Psalms 115:1 - Meaning and Application

The psalmist takes care here to answer both human pride and the insults of idolaters.

Boasting is shut out forever here, and Psalm 115:1 says so clearly. We must not give room to any sense of our own merit, either in prayer or in praise. Everything should point to God’s glory. If we have received mercy, completed service, or seen success, we must not take the honor to ourselves. We must not think we have done anything for God by our own strength, or earned anything from him by our own righteousness. All the good we do comes by his grace, and all the good we have is the gift of his mercy. That is why he must receive all the praise. We must not say, “My own power has gotten me this wealth” (Deuteronomy 8:17). We must not say, “The Lord has done this because of my righteousness” (Deuteronomy 9:4). Instead, our song must be, “Not to us, O Lord, but to your name be the glory.” Whatever good is worked in us, or done for us, comes for the sake of his mercy and his truth, because he will show his mercy and keep his promise. All our crowns should be laid at the feet of the one who sits on the throne, because that is where they belong.

The same verse also teaches us how to pray when we are seeking mercy. We must look to God alone for help, and we must care more about his glory than our own gain. Our prayer should be, “Lord, do this for us, not so we may get credit or comfort, but so your mercy and truth may be honored.” That should be our highest goal in prayer. It is the same rule that shapes the Lord’s Prayer, where the first request is, “Hallowed be your name,” and the rest follow from that, including, “Give us our daily bread.” This should also satisfy us if God does not answer our prayers in the exact way we asked. Whatever happens to us, “to your name give glory” (John 12:27-28).

The reproach of the nations is also answered here, and answered well. The psalmist first complains about the insult of the heathen, the nations who do not know God: “Where is now their God?” (Psalm 115:2). He is really asking, why do they speak this way? Do they not know that our God is everywhere by his providence, and always near through his promise and grace? He is also asking why God allows them to speak so, and why Israel has fallen so low that their words seem to have some force. The prayer is that God would appear for their rescue, defend his own honor, and glorify his name.

The psalmist then gives a direct answer to their challenge in Psalm 115:3. If they ask where our God is, we can tell them. He is in the heavens, in the place where his glory is revealed. The gods of the nations never were there. He is out of sight, but his greatness does not become doubtful because it is beyond our reach. He is also seen in the lower world, in all that he does. He has done whatever he pleased, according to the purpose of his will. His rule is sovereign, and nothing can stop his power. He is at the beginning and the end of all things, and not far from any of us.

Then the question is turned back on the idolaters. They ask, “Where is the God of Israel?” because he cannot be seen. In effect, the psalmist asks, “What are the gods of the nations?” because they can be seen. Their gods, though not shapeless, are lifeless and without sense. Idol worship began badly enough with the worship of the sun and moon (Job 31:26), but it had grown worse. People had moved on to the worship of images (Psalm 115:4), and evil people tend to grow worse over time. The idols are made of silver and gold, dug from the earth. They may be fit to make money from, but not to make gods from. Their shape comes from the craftsman. They are the work of human hands, and so they can have no true divinity in them.

If man is the work of God’s hands, and is honored by being made in God’s image, it is absurd to think that something made by human hands could be God. It is even more insulting to God to make him in the image of man. The argument is plain: the workmen made it, therefore it is not God (Hosea 8:6). The psalm presents these idols as laughable objects, things that seem to be something but are really nothing. They are more fit for a toy shop than a temple, and more fit for children to play with than for men to pray to. The maker may do his part well enough, giving them mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, and feet, but he cannot give them life, so he cannot give them sense.

They cannot speak in answer to those who consult them, so the priest has to speak for them. In Baal’s image there was no voice, and no one answered. They cannot see the people bowing before them, much less the burdens and needs of those people. They cannot hear prayers, even if they are loud. They cannot smell incense, however strong or sweet it is. They cannot handle gifts, much less give gifts to their worshipers. They cannot stretch out a hand to help the needy. They cannot walk, or take even one step to help those who come to them. They do not even breathe. There is no sign of life in them at all, not even after the priest pretends to consecrate them and place a deity in them. They are as dead after that ceremony as before it.

From this, the psalmist draws the foolishness of their worshipers. Those who make the images show skill, and may indeed be sensible people. But those who make them gods show stupidity and folly, and become like the things they worship, senseless and dull. They do not see the unseen things of the true and living God in creation. They do not hear the voice of day and night, which in every language and place declare his glory (Psalm 19:2-3). By bowing down to these foolish puppets, they become more foolish like them. They drift farther from anything spiritual and sink deeper into the world of the senses. At the same time, they provoke God to give them over to a mind that cannot judge rightly, a mind without understanding (Romans 1:28).

Those who trust in idols act in a very unreasonable way. They are senseless, helpless, and useless, like the things they trust in. In the end, they will find this out to their own shame. We will know where our God is, and so will they, but at their own cost, when their gods are gone (Jeremiah 10:3-11; Isaiah 44:9 and following).