聖書

Expositor's Bible Commentary Psalm 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. Psalm 115:1-18 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 the nation and its Protector, the psalmist triumphantly contrasts Jehovah in the heavens, moving all things according to His will, with idols which had the semblance of powers the reality of which was not theirs. Sarcastic contempt, indignation, and profound insight into the effect of idolatry in assimilating the worshipper to his god, unite in the picture ( Psalm 115:3-8 ). The tone swiftly changes into a summons to withdraw trust from such vanities, and set it on Jehovah, who can and will bless His servants ( Psalm 115:9-15 ); and the psalm closes with recognition of Jehovah’s exaltation and beneficence, and with the vow to return blessing to Him for the blessings, already apprehended by faith, which He bestows on Israel. Obviously the psalm is intended for temple worship, and was meant to be sung by various voices. The distribution of its parts may be doubtful. Ewald would regard Psalm 115:1-11 as the voice of the congregation while the sacrifice was being offered; Psalm 115:12-15 as that of the priest announcing its acceptance; and Psalm 115:16-18 as again the song of the congregation. But there is plainly a change of singer at Psalm 115:9 ; and the threefold summons to trust in Jehovah in the first clauses of Psalm 115:9 , Psalm 115:10 , Psalm 115:11 , may with some probability be allotted to a ministering official, while the refrain; in the second clause of each of these verses, may be regarded as pealed out with choral force. The solo voice next pronounces the benediction on the same three classes to whom it had addressed the call to trust. And the congregation, thus receiving Jehovah’s blessing, sends back its praise, as sunshine from a mirror, in Psalm 115:16-18 . The circumstances presupposed in the psalm suit many periods of Israel’s history. But probably this, like the neighboring psalms, is a product of the early days after the return from Babylon, when the feeble settlers were ringed round by scoffing foes, and had brought back from exile a more intimate knowledge and contemptuous aversion for idols and idolatry than had before been felt in Israel. Cheyne takes the psalm to be Maccabean, but acknowledges that there is nothing in it to fix that date, which he seeks to establish for the whole group mainly because he is sure of it for one member of the group, namely, Psalm 118:1-29 . (" Orig. of Psalt. ," 18 sq.). The prayer in Psalm 115:1-2 , beautifully blends profound consciousness of demerit and confidence that, unworthy as Israel is, its welfare is inextricably interwoven with Jehovah’s honour. It goes very deep into the logic of supplication, even though the thing desired is but deliverance from human foes. Men win their pleas with God, when they sue in forma pauperis . There must be thorough abnegation of all claims based on self before there can be faithful urging of the one prevalent motive, God’s care for His own fair fame. The under side of faith is self-distrust, the upper side is affiance on Jehovah. God has given pledges for His future by His past acts of self-revelation, and cannot but be true to His Name. His lovingkindness is no transient mood, but rests on the solid basis of His faithfulness, like flowers rooted in the clefts of a rock. The taunts that had tortured another psalmist long before { Psalm 42:3 } have been flung now from heathen lips, with still more bitterness, and call for Jehovah’s thunderous answer. If Israel goes down before its foes, the heathen will have warrant to scoff. But from their bitter tongues and his own fears, the singer turns, in the name of the sorely harassed congregation, to ring out the proclamation which answers the heathen taunt, before God answers it by deeds. "Our God is in heaven"-that is where He is; and He is not too far away to make His hand felt on earth. He is no impotent image; He does what He wills, executing to the last tittle His purposes; and conversely, He wills what He does, being constrained by no outward force, but drawing the determinations of His actions from the depths of His being. Therefore, whatever evil has befallen Israel is not a sign that it has lost Him, but a proof that He is near. The brief, pregnant assertion of God’s omnipotence and sovereign freedom, which should tame the heathens’ arrogance and teach the meaning of Israel’s disasters, is set in eloquent opposition to the fiery indignation which dashes off the sarcastic picture of an idol. The tone of the description is like that of the manufacture of an image in Isaiah 44:9-20 . Psalm 135:15-18 repeats it verbatim. The vehemence of scorn in these verses suggests a previous, compelled familiarity with idolatry such as the exiles had. It corresponds with the revolution which that familiarity produced, by extirpating forever the former hankering after the gods of the nations. No doubt, there are higher weapons than sarcasm; and, no doubt, a Babylonian wise man could have drawn distinctions between the deity and its image, but such cobwebs are too fine spun for rough fingers to handle, and the idolatry both of pagans and of Christians identifies the two. But a deeper note is struck in Psalm 115:8 in the assertion that, as is the god, so becomes the worshipper. The psalmist probably means chiefly, if not exclusively, in respect to the impotence just spoken of. So the worshipper and his idol are called by the same name, { Isaiah 44:9 , vanity} and, in the tragic summary of Israel’s sins and punishment in 2 Kings 17:15 , it is said, that "they followed after vanity and became vain." But the statement is true in a wider sense. Worship is sure to breed likeness. A lustful, cruel god will make his devotees so. Men make gods after their own image, and, when made, the gods make men after theirs. The same principle which degrades the idolater lifts the Christian to the likeness of Christ. The aim and effect of adoration is assimilation. Probably the congregation is now silent, and a single voice takes up the song, with the call, which the hollowness of idolatry makes so urgent and reasonable, to trust in Jehovah, not in vanities. It is thrice repeated, being first addressed to the congregation, then to the house of Aaron, and finally to a wider circle, those who "fear Jehovah." These are most naturally understood as proselytes, and, in the prominence given to them we see the increasing consciousness in Israel of its Divine destination to be God’s witness to the world. Exile had widened the horizon, and fair hopes that men who were not of Israel’s blood would share Israel’s faith and shelter under the wings of Israel’s God stirred in many hearts. The crash of the triple choral answer to the summons comes with magnificent effect, in the second clauses of Psalm 115:9 , Psalm 115:10 , Psalm 115:11 , triumphantly telling how safe are they who take refuge behind that strong buckler. The same threefold division into Israel, house of Aaron, and they who fear Jehovah occurs in Psalm 118:2-4 , and, with the addition of "house of Levi," in Psalm 135:1-21 . Promises of blessing occupy Psalm 115:12 and Psalm 115:15 , which may probably have been sung by priests, or rather by Levites, the musicians of the Temple service. In any case, these benedictions are authoritative assurances from commissioned lips, not utterances of hopeful faith. They are Jehovah’s response to Israel’s obedience to the preceding summons; swiftly sent, as His answers ever are. Calm certainty that He will bless comes at once into the heart that deeply feels that He is its shield, however His manifestation of outward help may be lovingly delayed. The blessing is parted among those who had severally been called to trust, and had obeyed the call. Universal blessings have special destinations. The fiery mass breaks up into cloven tongues and sits on each. Distinctions of position make no difference in its reception. Small vessels are filled, and great ones can be no more than full. Cedars and hyssop rejoice in impartial sunshine. Israel, when blessed increases in number, and there is an inheritance of good from generation to generation. The seal of such hopes is the Name of Him who blesses, "the Maker of heaven and earth," to whose omnipotent, universal sway these impotent gods in human form are as a foil. Finally, we may hear the united voices of the congregation thus blessed breaking into full-throated praise in Psalm 115:16-18 . As in Psalm 115:3 God’s dwelling in heaven symbolised His loftiness and power, so here the thought that "the heavens are Jehovah’s heavens" implies both the worshippers’ trust in His mighty help and their lowliness even in trust. The earth is man’s, but by Jehovah’s gift. Therefore its inhabitants should remember the terms of their tenure, and thankfully recognise His giving love. But heaven and earth do not include all the universe. There is another region, the land of silence, whither the dead descend. No voice of praise wakes its dumb sleep. { Isaiah 38:18-19 } That pensive contemplation, on which the light of the New Testament assurance of Immortality has not shone, gives keener edge to the bliss of present ability to praise Jehovah. We who know that to die is to have a new song put into immortal lips may still be stimulated to fill our brief lives here with the music of thanksgiving, by the thought that, so far as our witness for God to men is concerned, most of us will "descend into silence" when we pass into the grave. Therefore we should shun silence, and bless Him while we live here. The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. Psalm 115 Genuine religious consciousness Homilist. I. A consciousness of GOD'S GREATNESS LEADING TO A CONTEMPT FOR ALL IDOLS. 1. The majesty of God.(1) God is great in His moral excellence (ver. 1). "Mercy" and "truth" lie at the foundation of all moral greatness. The grand mission of Christ was to bring these into the world in the most impressive forms. "The law came by Moses, but grace and truth by Jesus Christ." All sound beliefs or convictions are based on truth or reality. Without love all is selfishness, and selfishness is the essence of sin. Without truth all is sham, and sham is the curse of the world. In God these two exist in essential unity and in infinite perfection.(2) God is great in His sovereignty (ver. 3). He is over all. There is no being above Him, the highest are infinitely below Him, and in all His operations He is absolutely free. He hath no counsellor to teach Him new methods of action, no power to restrain Him in any course. He acts according to His own good pleasure, the only being who is absolutely free, independent, and irresponsible. 2. The worthlessness of idols (vers. 4-8).(1) Material productions.(2) Human productions.(3) Worth. less productions.(4) Lying productions.(5) Symbolic productions. They are but the visible forms of the brutish ignorance, stupidity, and depravity of those who made and worshipped them, mere embodiments of their ideas and wishes. II. A consciousness of GOD'S GOODNESS INSPIRING THE HIGHEST PHILANTHROPY. What is the highest philanthropy? That whose main object is to draw men to the One True and Living God; and the man who is conscious of God's goodness, who has "tasted and seen that the Lord is good," will surely address himself to this work — the work of drawing men to God ( Romans 10:1 ). This is what the psalmist felt (vers. 9-15). III. A consciousness of GOD'S PROPERTY LEADING TO A SENSE OF OUR STEWARDSHIP (ver. 16). He who created the universe owns it, is is His absolute property, and how vast, how immeasurable it is! ( 1 Chronicles 29:11 ). But this sense of God's unbounded wealth leads to the impression of our stewardship of the earth which He hath given us. To the "children of men," not to a class, but given to them as air and light, and fire and water are given for their common use. IV. A consciousness of LIFE'S TERMINATION URGING THE DISCHARGE OF RELIGIOUS DUTY (vers. 17, 18). ( Homilist. ) "Non nobis, Domine Every careful reader can see the connection between this 115th psalm and the one which precedes it. In the 114th psalm we see the gracious and grateful Jews sitting around the passover table, having eaten of the lamb, and singing of the miracles of Jehovah at the Red Sea and the Jordan. It must have been a very jubilant song that they sang, "What ailed thee, O thou sea," etc. When that joyful hymn was finished, and the cup of wine was passed round the table, they struck another note. They remembered their sad condition, as they heard the heathen say, "Where is now their God?" They recollected that, perhaps, for many a year there had been no miracle, no prophet, no open vision, and then they began to chant a prayer that God would appear — not for their sakes, but for His own name's sake, that the ancient glory, which He won for Himself at the Red Sea and the Jordan, might not be lost, and that the heathen might no longer be able tauntingly to say, "Where is now their God?" I. A POWERFUL PLEA IN PRAYER: "Not unto us," etc. There are times when this is the only plea that God's people can use. There are other occasions when we can plead with God to bless us, for this reason or for that; but, sometimes, there come dark experiences, when there seems to be no reason that can suggest itself to us why God should give us deliverance, or vouchsafe us a blessing, except this one, — that He would be pleased to do it in order to glorify His own name. You may be emboldened to urge that plea, notwithstanding the vileness of the person for whom you plead. In fact, the sinfulness of the sinner may even be your plea that God's mercy and lovingkindness may be seen the more resplendently by all who know of the sinful soul's guilt. II. THE TRUE SPIRIT OF PIETY. "Not unto us, O Lord," etc. That is to say, true religion does not seek its own honour. For instance, suppose, in preaching the Gospel, a man has, even as a small part of his motive, that he may be esteemed an eloquent person, or that he may have influence over other men's minds; — for it is lamentably true that this mixture of motives may steal over the preacher's soul. Ah! but we must fight against this evil with all our might. Somebody once told Master John Bunyan that he had preached a delightful sermon. "You are too late," said John, "the devil told me that before I left the pulpit." Satan is a great adept in teaching us how to steal our Master's glory. "Glory be to God," should always be the preacher's motto. And as it should be so with our preaching, do you not think that the same thing is true concerning our praying? III. A SAFE GUIDE IS THEOLOGY. When I am going to read the Scriptures, to know what I am to believe, to learn what is to be my creed, even before I open my Bible, it is a good thing to say, "Not unto us, O Lord," etc. This is, to my mind, a test of what is true and what is false. If you meet with a system of theology which magnifies man, flee from it as far as you can. This is why I believe in the doctrines of grace. I believe in Divine election, because somebody must have the supreme will in this matter, and man's will must not .occupy the throne, but the will of God. The words of Jehovah stand fast like the great mountains. IV. A PRACTICAL DIRECTION IN LIFE. 1. This text will help you in the selection of your sphere of service. You will always be safe in doing that which is not for your own glory, but which is distinctly for the glory of God. 2. Sometimes my text will guide you as to which you should choose out of two courses of action that lie before you. What flesh revolts against, your spirit should choose. Say, "Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thy name give glory. I will do that which will most honour my Lord and Master, and not that which would best please myself." V. THE ACCEPTABLE SPIRIT IN WHICH TO REVIEW THE PAST. 1. This is the spirit in which to live. Has God blessed us? Do we look back upon honourable and useful lives? Have we been privileged to preach the Gospel, and has the Lord given us converts? Then, let us be sure to stick to the text: "Not unto us, O Lord," etc. 2. Aye, and when the time comes for us to die, this is the spirit in which to die, for it is the beginning of heaven. What are they doing in heaven? If we could look in there, what should we see? There are crowns there, laid up for those that fight the good fight, and finish their course; but do you see what the victors are doing with their crowns? They will not wear them; no, not they; but they cast them down at Christ's feet, crying, "Not unto us," etc. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) Glory to God for public blessings Bishop Smalridge. The inspired author seems to have had his thoughts employed in the contemplation of some public blessing vouchsafed to the house of Israel, and to the house of Aaron; some late and remarkable instance of God's having been their help and their shield; a devout sense of which made him break out into these words, fall of great humility and pious gratitude: "Not unto us, O Lord," etc. 1. When the psalmist denies that the glory of those mighty and wonderful successes, wherewith God's people are at any time blessed, doth belong to them, he intimates that men are apt to ascribe the praise thereof to their own merits, counsels or achievements. 2. When he with earnestness and vehemence repeats that denial, he doth by such reiterated negation imply the great folly and impiety of men's thus ascribing the glory of such successes to themselves, or to any of the children of men. 3. When he expresses his desire that the glory thereof may be given to God's name, he directs us to pay the tribute of praise and thanksgiving to that sovereign Being, to whom only of right it is due. 4. When he requires that this glory should be given to God for His mercy and for His truth's sake, he instructs us that when we receive such blessings from the hands of God, we derive them, not from His justice, but from His clemency; they are not such as we can of right claim, but such as He, out of His unbounded goodness, and regard to those gracious promises, which He hath made to His Church, vouchsafes to grant. ( Bishop Smalridge. ) Giving God the glory T. De Witt Talmage. I was reading of the battle of Agincourt, in which Henry V figured; and, it is said, after the battle was won — gloriously won — the king wanted to acknowledge the Divine interposition, and he ordered the chaplain to read the psalm of David, and when he came to the words, "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name be the praise," the king dismounted, and all the cavalry dismounted, and all the great host of officers and men threw themselves on their faces. Oh, at the story of the Saviour's love and the Saviour's deliverance, shall we not prostrate ourselves before Him to-night, hosts of earth and hosts of heaven, falling upon our faces, and crying, "Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name be the glory." ( T. De Witt Talmage. ) But our God is in the heavens: He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased . Psalm 115:3 The sovereignty of God G. Burder. Sovereignty signifies, in general, supremacy, the possession of supreme power, a right to govern without the control of another; or, as in our text, a power to act as one pleases. 1. This right is here ascribed to God, and can belong to no other in the same sense or degree. He made all things; He supports all things; and is it not fit that He should govern all things? For His pleasure they are and were created ( Revelation 4:11 ); may He, then, not do with them as He pleases? especially when we consider —(1) He is infinitely wise. He perfectly knows all His creatures, all their actions, and all their tendencies.(2) He is infinitely good. 2. Observe His sovereignty in —(1) The creation of the world.(2) The awful event of man's apostasy.(3) The method He has been pleased to appoint for the recovery of fallen man.(4) The application of this great salvation.(5) His disposal of the temporal affairs of men, whether as individuals or as. nations. As individuals. — Our parentage, the circumstances of our birth, the place, the time, are all arranged by the great Ruler. That sovereign hand is, perhaps, more visible in the affairs of nations; they rise and fall, flourish and decay, and the connection between natural causes and effects may sometimes be plainly discerned; yet that the Ruler of the world directs and controls them is sufficiently evident, for in His hand are both the causes and the effects. ( G. Burder. ) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. Psalm 115:4-8 Babylonian idolatry Canon Liddon. Babylon was a land in which life was overshadowed by a vast idolatry. What this idolatry was, we may see, in part, by a visit to the British Museum. There are to be seen at this hour figures and inscriptions which might well have been gazed on by the writers of this very psalm, and which show how the Baal worship which, in its different forms, prevailed from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, was the most striking feature of the life of the Imperial race that had conquered Palestine. To this hour, the ruins of what was the great Temple of Belus within the city, and of the Temple of Nimrod without the city, show how powerfully this idolatry must have addressed itself to the senses of the people. And the same conclusion is warranted by the anxious warnings of Isaiah in anticipation of the captivity, and by the language of the later psalmists who wrote in Babylon. Isaiah describes with a fine and indignant irony how in Babylon, too, the smith with the tongs, and the carpenter with his rule, would combine to make an idol according to the beauty of a man, and how worship would be paid to what was, in reality, only the stock of a tree. And the psalmist of the later epoch was, we can hardly doubt, inspired to write at the sight of the splendid images in the Babylonian temples, and notably, perhaps, by that of the golden image of Belus. "Their idols are silver and gold," etc. ( Psalm 115:4-8 ). It was this idolatry which Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego resisted at the risk of their lives, and at which Daniel struck a deadly blow when, according to the Alexandrian account — till lately read in our churches, and undoubtedly embodying a germ of substantial history — he exposed on a great scale the fraud of the priest of Baal and destroyed his image. ( Canon Liddon. ) Eyes have they, but they see not The eye of the spirit Bishop Browne. The rich and varied gifts, the pure exalted pleasures, which the eyes of the body are intended to minister to man, are marred by want of sympathetic observation even more than by want of knowledge. Two boys went out one summer's day, each alone, to spend a holiday in the fields. I have forgotten every detail of the story, but whatever the story was, it is easy to imagine what it might have been. The one boy came back in discontent. He had seen nothing, done nothing. He was tired; he had wasted the holiday. The other came back full of delight. He had watched the cattle and the fishes and the birds. He had noted the flowers and the hedgerows and the corn. They had spoken to him with voices which — though he knew it not — his spirit heard. They had told him — though he felt it only, understood it not — they had told him of the marvels of their nature, of their fitness for their appointed place, of the ever fresh beauties which man could see in them, if he would but enable the eyes of his body with the spirit of thankfulness and love. You have this contrast, thus drawn, set before you every day in many ways. I suppose that no one here would wish to live a merely material — animal — life, a life of the body only; to spend his time in securing the largest amount of pleasure — harmless pleasure if you will — for the delight or solace of his bodily senses; to feel more and more sad, as the years run on past middle life, that one sense and another is become less keen, is capable of less pleasure; to watch the sands of life running out apace, with no sense of compensation, no quiet conviction that as one transient pleasure after another becomes less bright or passes away, the place of each is taken — is taken and more than filled — by consolations of no transient kind, by blessings that make their abiding home with him. We must, if we would avoid a growing discontent, we must live the inner — the Spiritual — life too. The eye of the spirit must be an eye that sees. The life of the spirit must be a real life. Not a life apart from that of the body, but a life spiritualizing and etherealizing the bodily life. To teach the eye of the body to see in the higher sense, to observe, to interpret, to enjoy, to minister to the intellectual capacity of man, and be in turn quickened and brightened by man's intellect, we educate the man; working in faith and hope; not discouraged by the many discouragements; sure that it cannot but be right that man should learn to know. How shall we treat the eye of the spirit? how shall we help it to see? how give it insight? I speak not now of what our holy religion may do; for the moment I am not referring to the realms of grace. That which the spirit of man most needs, for its full play and development, is just that which in this hurrying age is ever more and more difficult to obtain, — rest and quiet, time and place for contemplation. This is no idea specially of the Christian revelation; it is common to all ages and all peoples; it is the natural demand of the spirit of man. We have all of us probably seen and noted the highest oriental ideal of spiritual isolation from things and thoughts of the world, — a seated figure with inscrutable face, the eyes for ever cast down, gazing endlessly into the palm of the hand. This was one of the ideas connected with the prophet of old times. He sat apart in rapt contemplation; the things of the world and of the flesh shut out from his sight; his eyes fixed steadily on some unmoving thing; the spiritual element ever growing in relative importance, and at last overpowering the material and dominating the whole man. And then there welled up within him, from some spiritual source, some inspiration, the thoughts and the words that were to frame and to form his prophetic utterance; and he poured forth dark sayings, or declared, as one inspired, the will of God. But need I really go further than the experience of each one of you, to find evidence of the power of contemplation on the spirit, the need of it, if we would have a spiritual sense, a spiritual insight? You know of what extreme importance it is, if you have any serious matter in hand, to put yourself in the right frame of mind to consider it duly and make a wise resolve. How often it happens that you cannot shut out the disturbing presence of other things. You know that for this special purpose you ought to isolate yourself, to be clear of confusing voices, confusing thoughts. And what you have to make your resolve about is coming on so rapidly; a resolve will be forced upon you so soon; there is such a sense of rush and hurry; you cannot properly decide the matter without previous quiet thought and communing, and quiet thought you cannot get. You feel this in matters of business; you feel it in difficult moral questions; you feel it in many a decision, which circumstances force upon you, in your relations with those who are of your bone and of your flesh. You feel it whenever you think of yourself in your higher relations, as a spiritual existence, as having duties beyond the realms of sense, as being under some conscious obligation to be guided in your walk through life by aims which shall of themselves ennoble your endeavours, by principles which are of eternal truth and justice. ( Bishop Browne. ) They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them . Psalm 115:8 False religions J. Parker, D.D. A false religion has all the outward signs of importance. A false religion could not live if it showed only its lying side. Even a lie could not live but for the one grain of truth that may be in it: it may be a grain of probability only, or even of possibility, but the lie owes its life, however brief, to the element of at least seeming truth, or possible truth, that may be in it. So with false religions: enumerate them, set them all out in a line, and one looks very much like another as to outward appearance. How long would a piece of lead be in the market-place if offered as a coin? Not one moment. But if treated, if smelted, minted, stamped, drilled, and made to look like a coin, it might deceive somebody, it might live a little while. To what would it owe its life? Not to its intrinsic quality, but to its appearance. So when you cite the religions of the world, and set them all in a line, you are perfectly right in saying, Behold them, and see how very strikingly they resemble one another. The counterfeit coin lives in its resemblance: take away this resemblance, and you take away its whole value; its similitude is its life. What wonder, then, that we find men deceived by religions that are superficial, and merely human inventions, that have nothing to live upon that is of an eternal and Divine nature? It is quite possible that the counterfeit coin may be more brilliant than the real coin. How did the five-pound note pass? Because it was like a five-pound note: the paper was the same, the mill mark was the same, the writing was the same; the resemblance was the reason of the successful deception. Much is mistaken for faith that is not faith, that is mere intellectual assent, or mere intellectual indifference. A man does not believe things which he simply names with his mouth. He only believes those things for which he would die. What havoc this makes in the professed beliefs of the Church! Yet everything must be judged by the degree in which it realizes its own pretensions. To pretend to have hands means power of handling, or it is a lie: to profess to have feet and yet to be unable to walk is to contradict your own statement: to have ears carved by an Angelo which yet cannot hear a thunderburst is to have ears that are visible falsehoods. Where we find hands we have a right to expect handling: where we find faith we have a right to expect morality, or service, or action: and if we with all Christian profession of an intellectual kind are not balancing that profession by actual, living, useful service, then let all the mockers of the universe taunt us, saying, They have hands, but they handle not. The taunt is not a mere taunt; it is a sneer justified by reason. If there were no hands we should pity the sufferer. Who expects to refresh himself from the branches of an oak tree? Yet if the hungry soul should come to a fig tree in the time of figs, and should find upon the tree nothing but leaves, hunger has priestly rights of cursing, hunger may excommunicate that tree from the trees of the garden, because it pretended to be a fruit tree and yet it grew nothing but leaves. ( J. Parker, D.D. ) The Lord hath been mindful of us. Psalm 115:12 The mindfulness of God Bishop Pelham. — I. GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT FOR GRACE BESTOWED. Have we not abundant reason, individually and collectively, to say one to another in exhortation, and together in thankful acknowledgment to God, "The Lord hath been mindful of us"? Let us look back and reflect upon the way in which He has led us these many years. Shall we not, like Samuel of old, raise our Ebenezer? And as we travel through the past, until we step from the past into the future, shall net we take encouragement and joyfully exclaim, "Jehovah-jireh"? In creation, in redemption, in providence and in grace, in the fulness of spiritual blessings provided, and in the measure of grace imparted, we have abundant cause for the grateful acknowledgment, "The Lord hath been mindful of us." II. A GRATEFUL SENSE OF PAST MINDFULNESS BEGETS A SURE CONFIDENCE OF FUTURE BLESSING. "He will bless us." To what extent does this promise go? He will bless us in our walk and all our work, and in whatever He calls us to do! His blessing will ever rest upon us for good. His everlasting hand will be beneath us and will keep us from falling. He will guide us with His counsel and afterward receive us to glory. You deserve to perish, you deserve to reap what you have sowed, but God is merciful and kind. You may look to Him in confidence, for He will bless you. He will blot out the past, and He will break the power of sin. I have also a word for the true believer in God, who is sorely tempted and doubtful of the future, who is conscious of weakness, knowing painfully the power of temptation, knowing sadly in recollection the influence of this evil world. Do not think you will prove unfaithful at the last. The Lord hath been mindful of you, and it will be in the future as it has been in the past. Look at the promises which He has given for your comfort in His Word. He hath been mindful of you and He will bless you. ( Bishop Pelham. ) Past mercies inspire confidence of continued good A. K. H. Boyd. Many minds know a good deal of the Roman Emperor's forebodings, that if things have long gone well with you, then something amiss is very likely to come. If we could but all rise to the happier argument from the past to the future of a certain ancient and inspired poet, and really believe that "The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us." The common way of judging constantly is, that since all has been so pleasant for many days or years, now a smash is due. But though this way of judging be common, and though, to a superficial glance, it seems to be confirmed by facts, it would be very easy to show that it is entirely wrong. ( A. K. H. Boyd. ) Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth. Psalm 115:15 The Lord blessing His saints I. A BLESSING BELONGING TO A PECULIAR PEOPLE, 1. A people whom God has blessed because He willed to do so. 2. A people to whom this first will of God to bless them has been certified by countless acts of indisputable love. Gethsemane and Calvary speak volumes concerning the reality of the blessings which God has given to His chosen, for there they were loved to the death and redeemed by blood. An incarnate God, a Mediator covered with bloody sweat, a Redeemer wounded and slain, — What say you to this? 3. The people to whom this blessing comes are, after their conversion, known by their character. They "fear the Lord." 4. It is very sweet to notice that this benediction is common to all Godfearing persons, — "both small and great;" and the small are put first, lest they should think they are forgotten. II. A BLESSING FROM A PECULIAR QUARTER. "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." 1. This is a blessing from one peculiarly related to us, and therefore it is the more to be prized. All other blessings are only blessings in proportion as they contain the essence of this blessing; God's blessing is the sea, and others are but drops; that is the sun, and others are but sparks. 2. This blessing comes not from an idol-god. The psalm leads us to make that observation. The gods of the heathen had mouths, but they spake not; ears, but they heard not: any benediction from them would be a mockery: but the children of God are not blessed of Baal or Ashtaroth, but of Jehovah, the self-existent Lord of all! 3. This benediction comes from the omnipotent Creator, "who made heaven and earth." This intimates that the blessing is almighty in power. Have I the blessing of Him who said, "Let there be light," and there was light? Then He can speak into my darkness, and cheer the gloom of my despair. Does the blessing of Him who brought order out of chaos rest upon me? then He can speak to the confusion of my circumstances, and the turmoil of my desponding mind, and charm all things into harmony. The blessing of Him who clothed the earth with beauty, piled the hills, and digged the channels of the sea, must have in it a fulness unrivalled. 4. It is a blessing from the All-wise One "who made heaven and earth." His infallible counsels shall conduct thine affairs to a blessed issue. III. A BENEDICTION WITH A PECULIAR DATE. "Ye are the blessed," etc. This verb is in the present tense, and, indeed, it may be said to be in all the tenses put together, in a tense that is not a tense, a time that hath no time, but lasteth on evermore, till time shall be no more. 1. This blessing embraces all circumstances. You are laid low and pining away with consumption, but "You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." You are smitten down in the very heyday of your usefulness, and laid aside, but "You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." Oh, that your faith may lay hold of this when you are very sorely exercised, for happy is the man whom God correcteth, and blessed is the man whom thou chastenst, O Lord! 2. Our text reaches to all time and beyond all time, because it runs thus: "Ye are blessed of the Lord that made heaven and earth." While I am on earth, this shall console me: "I am blessed of the Lord that made the earth;" and He Himself has said of His servants, "Blessed shalt thou be in the city," etc. When I have to go out of this earth into another world, this shall console me: "I am blessed of the Lord that made heaven." I shall still dwell in a place which my Father made. I am not going into a foreign country when I leave the warm precincts of this house of clay. I shall emigrate to the country where flowers never fade, and winter never chills. IV. A BLESSING WITH A PECULIAR CERTAINTY. Scripture does not lie, or utter "perhapses" and "ifs" and "buts." "Ye are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth." Oh, ye that fear God, this is a matter of fact, ye daily and continually abide under a true and real blessing. Some blessings are vain words: the utterer is a hypocrite. Other blessings are sincere, but the person pronouncing them has no power to fulfil them. Such blessings are wells without water, or barren fig trees bearing leaves but no fruit. The Lord blesses not in word only, but in deed; not in futile wishes, but in omnipotent acts. We may fail to obtain the benedictions which our friends invoke upon us, but God's blessings are sure to all the seed. V. This BLESSING INVOLVES A PECULIAR DUTY, for, if God has blessed us, the succeeding duty is that we should bless Him (ver. 18). "Praise Him from this time forth." If the past has been marred by any other talk, now "from this time" bless the Lord. Wash thy mouth of all complaining, take the cup of gratitude to sweeten thy soul, and bless His name from this time forth. What, dumb till now? An heir of heaven speechless? May a sight of God's blessing open thy mouth. From this time forth begin to bless Him. Then the psalmist resolves to praise the Lord "for evermore." Our adoration of God is never to cease. As long as there is breath in our body let us praise Him who gives it to us. "Dum spiro spero," said the heathen, "While I breathe, I hope." But the Christian says, "Dum expire spero," "When I die, I will still hope in God." While we exist we will adore. ( C. H. Spurgeon . ) The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord's: but the earth hath He given to the children of men . Psalm 115:16 The mysteries of the universe W. Hawkins. Our contemplation of the mysteries of the universe is to be associated — I. WITH FAITH. "The heavens are the heavens of the Lord." All the wonders of unseen worlds are in charge of Him whom we serve. Whatever marvellous forces range the universe we may sing, "All things serve Thee," and dismiss all fear. How foolish to fear the discoveries of science! "All facts," as Kingsley used to say, "are God's facts." How foolish to fear for our safety here or hereafter if we be the Lord's, for all is His! The mysteries of the universe are those of Him who died for us, and in the heart of those mysteries there is love. II. WITH DILIGENCE, "The earth hath He given to-the children of men." Earth's fields are to be tilled, her provisions stored and distributed. Homes are to be superintended and cities and states to be governed. These are the first claims upon our thoughts as servants of God. "The heavens are the Lord's," let us claim the kingdom of the earth for Him and humbly help to establish His dominion hero. ( W. Hawkins. ) The earth for men Homilist. I. A STRONG REBUKE TO ALL SOCIAL MONOPOLY. The earth is for "the children of men." II. A STRONG REBUKE TO RELIGIOUS INDIFFERENCE. The earth is given to man in trust for certain uses. 1. As a scene for man's physical development. 2. As a school for man's intellectual culture. 3. As a temple for man's religious worship. The children of men to use this world rightly should worship God in all they suffer, enjoy, think, or do. In everything there should be — (1) A reigning gratitude. The earth is a gift to every man, and every man should use every portion of it thankfully. (2) A reigning reverence. The earth is a gift where the greatness of God is everywhere seen, and, therefore, "take off thy shoes from off thy feet," etc. 4. As a sphere for evangelical labour Christ has been on this earth. Here He has left doctrines for every child of man to believe, propagate and work out. ( Homilist. ) The earth of the redemption Bishop Phillips Brooks. The heavens and the earth are set in contrast with each other. The heavens with their sun and moon and stars, their wandering winds, their majestic domes and pinnacles and fields of cloud, their mysteries of rain and dew, of frost and snow; and then the earth, with its familiar cities and forests and cornfields, its homes of men and women, its seas and rivers, its sports and toils, its friendships and kinships, these stand over against each other. And their contrast is in this, — that while the heavens are out of the reach of man, the expression and result of forces which he cannot control, the earth is what man makes it. He is the changing power here. It is the familiar contrast which is always present, and always having its effect upon our life. The earth, and life upon the earth, are never the same things they would be if the great heaven did not stretch, mysterious and unattainable, above them.

115:1-8 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, and he must have all the praise. Are we in pursuit of any mercy, and wrestling with God for it, we must take encouragement in prayer from God only. Lord, do so for us; not that we may have the credit and comfort of it, but that they mercy and truth may have the glory of it. The heathen gods are senseless things. They are the works of men's hands: the painter, the carver, the statuary, can put no life into them, therefore no sense. The psalmist hence shows the folly of the worshippers of idols. 115:9-18 It is folly to trust in dead images, but it is wisdom to trust in the living God, for he is a help and a shield to those that trust in him. Wherever there is right fear of God, there may be cheerful faith in him; those who reverence his word, may rely upon it. He is ever found faithful. The greatest need his blessing, and it shall not be denied to the meanest that fear him. God's blessing gives an increase, especially in spiritual blessings. And the Lord is to be praised: his goodness is large, for he has given the earth to the children of men for their use. The souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burdens of the flesh, are still praising him; but the dead body cannot praise God: death puts an end to our glorifying him in this world of trial and conflict. Others are dead, and an end is thereby put to their service, therefore we will seek to do the more for God. We will not only do it ourselves, but will engage others to do it; to praise him when we are gone. Lord, thou art the only object for faith and love. Help us to praise thee while living and when dying, that thy name may be the first and last upon our lips: and let the sweet savour of thy name refresh our souls for ever.