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1.
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Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give
glory. The LXX combines 114 and 115 into one psalm. If this is correct, the
point of v. 1 here is this: ‘Those great achievements (described in 114)
are for your glory, Lord, not for ours.’
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Because Herod Agrippa did not give glory to God, he was
smitten of the Lord and eaten of worms (Acts 12:21-23)! And thus he descended
into silence (dumah, v. 17 here — a Hebrew word which even
suggests “Edom”!).
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For thy mercy and thy truth’s sake. This is
virtually a technical term for God’s great promises (Mic. 7:20; Gen.
24:27; 32:9,10; Psa. 40:10; 85:10; etc.). Here, as in most occurrences in the
Psalms, the reference is to God’s great promise to David (2 Samuel 7). The
Assyrian threat (Par. 3) seemed ready to cut off the Davidic line with dramatic
suddenness.
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2.
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Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?
The idiocy, from the pagan point of view, in worshiping a God no one can
see! Well, where was He? — they asked. To their consternation and
eternal sorrow, they were soon to discover that — though the God of Israel
dwelt in heaven (v. 3) — His might and power and glory were centered in
Jerusalem.
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3.
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But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased. Compare the Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9-11; Luke 11:2-4):
“Which art in heaven... Thy will be done”; and v. 1: “Hallowed
by Thy Name”.
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He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased, even if man is
mystified to understand His ways. There is even a hint of mystery about the
outworking of God’s purposes, in the apparent contradiction between His
prospering of the Assyrian mission up to a point, only to destroy them summarily
with a mighty theophany.
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4.
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Their idols are silver and gold. And so today many men
worship silver and gold in a slightly different form! Are they any less
“idolatrous” (see Col. 3:5)?
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The work of men’s hands: “Of a truth, Lord,
the kings of Assyria have laid waste all the nations, and their countries. And
have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of
men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them”
(Isa. 37:18,19).
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“And they spake against the God of Jerusalem, as against
the gods of the people of the earth, which were the work of the hands of
man” (2 Chron. 32:19).
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5-7.
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Mouths... eyes... ears... noses... hands... feet. So
these idols should at least have the senses which a man has. But not they! Not
one characteristic of life or intelligence. Thus they are called
“vanities” and “nothing” (i.e., “no-gods”)
by Paul (Acts 14:15-17; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; see G. Booker, Waiting for His Son,
pp. 38,39). Yet such “nothings” are worshiped by the most
powerful nation on earth. “Lord, what fools these mortals
be!”
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7.
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Neither speak they through their throat is an
especially derisive allusion to the “mumbo-jumbo” of the priest
manipulating the “oracle”, and deceiving only those who want to be
deceived. Hence...
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8.
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They that make them are like unto them. Like the idols,
they who manufacture and then worship them will one day be silent (v. 17)
— in their graves! Even now, they are “deaf”,
“dumb”, “blind”, and totally insensible to the Glory of
God all around them. (Compare Christ’s rebuke of the “blind”
Pharisees: John 3:19,20; 9:39-41; 12:40.) That man grows more and more like what
he admires or worships is a principle well-attested in Deut. 7:26 — and
just as true today as in Moses’ time:
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“Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine
house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly
detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed
thing.”
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So is every one that trusteth in them.
“Trusteth” leads on to vv. 9-11. What a contrast! Note Isa.
37:10. It may be that “Israel”, in v. 9 here, means Hezekiah
himself. This usage is common in Isaiah (e.g., 41:8,9; 43:1,5;
44:1,2,21).
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9.
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O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: 2 Chron.
32:6-8.
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10.
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O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord. The high priest
Urijah, whom Hezekiah inherited from his worthless father Ahaz, was a feeble
flatterer and parasite (2 Kings 16:10-16), soon to be replaced by the worthy
Eliakim (Isa. 22:20-22; 37:2).
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11.
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Ye that fear the Lord. That is, those out of the
estranged northern tribes who rallied to Hezekiah’s reformation and
Passover (2 Chron. 30:1-12).
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Their help and shield (Psa. 33:20). A chanted refrain
(vv. 9-11)!
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Their... shield: “For I will defend this city to
save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake” (Isa.
37:35).
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12.
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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. The high priest
may pronounce the blessing (Num. 6:23-27), but the blessing itself comes only
from the Lord. Even the house of Aaron requires a blessing from the Lord. (Why
was not this Biblical argument for the helplessness and dependence of the
Aaronic priesthood used in the letter to the Hebrews?)
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13.
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He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and
great. This is quoted twice in the Apocalypse (Rev. 11:18; 19:5), in a
Messianic context. This is important. And the small come before the great (cp.
Jer. 31:34: “from the least unto the greatest”)!
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14.
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The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your
children. The emphasis here, as in so many of the Hezekiah psalms, on
children, reflects the king’s great anxiety that he might die childless,
and the Davidic Covenant be suddenly cut off (see Psa. 112:2; 113:9). Yet what
sort of a Davidic king did his son Manasseh prove to be? How was Hezekiah to
know that the Covenant was to be made sure through the collateral line of
David’s son Nathan (Luke 3:31) instead of Solomon? — and through an
Heir who — like Hezekiah almost was — was indeed cut off without
family (Isa. 53:8,12)?
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15.
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Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth
(Isa. 37:16; Psa. 121:2; 124:8; 134:3). Here, even more pointedly than in v.
14, is the Messianic hope, for this is the blessing of a Melchizedek King-Priest
(Gen. 14:19).
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16.
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The earth hath he given to the children of men, either
as an eternal inheritance in His Messianic Kingdom (v. 18), or as an eternal
sleeping place (v. 17)! Heaven and earth are eventually combined in a lasting
redemption through the Messiah (v. 18).
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For the earth as the eternal reward of the righteous, see (a
small sampling of proof-texts!) Gen. 13:15; Num. 14:21; Psa. 37:11,29; Prov.
10:30; 11:31; Isa. 11:9; 45:18; Dan. 2:44; 7:27; Zech. 14:16; Matt. 5:5; Luke
13:28; Rom. 4:13; Rev. 2:26,27; 5:10.
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Are there ramifications here regarding man’s insatiable
quest to explore outer space? Do more disasters await those who refuse to be
content with the terrestrial home provided mankind by God?
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17.
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The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into
silence. Not up into heaven to play a harp for ever!? Compare
Hezekiah’s psalm:
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“For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not
celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The
living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the
children shall make known thy truth” (Isa. 38:18,19).
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Even a righteous man like Hezekiah knew he would not go to
heaven at death (cp. John 3:13; Acts 2:29,34).
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For death as an unconscious state, see Psa. 6:5; 88:10-12;
104:33; 146:3,4; Eccl. 9:5,6,10.
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This verse is particularly fitting to describe the Egyptian
army overwhelmed under the waves of the Red Sea.
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18.
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But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for
evermore. The everlasting blessedness of Christ’s Kingdom.
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Praise ye the Lord. With such a theme and such a
climax, this psalm deserves to end thus; yet it is virtually certain that this
Hallelujah really belongs to 116 (Psalms Studies, Intro.,
Part 6).
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