Commentary LibraryCommentaries on Psalms 115:5
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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 subject matter or argument shows it to be so. It is...
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 in the heavens, when his people cry to him, he...
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 promise and blessing, ver. 9-15. 2. By blessing...
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 which the psalmist here aims at the idol gods. I do...
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.
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 them, they are dumb. Shall a man believe a dumb thing...