Not to Us, Yahweh
1 Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake. 2 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?” 3 But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. 6 They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell. 7 They have hands, but they don’t feel. They have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat. 8 Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them. 9 Israel, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. 10 House of Aaron, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. 11 You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. 12 Yahweh remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. 13 He will bless those who fear Yahweh, both small and great. 14 May Yahweh increase you more and more, you and your children. 15 Blessed are you by Yahweh, who made heaven and earth. 16 The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens, but he has given the earth to the children of men. 17 The dead don’t praise Yah, nor any who go down into silence, 18 but we will bless Yah, from this time forward and forever more. Praise Yah!
Idols are inventoried organ by organ, and the psalm states the rule that worshipers become like what they worship.
Not to us, Yahweh, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake.
The opening is a refusal repeated. Whatever has happened, the congregation declines the credit twice before saying anything else.
Why should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?”
The taunt that runs through the collection, and the answer given is not a defense but a location: our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases Psalms 115:3.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. 6 They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell.
The inventory runs through mouth, eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet and throat — seven organs, each present and each useless. It is the exact reverse of the ninety-fourth psalm's argument: there, the God who made the ear must hear; here, the god that has an ear carved on it does not.
Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
The most serious sentence in the psalm, and it is a general law rather than a jibe. Worship is formative. A person becomes like what he gives himself to, and the specific likeness on offer here is the one just catalogued — mouths that say nothing, eyes that register nothing, hands that do not feel.
9 Israel, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. 10 House of Aaron, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield. 11 You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield.
Three groups called in turn — the nation, the priests, and a third category that is neither. Those who fear Yahweh is the standard designation for God-fearing foreigners attached to the congregation, and they get the same promise as the other two.
The heavens are Yahweh’s heavens, but he has given the earth to the children of men.
Not a division of ownership but of responsibility. The earth is handed over to be managed, which is the commission of Genesis 1:28 stated as a fact about property.
17 The dead don’t praise Yah, nor any who go down into silence, 18 but we will bless Yah, from this time forward and forever more. Praise Yah!
The collection's consistent account of death, and it is the ground of the psalm's urgency. Praise is work for the living, and the psalm ends by claiming the time it has.
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