Psalm CXV
1 Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us.
But unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
2 Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk
not:
Neither speak they through their throat.
8 They that make them arc like unto them; so is every one that tni.stLth
in thcni.
9 O Israel, trust thou in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
10 O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
11 Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield.
12 The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us;
He will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
13 He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great.
14 The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children.
15 Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.
16 The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s:
But the earth hath he given to the children of men.
17 The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.
18 But we will bless the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the Lord.,
The missionary, Adoniram Judson, was arrested in the midst of ambitious schemes, and led to lay himself at the feet of his Lord by the first verse of this Psalm, “Not U7ito us.”
This “Not unto us” has reference to the undeserving character of the recipients. Our God gives liberally; and withal he gives as none other gives; for (as Milton sings) he gives, “With his good upbraiding none.”
It is this divine peculiarity in his giving that ought more than all else to induce us to hasten to his throne with our thanks and adoring praise. His “mercy and truth” (ver. 1) are the Jachin and Boaz of the redemption-scheme; his grace, or love, or mercy, prompting the gift of his Son, and his truth, or adherence to every word he ever spoke, to every law he ever gave, to every attribute of his character, are the reigning manifestations of his name. In giving praise, therefore, should not his redeemed continually refer to “mercy and truth” — to “grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ?” It is thus we give him “glory in the highest.”
But contrast Jehovah with any other god. Why should the heathen say, “Where, pray, (htJ) is your God?” Take up Moses’ brief description in Deut. iv. 28, and expand it as is done here. Idols of gold and silver have a mouth, but give no counsel to their worshippers; eyes, but see not the devotions nor the wants of those who serve them; ears, but hear not their cries of distress or songs of praise; nostrils, but smell not the fragrant incense presented to their images; hands, but the thunderbolt which they seem to hold (as Jupiter Tonans in after days), is a brutum fulmen, they cannot launch it; feet, but they cannot move to help the fallen. Ah! they cannot so much as whisper one syllable of response, or even mutter in their throat! And as man becomes like his god, (witness Hindoo idolaters whose cruelty is just the reflection of the cruelty of their gods), so these gods of the heathen being “soul-less, the worshippers become soul-less themselves,” (Tholuck).
Happy Israel! trust in Jehovah —
“For to all such an aid he is,
A buckler and defence.” (Oldest version.)
“Their help” means “the help of such as do so.”* Some understand it as if a chorus uttered these words in reply. In either way the sense is clear. Israel at large! house of Aaron! all fearers of God! trust him alone; for all of you can say verse 12, 13.
In verses 14, 15, the latter-day blessing of Israel is referred to. Their God whom they praised pronounces blessing, a creation-like blessing (Gen. i. 28), upon them, by the mouth of his High Priest, we may suppose; and in that case, how appropriately uttered by the Lord Jesus on the night he was betrayed, while using these words at the passover
table:
“May Jehovah add to you (Deut. i. 11),
To you and to your children 1
May you be blessed of Jehovah,
Maker of heaven and earth .^”
It is like Melchizedec blessing Abraham in the name of the Most High God, “possessor of heaven and earth.” They who receive the blessing respond in the closing words —
“As to the heavens — tJie heavens belong to Jehovah! And it is he that giveth earth to the children of men!”
Ay, and it is he who will give earth, in its renovated beauty, to the children of men. To him we owe all things. Should he not be praised — praised on his own earth?
* See note on Psalm xxviii. 7.
“It is they that are not dead who will praise Jehovah, A nd not those that go down to silence (Isa. xxvi. 14): And as for us, let us bless Jehovah (112^ ^i^J^i) From henceforth and for ever / Hallelujah /”
What a fervent act of praise! — a song, in defiance of idols. Praise to Jehovah, the sovereign source of blessings manifold to all that fear his name.