Psalms 115

Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name give the glory, because of your faithful love and because you keep your word.

1Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.

Note"LORD" in small capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH. Jewish readers avoided pronouncing it and said "the Lord" instead, and English Bibles have followed that custom ever since. "Your name" in Hebrew means far more than a label: a person's name stands for their reputation and their standing in the world, so "give glory to your name" means "let your reputation be the thing that is honoured." The two reasons given translate a famous Hebrew word pair: *hesed*, loyal love of the kind that keeps a commitment, and *emeth*, reliability or trustworthiness, being the sort of person whose word holds.

2Why should the other nations get to say, "Where is their God now?"

2Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?

NoteThe word behind "nations" (Hebrew *goyim*, King James "heathen") simply means the peoples other than Israel, each with its own gods and shrines. The taunt "Where is their God now?" assumes a defeat or disaster: in the ancient world a nation's fortunes were read as a measure of its god's power, so a beaten people invited the jeer that their god had proved absent or weak. The question is also pointed because Israel had no image of its God to display, while its neighbors could point to theirs.

3But our God is in the heavens. He has done whatever he wanted to do.

3But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

4The idols of those nations are only silver and gold, objects made by human hands.

4Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

NoteAncient idols were not usually solid precious metal. A craftsman carved a core of wood or cast a base of cheaper metal and then overlaid it with hammered sheets of silver or gold, then clothed and adorned it. The statue was not thought to be the god, but the place where the god was present and could be fed, washed and addressed. "The work of men's hands" is the sting: the object of worship was manufactured to order.

5They have mouths, but they cannot speak. They have eyes, but they cannot see.

5They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

6They have ears, but they cannot hear. They have noses, but they cannot smell.

6They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

7They have hands, but they cannot touch anything. They have feet, but they cannot walk. They cannot make a single sound in their throats.

7They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

NoteThe last line translates an unusual Hebrew phrase, literally something like "they do not mutter in their throat." It may mean the idol cannot make even a wordless noise, the lowest possible sign of life; some read it against the murmuring or growling sounds that priests and mediums produced when a god was supposed to be speaking through them.

8The people who make them end up like them, and so does everyone who trusts in them.

8They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

Note"Become like them" plays on a standard idea: worshipers take on the character of what they worship. Here the point is turned into a joke about the statue's defects, the maker ends up as blind, deaf and powerless as the thing he made.

9Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

9O Israel, trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

NoteVerses 9 to 11 call on three groups in turn (the whole people, the priests, and a wider circle of worshipers) and each call is answered by the same refrain. The repeated shape suggests this was sung antiphonally, a leader calling and the congregation answering. "Shield" is military: the large body-shield a soldier hid behind, a standard image for a protector.

10House of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

10O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

NoteAaron was the brother of Moses, and by law only his male descendants could serve as priests at the sanctuary. "House of Aaron" therefore means the priestly families as a body, a small, hereditary professional group, not the population at large.

11All of you who honor and obey the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield.

11Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

Note"Those who fear the LORD" translates a fixed Hebrew expression meaning reverent loyalty, not terror, roughly "those who take him seriously." Because this group is named after Israel and the priests, many readers take it as a third, wider circle: foreigners who attached themselves to Israel's worship without becoming Israelites. Others take it simply as a summary of the first two. The Hebrew leaves both readings open.

12The LORD has kept us in mind, and he will bless us. He will bless the people of Israel. He will bless the family of Aaron.

12The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.

13He will bless those who honor and obey him, the unimportant and the important alike.

13He will bless them that fear the LORD, both small and great.

Note"Small and great" is a Hebrew way of naming two extremes to mean everything in between, here low and high in social rank, so: everyone, whatever their standing.

14The LORD will give you more and more, both you and your children.

14The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children.

NoteThe verb means "add to" and is used of growing numbers, children, descendants, livestock, land. In a culture without written wills, insurance or old-age provision, a large family was the practical form of security and continuity, so this is a substantial wish rather than a vague one. The Hebrew form can be read either as a statement ("the LORD will") or as a prayer ("may the LORD").

15You are blessed by the LORD, who made the heavens and the earth.

15Ye are blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth.

16The heavens, even the highest heavens, belong to the LORD, but he has given the earth to human beings.

16The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’s: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.

NoteThe Hebrew word for "heavens" covers both the visible sky and what lies beyond it. The doubled phrase (literally "the heavens, the heavens" or "heaven of heavens") is a superlative, the highest reach of the sky, the way "king of kings" means the greatest king. "The children of men" is simply an idiom for human beings.

17The dead do not praise the LORD, and neither does anyone who goes down into silence.

17The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence.

Note"Silence" is a name for the realm of the dead, called Sheol elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible: an underground place where all the dead go, good and bad alike, pictured as dim, still and cut off. Praise in these psalms means audible, public worship at the temple with other people, so the dead are outside it: they have left the assembly where the singing happens. The line is an argument for keeping the singer alive, not a statement about what awaits people after death.

18But we will bless the LORD from now on and forever. Praise the LORD!

18But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.

NoteThe closing "Praise the LORD" is the Hebrew word *hallelu-yah*, an imperative addressed to a group: "you all, praise Yah", Yah being the short form of the divine name. It was left untranslated in Greek and Latin and reached English as "hallelujah." Here it works like a rubric, a cue for the congregation.