf, and as ridiculous as the gods that they make; for no man was ever better than the god he worshipped.
Spurgeon - Verse Expositions - Charles H. Spurgeon
They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them. That is to say, they are as stupid and doltish as the idols they make. If they can bow down and worship such things as these, surely the worshippers are fitted for the gods, and the gods for the worshippers. Now, brethren, recollect that there is a spiritual idolatry...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
O Israel, trust thou in the Lord,.... Or, "the house of Israel hath trusted in the Lord": so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions: the Targum is, "Israel trusteth in the Word of the Lord;'' in distinction from the Heathens, that trust in their idols. But it is better rendered as an imperative, trust thou; it being...