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The ESV Global Study Bible's Study Notes

Psalms 115:4-8

PSALM—NOTE ON Psalms 115:4 This satirical passage exposes the folly of worshiping idols (compare Psalms 135:15; Isaiah 44:9). Many Bible passages explain that idols are merely the work of human hands and therefore unworthy of human worship (e.g., Deuteronomy 4:28; Deuteronomy 27:15; Deuteronomy 31:29; 2 Kings 19:18; Isaiah 2:8). If these gods are unworthy of Israel’s worship, it is a tragedy that the Gentiles both make them and then become like them.

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See also Psalms 115:4-8 in other biblical comments:

  • Adam Clarke Bible Commentary

    Verse Psalms 115:4. _THEIR IDOLS_ ARE _SILVER, C._] They are metal, stone, and wood. They are generally made in the form of man, but can neither see, hear, smell, feel, walk, nor speak. How brutish t...

  • Albert Barnes' Bible Commentary

    THEIR IDOLS - Their gods - the gods which they worship, as contrasted with the God whom we adore. The design of this description Psalms 115:4 is to show the utter vanity of trusting in such gods, and...

  • Annotated Bible by A.C. Gaebelein

    Psalms 115 Who Their God is? _ 1. Israel's God (Psalms 115:1)_ 2. In Contrast with Idols (Psalms 115:4) 3. O Israel Trust in the Lord ...

  • Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

    CXV. THE BLINDNESS OF IDOLATRY AND THE VIRTUE OF UTTER TRUST IN YAHWEH. Psalms 115:2 f. An invisible god was unintelligible to the average heathen; he believed that the god was specially present in t...

  • Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes

    SILVER AND GOLD. Put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Cause), App-6, for what is made from them. Compare Psalms 135:15. WORK. Some codices, with Septuagint and Vulgate, read plural, "works". MEN'S...

  • College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

    PSALMS 115 DESCRIPTIVE TITLE Not for Her Own Glory but for His, Israel moves herself to trust in Jehovah to Shew his Superiority over Idols. ANALYSIS Stanza I., Psalms 115:1-3, Introductory appeal...

  • Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

    Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. 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. Drawn fro...

  • Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible

    In LXX 114, 115 are one Ps., while 116 is divided into two. Apparently Psalms 115 was written to be sung antiphonally: cp. the responses in Psalms 115:9; Psalms 115:11—the first eight and the last thr...

  • EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries

    Psalms 107:150 _GORDON CHURCHYARD_ THERE IS ONLY ONE TRUE GOD PSALMS 115 Jesus said, "Pray like this: Our Father, you are in *heaven. Your name is special. You are king (over everyone). What you...

  • Ellicott's Commentary On The Whole Bible

    (4-8) This passage cannot compare with the magnificent irony of Isaiah 44:9, but there is still a noticeable vein of sarcasm running through it, visible even more in the original than in the English....

  • ETCBC data on Hebrew bible

    עֲֽ֭צַבֵּיהֶם כֶּ֣סֶף וְ זָהָ֑ב מַ֝עֲשֵׂ֗ה יְדֵ֣י...

  • Expositor's Bible Commentary (Nicoll)

    Psalms 115:1 ISRAEL is in straits from heathen enemies, and cries to Jehovah to vindicate His own Name by delivering it. Strengthened by faith, which has been stung into action by taunts aimed at both...

  • Frederick Brotherton Meyer's Commentary

    POWERLESS IDOLS; OUR POWERFUL GOD Psalms 115:1 Evidently this psalm was intended to be sung by various voices: Psalms 115:1 by the whole congregation in unison, while the sacrifice was being offered;...

  • G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

    This third psalm in the Hallel is born of passion for the glory of the name of Jehovah. That is its opening note, and all that follows must be explained thereby. The singer's distress is heard in the...

  • Geneva Study Bible Commentary

    Their idols [are] (d) silver and gold, the work of men's hands. (d) Seeing that neither the matter nor the form can commend their idols it follows that there is no reason that they should be esteemed...

  • George Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary

    or Hebrew Psalm cxvi. Ver. 13. Chalice. I will submit to any afflictions, (St. Augustine) seeing they procure such an ample reward. I will unite my sufferings with those of Jesus Christ, (Haydock) and...

  • Hawker's Poor man's commentary

    Idols and idolaters are upon a par. But, alas! is not every man an idolater by nature? And even when regenerated, how often do I detect my poor wandering heart going after its vanities! Lord, give me...

  • John Calvin's Bible Commentary

    4_Their idols _This contrast is introduced for the purpose of confirming the faith of the godly, by which they repose upon God alone; because, excepting him, all that the minds of men imagine of divin...

  • John Darby's Synopsis

    Psalms 115 gives the true and full ground of this deliverance as seen in the heart of faith. It is not that they, but that Jehovah may be praised, specially in His mercy, and then His faithfulness to...

  • John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

    THEIR IDOLS ARE SILVER AND GOLD,.... The idols of the Gentiles; so the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions. The gods they serve and worship are not in the heavens; but the...

  • John Trapp Complete Commentary

    Their idols [are] silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Ver. 4. _Their idols are silver and gold_] Take them at the best, they are no better; and what is silver and gold but the guts and garbage...

  • Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    _Their idols_ The objects of their idolatrous worship, _are silver and gold_ That is, images made of silver and gold, dug out of the earth. Their gods are so far from being the makers of all things, o...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    VINDICATION OF GOD'S GLORY OVER AGAINST THE IDOLS. This psalm may have been a cry of Israel for the assistance of the Lord in the face of invading enemies, who placed their confidence in their heathe...

  • Kretzmann's Popular Commentary of the Bible

    Their idols are silver and gold, carved images, manufactured out of precious metals, indeed, but without real existence, THE WORK OF MEN'S HANDS, constructed, poured, carved, by weak and puny human be...

  • Matthew Henry Commentary on the Whole Bible

    1-8 Let no opinion of our own merits have any place in our prayers or in our praises. All the good we do, is done by the power of his grace; and all the good we have, is the gift of his mere mercy, a...

  • Matthew Poole's Concise Commentary On The Bible

    Thus glorious and powerful is our God, O ye heathens, of whom you so boldly ask who and where he is; but as for your gods or idols, they have no power nor worth in them but what is taken from their ma...

  • Patchworkid's Personal Study Bible Notes

    Psalms 115:4 idols H6091 silver H3701 gold H2091 work H4639 mens H120 hands H3027 Their idols -...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    This is one of the Psalms, which were sung by the Jews at the feast of the Passover. It is highly probable that they were sung by our Lord on that memorable night when he instituted the sacred feast w...

  • Spurgeon's Bible Commentary

    Psalms 115:1. _Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth's sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? But our God is in the...

  • Summarized Bible Commentary

    CONTENTS: Indignation against the makers and worshippers of idols and exhortation to trust in God. CHARACTERS: God, house of Aaron, Psalmist. CONCLUSION: The creatures of men's vain imaginations and...

  • Sutcliffe's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

    Whether this psalm was written after some victory, or after the removal of any calamity which had caused the heathen to boast, is not certain. But blessings of this kind, though they justly demand pra...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory._ GENUINE RELIGIOUS CONSCIOUSNESS I. A consciousness of God’s greatness leading to a contempt for all idols. 1. The majesty of God. ...

  • The Biblical Illustrator

    _Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands._ BABYLONIAN IDOLATRY Babylon was a land in which life was overshadowed by a vast idolatry. What this idolatry was, we may see, in part, by a...

  • The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary

    INTRODUCTION 1. Date and authorship uncertain. Has been ascribed to the immediate post _exilie_ psalmists, and to the poets of the time of the Maccabees. 2. Characteristics. Allusion to or quotation...

  • The Pulpit Commentaries

    EXPOSITION A LITURGICAL psalm, in which a divided choir, together with a leader—a priest or precentor—take separate parts. The occasion is one of danger (Psalms 115:2), but, at the same time, of confi...

  • Through The Bible C2000 Serie by Chuck Smith

    Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but to thy name give glory (Psalms 115:1), Here again we have the same idea. Don't reverend me. "Not unto us, Lord, not unto us, but to Thy name." Let there be ascri...

  • Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

    1 Corinthians 10:19; 1 Corinthians 10:20; Acts 19:26; Acts 19:35;...

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