PSALM 115 TALK: HALLELUJAH: THE LORD ALONE DESERVES OUR TRUST AND PRAISE

PSALM 115 TALK: HALLELUJAH: THE LORD ALONE DESERVES OUR TRUST AND  PRAISE

 (A Psalm of praise that directs us to trust and praise the God of the bible alone as he deserves our praise because he is the creator of this world and the entire universe and at the same time he has loved us with an everlasting and faithful love and promises to bless us if we but turn to him in faith and obedience).

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INTRODUCTION

 One of the current ministers of the church I attend is a very good preacher and bible teacher and often receives compliments for his interesting and helpful sermons and he has told us that his usual response to these compliments is to say, “praise to the appropriate authority” and then points one of his fingers to the sky indicating the praise belongs to the Lord above for anything he said that they found helpful.

Psalm 115 is another “Hallelujah Song” (Psalms 111 – 118) that states clearly, we do not deserve praise only God and in fact because of God’s loving faithfulness to his people he also deserves our trust as well.

Psalm 115 is also part of what is called “The Egyptian Hallel” Psalms (Psalms 113 – 118) used as part of the Passover Celebrations and Psalm 115 was one of four Psalms sung or said after the Passover meal was completed.

The Psalm was believed to have been written after the Jews returned from exile in Babylon which was when this Psalm was certainly placed in what we call the fifth book of Psalms. If this is correct then this was a very difficult time for the Jewish nation who have just returned to a ruined Israel now containing many non – Jewish and non-God believing people who had started to settle in the land of Israel after most of the Jews who were not killed by the Babylonians were taken in captivity in Babylon for 70 years or more.

The returning Jews would have been small in number and would have had great challenges from idol worship religions of many other nations which explains why this Psalm features a challenge to the one God of the bible belief as opposed to what it sets down as false and powerless idol worship.

The people from other Nations now also in Israel would have known what happened to the Jews first through the Assyrian conquest and nearly 200 hundred years later what happened to the southern kingdom Judah and would have asked the question in verse 2,

“Where is your God”

 Not only did the Jews not have an idol to represent their God but their God seemed to be both silent and inactive when foreign different God believing nations overran them. This of course is counted by the fact that the prophets of Judah like Jeremiah had predicted that God would judge the Nation of Judah through the Babylonians because of their unfaithfulness and sinfulness to the God of the bible.

Also, the prophets like Jeremiah predicted that after only 70 years in exile in Babylon the Babylonians would be overrun by another great nation and be allowed to return to Israel to re-build their Temple and capitol city of Jerusalem and freely practice their faith in their God again.

This all happened around 539 BC when the Persians defeated the Babylonians as Jeremiah had predicted and the Jews were miraculously allowed and even encouraged to return to their homeland to rebuild their nation and practice their faith in their God again.

Today one of the main anti – God of the bible views, “Atheism” aggressively seeks to put down and eliminate any following of the God of the bible. They are now arguing that faith in a God and particularly the God of the bible is both a fairy-tale and dangerous.

A couple of years ago a non – Christian radio presenter named Richard Glover wrote an article in a local newspaper entitled, “Sticking up for the believers” and in that article, he says this,

“Inviting a cleric onto ABC radio, as I do from time to time, brings a torrent of enraged correspondence. “How dare you give this man airtime?”, “I am disgusted you would allow this,” and, “Who possibly thought this was a good idea?”.

 The phrase “religious nutter” is then much employed, as if it would be a grammatical mistake to use the world “religious” with a “nutter” in close attendance.

 The “nutter” in question is usually the Catholic or Anglican Archbishop of Sydney – two chaps who are both scholarly, quick-witted, urbane and humane. To any open-minded person, what they say is at least as interesting as what anybody else has to say.

 So why the derision? Why the fight to the death? Why the demeaning sneers of, “This guy believes in fairy stories”?

 This kind of intensive opposition has been growing over the past twenty years or so now and is a modern version of what I believe the Jews faced in the return from exile in Babylon which I believe the writer of Psalm 115 picks up in his Psalm. The Psalm then will have a lot to say to us as we face the same kind of opposition the people faced after the return from exile in Babylon.

The final introductory remarks I would like to add before we look closely at this Psalm is the idea that this Psalm is designed to have as H.C. Leopold describes a,

“Lively liturgical pattern of rendition”.

 This means that Psalm 115 was used by ancient Hebrews in their worship services after the Passover and different parts were either sung or read by different members of the Hebrew congregation. Who sang or said what is now lost but Leopold suggests the following possible liturgical makeup he quotes from a man named Kittel,

1. (vs’s 1 – 2) – Congregation (as a whole), 2. (vs’s 3 – 8) – Choir, 3. (vs’s 9 – 11) – Levites, 4. (vs’s 12 – 13) – Priests, 5. (vs’s 14 – 15) – Choir, 6. (vs’s 16 – 18) – Congregation (as a whole).

With the theme of the Lord alone deserves our praise and trust my outline for this Psalm talk is:

1. (vs. 1)   PRAISE THE LORD ALONE

1. (1a)   God alone deserves our praise
2. (1b).  He deserves our praise alone because of his love

2. (2 – 8) PRAISE THE LORD ALONE AND NOT ANY OTHER GOD ALTERNATIVE

1. (2 – 3)  Where is you God?
2. (4 – 8)  The uselessness of all alternative God views

3. (9 – 15).    TRUST IN THE LORD ALONE

1. (9 – 13)  All true believers trust in God
2. (14 – 15) Trust in the Lord alone and be blessed by him

4. (16 – 18) A FINAL CALL TO PRAISE THE LORD ALONE

1. (vs. 16)   Why God alone deserves our praise
2. (17 – 18)  While you’re alive you must praise the Lord
3. (vs. 1)   PRAISE THE LORD ALONE

1. (1a)   God alone deserves our praise

The Psalm starts with a very upfront statement that says,

“Not to us, Lord, not to us but your name be the glory”

 If Kittel’s liturgical pattern is correct the whole Hebrew congregation states clearly and strongly that they are not to receive glory but God alone deserves to be glorified. Even Jesus spoke of his purpose as to glorify his father in heaven in John 17: 1 – 4,

“After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:

 “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do”.

 Paul spoke of our purpose is to bring glory to God and not ourselves in 1 Corinthians 10: 31,

“So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God”.

 Tremper Longman 111, says this about the opening words of this Psalm,

“The repetition of ‘not to us’ is for emphasis and signals just how hard it is for us to diminish our own accomplishments and give the praise to the one to who it belongs”.

 Two of the prophets, Ezekiel and Daniel who lived and wrote their prophecies during the time of the Babylonian captivity spoke strongly that the people of God where brought out of captivity in Egypt so that God’s name could be glorified, Ezekiel 20: 9,

“But for the sake of my name, I brought them out of Egypt. I did it to keep my name from being profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they lived and in whose sight, I had revealed myself to the Israelites”.

And likewise, out of captivity in Babylon for the same reason, so that God can be glorified, Ezekiel 36: 21 – 23,

“I had concern for my holy name, which the people of Israel profaned among the nations where they had gone.

 22 “Therefore say to the Israelites, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: It is not for your sake, people of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. 23 I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I am proved holy through you before their eyes.”.

 And Daniel says something similar in prayer to God in Daniel 9: 18 – 19,

“Give ear, our God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. 19 Lord, listen! Lord, forgive! Lord, hear and act! For your sake, my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.”

So, at the start of Psalm 115 the writer is getting the people to openly state in their worship of God, probably after the Passover celebration to declare that God alone deserves their praise,

We must learn from this and seek as much as we can to direct praise away from ourselves to God who alone deserves our praise as the minister at my church seeks to do by saying,

“Praise to the appropriate authority”

Who the opening of this Psalm says is,

“God’s name”

 Or as we have seen in previous Psalms God’s name means all that the God of the bible is which we will learn something of in the rest of this Psalm.

2. (1b).  He deserves our praise alone because of his love

 So, the first and principle reason this Psalm says that the God of the bible deserves all praise alone is expressed in the second part of verse 1,

“Because of your love and faithfulness”

 I have read so many times of God’s love and faithfulness in so many of the Psalms I have studied and that is up to 115 now. The early Psalms that are particularly written by King David speak of the love and faithfulness of God over and over again, like Psalm 36: 5,

“Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies”.

 David particularly knew that he was saved by God from both the consequences of his sins and his enemies because of God’s love and faithfulness as he clearly states in Psalm 57: 2 – 3,

“I cry out to God Most High, to God, who vindicates me. 3 He sends from heaven and saves me, rebuking those who hotly pursue me— God sends forth his love and his faithfulness”.

 And relating to the terrible consequences of his sins of adultery and murder he prays this in Psalm 51: 1,

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion

blot out my transgressions”.

 Why did David have such a view that the God of the bible, his God was such a great God of love and faithfulness?

The simple answer is he knew his bible and particularly when the bible speaks of how God decided to relate to his nation, Israel as we read in Deuteronomy 7: 7 – 9,

“The Lord did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.9 Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments”.

 Note how this love of God is called God’s,

“Covenant of love”

 A covenant is a binding agreement and God gives Israel his promise of his love which is binding or faithful in other words he must and will keep it.

When we Psalm 115 was written God had again demonstrated his love and faithfulness or promise to save and love his people by bringing the people out of bondage in the captivity in Babylon. The Jews themselves were powerless to save themselves out of the powerful hand of the Babylonians.

God had to act on their behalf and he did through the rise of the Persians who crushed the Babylonian empire so quickly and ruthlessly and then had the remarkable policy of sending former captive people back to the lands they originally came from and not only that resourcing them to rebuild their homelands again and practice their former faiths as well.

This I believe is what the writer of Psalm 115 has in mind when says,

“Because of your love and faithfulness”

 They are to give the Lord the glory he therefore deserves.

We too must do the same for even greater reasons as we know from the famous John 3: 16 verse,

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

 God again acted miraculously in human history to love and save us from the consequences of our many sins. We like the Jews in Babylon cannot save ourselves and God alone has to do it for us as Paul makes it clear in Ephesians 2: 8,

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God”.

 God alone deserves our praise as he through The Lord Jesus Christ is the glorious God of love who Paul tells us we should praise and why in Ephesians 1: 3 – 10,

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[a] predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ”.

 During my study of this Psalm the Lord inspired me to write new song based on the teaching in this Psalm and I will quote from it when what it says summarises my thoughts on the different parts of this Psalm talk and the chorus of this new song relates to what I have learnt from the first verse of this Psalm and it goes like this:

Not for me but for the Lord

That’s the way it’s got to be.

Glorify the Lord up above

And praise him for his wondrous love. 

2. (2 – 8) PRAISE THE LORD ALONE AND NOT ANY OTHER GOD ALTERNATIVE

1. (2 – 3)  Where is you God?

 After the very up-front statement of the first verse that we believe the entire Hebrew congregation sang or said about how God alone deserves the glory and not us and therefore he alone deserves our praise the congregation then possess a question in verse 2 that says,

“Why do the nations say,

“Where is their God?”

 If this was written and first used in Jewish worship at the time of the return from Babylonian captivity then it is a very appropriate question to ask.

They had just spent at least 70 years as a captive nation in the many god’s, idol worship world of the Babylonians. The Jews had no physical representation of their one God as the second commandment of the ten commandments says in Exodus 20: 4 – 6,

“You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents tthe third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments”.

The pressure of not believing in the God of the bible would have continued back in Israel now also occupied by many non – Jewish people who also would have believed in many god’s and of course all these so called “gods” had some kind of physical representation of them that we call an idol. People might ask, so what’s so wrong with having a physical representation of God?

I see three main answers to this question:

1. No matter what physical or earthly object or animal you choose you will not be able to capture the true essence of the God of the bible. For instance, you might choose an animal like a bull to say God is strong like a bull but a bull is also a dumb animal so you are also saying that the God of the bible is not only strong but dumb. This means you are selling short the reality of what the bible says about what the God who made heaven and earth is actually like.

2.  Once you set up a physical representation of the God of the bible the reality is this image becomes the object of what   you worship. I saw this on a trip through Europe years ago where the Roman Catholic church had statues of Mary and the crucified Christ everywhere and people bowed and worshipped the statues and I believe not what they supposed to represent. They kissed the statues, bowed before them and treated them as though that was the focus of their worship and not the God of the bible.

3.  The God of the bible is not a man with a physical body of any kind as the bible presents God as a spirit, as Jesus says in John 4: 24,

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

 Gotquestions? org explainsit this way,

“The fact that God is spirit means that God the Father does not have a human body. God the Son came to earth in human form (John 1:1), but God the Father did not. Jesus is unique as Emmanuel, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23). Numbers 23:19emphasises God’s truthfulness by contrasting Him with mortal men: “God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

 Another reason why the Nations around about the Jews asked the question “Where is your God is because they knew that they had been defeated by the Babylonians and were sent into captivity for 70 years or so and therefore they would have thought that because of this the supposed all powerful God of the Jews was either not really there or had deserted them and therefore they would ask,

“Where is your God?”

 The reason of course why the Jews went into captivity in Babylon was because their God, the God of the bible judged his people for their many sins particularly the sin of turning to other God’s who were represented by idols that the Jews even set up in the Temple that was supposed to point them and other people to the biblical reality that the God of the bible live in heaven but has chosen to make his presence known with his people who are called by him to trust and obey him and him alone as Jeremiah foretold in Jeremiah 25: 1 – 11,

“The word came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.

 2 So Jeremiah the prophet said to all the people of Judah and to all those living in Jerusalem: 3 For twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah until this very day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you again and again, but you have not listened.

 4 And though the Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you again and again, you have not listened or paid any attention. 5 They said, “Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and your evil practices, and you can stay in the land the Lord gave to you and your ancestors for ever and ever.

 6 Do not follow other gods to serve and worship them; do not arouse my anger with what your hands have made. Then I will not harm you.”

 7 “But you did not listen to me,” declares the Lord, “and you have aroused my anger with what your hands have made, and you have brought harm to yourselves.”

 8 Therefore the Lord Almighty says this: “Because you have not listened to my words, 9 I will summon all the peoples of the north and my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them and make them an object of horror and scorn, and an everlasting ruin. 10 I will banish from them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bride and bridegroom, the sound of millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole country will become a desolate wasteland, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.”.

 This would have been known by the Nations but of course they would have been sceptical or even rejected this interpretation of why the Jews went into exile and why they were allowed to return from exile because of a lucky turn of events in that time that also luckily fitted into the supposed prophecies of men like Jeremiah.

I say this because even today when God answers Christians prayers sceptical non – believers often explain these events as just lucky turn of events that helped the Christian who happened to have prayed to their supposed God who answered their prayers.

If a person does not wont to believe in a God they will find all kinds of reasons and arguments to back them up. Some might say that this is the same with people who believe in a God that they will find all kinds of reasons and arguments to back them up.

All we, as believers can do is follow the advice of Peter when he says in 1 Peter 3: 15 – 16,

“But in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, 16 keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander”.

 The nations round about the Jews back in Israel after they spent 70 or so years in captivity have just asked in verse 2 the question,

“Where is their God”

 Then in verse 3 Kittel’s liturgical scheme of how the ancient Hebrews sang or said this Psalm says that a special choir would answer this question with,

“Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him”

 This is the biblical answer to where is God, even today,

God lives in heaven where he controls and rules the universe and the world from as we read in Psalm 99: 1 – 3,

“The Lord reigns, let the nations tremble; he sits enthroned between the cherubim, let the earth shake. 2 Great is the Lord in Zion; he is exalted over all the nations. 3 Let them praise your great and awesome name— he is holy”.

 Or Psalm 93: 1 – 2,

“The Lord reigns, he is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed in majesty and armed with strength; indeed, the world is established, firm and secure. 2 Your throne was established long ago; you are from all eternity”.

 I learnt this same truth from my study of Psalm 113 the same thing when he says in verses 4 – 5,

“The Lord is exalted over all the nations, his glory above the heavens. 5 Who is like the Lord our God, the One who sits enthroned on high.”

 However the next verse says,

“Who stoops down to look on the heavens and the earth?”

 So, the God of the bible is both a God who dwells and rules the world and the universe from heaven but chooses to stoop down to both speak to and help his people who are those who turn and trust in him as second half of this Psalm will tell us.

In my Psalm talk on Psalm 113 I spoke of how this stooping down of God was so far that he sent his Son into the world to become a human being like us and serve mankind not be served and to go as far as dying on the cross for our sins as Paul particularly sets down in Philippians 2: 6 – 8 but then in verses 9 – 11 this stooping down ceases and Jesus then rises up and ascends back from the dead into heaven from where one day he will stoop down again but this time as the great almighty God who will judge the world and be acknowledged by everyone as the great King or Lord of heaven and earth as he is, verses 9 – 11,

“Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,

10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.

 Finally verse 3 says,

“He does whatever pleases him”

 Albert Barnes gives us a complete explanation to these words in verse 3 with this,

“He is a sovereign God; and mysterious as are his doings, and much as there seems to be occasion to ask the question “Where is now your God?” yet we are to feel that what has occurred has been in accordance with his eternal plans, and is to be submitted to as a part of his arrangements. It is, in fact, always a sufficient answer to the objections which are made to the government of God, as if he had forsaken his people in bringing affliction on them, and leaving them, apparently without interposition, to poverty, to persecution, and to tears, that he is “in the heavens;” that he rules there and everywhere; that he has his own eternal purposes; and that all things are ordered in accordance with his will. There must, therefore, be some good reason why events occur as they actually do”.

 The last part of the Albert Barnes quote reminds me of Paul’s words in Romans 8: 28,

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”.

 The God who controls and rules heaven and earth might be a sovereign God who does whatever he pleases but his is also according to verse 1b is a God of,

“Love and faithfulness”

 Which means what he pleases to do, according to Paul in Romans 8: 28 is to work all things for good for those who trust in him but if we reject him we will have to face him in judgement as there is no salvation from the consequences of our sins without the shed blood of Christ, as Hebrews 9: 22 says,

“In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”.

 Then in verses 27 and 28 the writer to the Hebrews declares,

“Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him”.

 My first verse of my new song inspired by Psalm 115 summarises what I learnt from verses 2 and 3 of this Psalm,

Where is your God, they say

Who you pray to every day?

Our God is in heaven up above

And he cares for us with his love. 

2. (4 – 8) The uselessness of all alternative God views

 According to Kittel’s liturgical structure of this Psalm the choir continues to sing the words of verse 4 to 8 which speak of the uselessness of idol worship which I will expand on to include any alternative God view that is not that of the God of the bible.

Why does the writer move on to speak about idol worship in verses 4 – 8?

The best answer for me to this important question came to me from The Cambridge Bible commentary for schools and colleges,

“The heathen taunt us with the impotence of our God? What are their own gods? Nothing but their own handiwork, destitute of ordinary human senses, though represented with organs of sense”.

 So, the writer is saying by implication, alright you say we have a God who is useless and powerless or as they say today does not exist,

Well what do you believe in?

In our writer’s day, the great God of the bible alternative view was usually some kind of god’s that were made of wood or stone. In Myanmar which I visited again recently the idols are usually big Buddha’s often made of gold or at least coated with gold but no matter how big or expensive looking they are might be they leave me feeling cold not inspired as they are useless religious structures that have no spiritual power or ability.

This is what verses 4 – 7 is actually saying,

“But their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats”.

 I love Isaiah’s sarcastic go at the futility of idol worship of idols made out of wood in Isaiah 44: 14 – 20,

“He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.

15 It is used as fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. 16 Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill.

He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.” 17 From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me! You are my god!”

 18 They know nothing, they understand nothing; their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see, and their minds closed so they cannot understand. 19  No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, “Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?” 20 Such a feed on ashes; a deluded heart misleads him; he cannot save himself, or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

 Idol worship is condemned in a number of places in the bible, like other passages in Isaiah, 40: 18 – 20, 41: 7 and verse 29, 46: 5 – 7 and even Jeremiah has something to say about this in Jeremiah 10: 1 to 5.

Psalm 135 uses these verses directly in its verses 13 – 18, which also includes verse 8 of Psalm 115.

So, God through his word is making it clear that these idol god alternatives are useless and powerless and yet the implication of the question asked by the nations who believe in these idol God’s is that Israel’s God, the God of the bible is useless and powerless.

The final verses the choir sings here is verse 8 which says,

“Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them”.

 Leopold writes,

“Futility is the mark of the idols and futility marks their worshippers”.

 The story of Elijah challenging the priests of the idol worshipping god called Baal shows both the futility and powerlessness of idol worshippers and of course the value and power of believing in the one true God of heaven and earth, the God of the bible. The climax of that wonderful story is in 1 Kings 18: 36 – 39,

“At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command.

 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.”

38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.

 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!”

 Even though idol worship still exists today in the Old Testament form of man fashioning idols as I have seen in places like Myanmar when I visit their other alternatives to the God of the bible is still applicable here.

Any god view that does not see God as the almighty spirit who dwells in heaven as lord supreme of this world and entire universe and who is both God to be feared and yet God who has stooped down particularly through the Lord Jesus Christ to save us is nothing more than a delusion.

When Paul was in Athens recorded in Acts 17 he saw the many idols their and reasoned that this was evidence that these people did not know God. All other non – God of the bible views of God are simply elaborate attempts by human beings seeking to know the unknown God and designing from their own minds and imaginations a view of God that is useless and futile.

So, Paul’s sermon to the top thinkers of the idol worshipping Athenians was to take them from an altar to an unknown God to the message of the God who has revealed himself in his Son, Jesus Christ and Paul says this about him in Acts 17: 24 – 31,

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. 25 And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.

26 From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. 27 God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. 28 ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring’.

 29 “Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by human design and skill. 30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

 My new song inspired by the message of Psalm 115 summarises verses 4 – 8 with these words,

Turn form this worlds idol now

For they have no spiritual power.

They cannot help you when you’re down

They are useless when life causes you to frown.

3. (9 – 15).    TRUST IN THE LORD ALONE

1. (9 – 13)  All true believers trust in God

 Now two particular special groups of the ancient Hebrew congregation share the singing or saying of the next 5 verses according to Kittel’s liturgical pattern, with The Levites sinning or saying verses 9 – 11 and the priests singing or saying verses 12 – 13.

There is actually three main groups people mentioned here:

1. The whole of the Nation of Israel (vs. 9, 12a)
2. The religious leaders of Israel (vs. 10, 12b)
3. All who fear the Lord, the God of the bible (vs. 11, 13)

These verses change from a call to praise to a call to trust in the Lord in whom they must praise alone. They feature a kind of refrain which contains two good reasons why they must trust in the Lord, the God of the bible and that is,

“He is their help and shield”.

 So, let’s have a closer look at these next five verses, first looking at the call to trust to the three groups of people.

1. The whole nation of Israel (vs. 9 and 12a)

Verse 9 is a call to all of the members of the Israel to trust in the Lord and it reads this way,

“All you Israelites, trust in the Lord”

 Then in the first part of verse 12,

“The Lord remembers us and will bless us; He will bless his people Israel”.

 Israel was God’s special nation who he called to be his special people who were to be a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19: 5 – 6).

To be this God made a covenant with them that said that if they trusted in him alone and kept his commandments they would be blessed by him. This blessing involved protecting them from their enemies, giving them a Promised land and giving them the blessing of children and a prosperous nation.

These great promises lie at the heart what Psalm 115 is speaking about when it says that Israel should trust in the Lord alone and not obviously any other God alternative like the many idol gods of the Nations around about them.

Verse 12a speaks of how God remembers to bless his people which is God remembering his special covenantal promises and even the blessing of children is spoken of in verse 14,

“May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children”.

 The promise of God helping and protecting his people is in the refrain words of these verses that says simply,

“He is their help and shield”

 A shield was a very real poetic image for people of ancient times as shields helped soldiers fend off swords, spears and arrows that were used to attempt to kill them in battle.

As Christians, we have a far better covenant of God’s love as we live after the coming of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ who both fulfilled the original covenant and established are far better new covenant as the writer to the Hebrews sets out in Chapter 8 of his letter, as we read in Hebrews 8: 6,

“But in fact, the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, since the new covenant is established on better promises”

 My third verse of my new song inspired by this part of Psalm 115 summarises well what I understand these verses are saying,

So, trust in the Lord today

He will shield you when you pray.

He came from heaven up above

To help and save you by his love.

2. The religious leaders of Israel (vs. 10, 12b)

The second people the writer of Psalm 115 picks out to call to trust in the Lord alone are the religious leaders of the Nation of Israel. These men are part of the whole nation of Israel but have been called to do a special job which was to lead and teach the people God’s word and lead them in worship of him.

The religious leaders on the Old Testament were the descendants of Aaron and this is why we read this in verse 10,

“House of Aaron trust in the Lord – he is their help and shield”.

 The descendants of Aaron became the priests assisted by the descendants of Levi who were loyal to Moses and God’s covenant in the incident of the false idol worship of the Golden calf recorded in Exodus 32 and became known as the Levites.

Allen Harmon points out the significance of the priests or the house of Aaron after the return from Babylonian captivity with these words,

“The involvement of the house of Aron is particularly fitting for the period after the exile, when the priests had to assume a very prominent role and were the principle teaches of the people”.

 As the prophet Malachi speaks of after the return from captivity in Babylon in Malachi 2: 7,

“For the lips of a priest ought to preserve knowledge, because he is the messenger of the Lord Almighty and people seek instruction from his mouth”.

 So, if the people of Israel are led by priests who trust in the Lord alone and do not turn to the worship of useless idols they will be both blessed and a blessing to the people of God as verse 12 says,

“The Lord remembers us and will bless us; He will bless his people Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron”.

 In the New Covenant, we read of Jesus being our priest who both represents us before God the father and who offers up himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins as we start to read of in Hebrews 8: 1 – 2,

“Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who serves in the sanctuary, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by a mere human being”.

 And as the perfect sacrifice for our sins Hebrews 9: 11 – 14,

“But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

 In the New Covenant then Jesus is the high priest and Peter teaches that all followers of him are now priests or part of the kingdom of priests that proclaim the wonderful message of God to the world 1 Peter 2:  9 – 10,

“But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy’.

 Our ministers in the church should not be called priests as some Christian churches still do but rather ministers or pastors of the flock which Paul set down in many of his letters to the churches. Our minsters or pastors have the special job of teaching and equipping the church or God’s flock to be priests or instruments of blessing to the world was Paul says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4: 1 – 5,

“In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3 For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry”. 

3. All who fear the Lord, the God of the bible (vs. 11, 13)

 The last group of people the writer of Psalm 115 calls to trust in the Lord alone are called simply,

“Those who fear him” (vs. 11 and 13)

 Of course, this description fits both the general people of Israel and of course the priests but it could also fit as a description of people outside of the nation of Israel in Old Testament times up to the coming of Christ who trusted or revered, feared the Lord of heaven and earth as presented in the bible.

The New Testament actually calls these people, “God fearers” as we see for instance in Acts 10: 2,

“He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly”

 This is a description of a non-Jew named Cornelius a Roman centurion who Peter is called by God to bring to faith in the the Lord Jesus Christ with his whole household.

So even in the Old Testament people outside of the special nation of Israel were called upon to fear or revere the God of the bible and to trust in him, verse 11,

“You who fear him, trust in the Lord – he is their help and shield”.

 They too are promised to be blessed by God in verse 13,

“He will bless those who fear the Lord – small and great alike”.

 The words small and great alike could be in Old Testament terms the young and old alike or as Tremper Longman 111 says,

“God does not favour the powerful and rich over the disenfranchised and the poor, or vice versa, All may put their confidence in him”.

 My fourth verse of my new song based on Psalm 115 sums up what these verses have said to me:

The Lord will remember us

And all we have to do is trust.

He promises to bless us all our days

If we turn to him and give him praise.

2. (14 – 15) Trust in the Lord alone and be blessed by him

 So, Kittel would suggest that these two verses, 14 and 15 would have been sung by the choir again and they speak to the three previous groups of people, the whole nation of Israel, the religious leaders and the non – Jew believers the writer of Psalm 115 call “you who fear him” which the New Testament calls “God fearers”.

What the choir sings about two forms of blessings for those who trust in the Lord alone:

1. The blessing of the nation flourishing who trust in the Lord alone (vs. 14)
2. The general blessing of all who trust in the Lord alone (vs. 15)

Let’s have a closer look at each of these two promises of blessings that the Hebrew choir now sing.

1. The blessing of the nation flourishing who trust in the Lord alone (vs. 14)

This first promise of God’s blessing on the Nation of Israel would have been very apt for the Jews of the time of their return from exile in Babylon. They had by then suffered massive loss of lives when the Babylonian invaded Judah and then took a number of those who survived into exile. Many would have died in the harsh life of captivity and not all of them would have returned from exile as well.

The relatively small number of God fearing, God believing and God trusting Jews would have been tiny in number and we learn from the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and the prophetic books of Zechariah and Malachi that the Jews were now living back in Israel with many non-Jewish non-God of the bible believing people.

So, the blessing of the Nation flourishing in just numbers again was crucial for the survival of God’s people, so we read of this promise in verse 14,

“May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children”.

 The promise of God’s people flourishing goes back as far as Abraham and is stated in the time of Moses in Deuteronomy 1: 11,

 “May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times and bless you as he has promised!”

 In Old Testament terms the reality of families flourishing was a sign of God’s blessing on a community or nation as we read in Psalm 127: 3 – 5,

“Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. 4 Like arrows in the hands of a

warrior are children born in one’s youth. 5 Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. They will not be put to shame when they contend with their opponents in court”.

 In the New Testament, the concept of families flourishing is seen in how the book of Acts records a number of families coming to the Lord like we saw earlier in the case of the Roman centurion named Cornelius in Acts 10. Also, Paul had much to say to families and speaks of the obligations of Husbands, wives and children in a number of places.

However, it is the spiritual family that the New Testament has much to speak about, The New Israel of God that is made up of Jews and people of every nation of the world which Paul speaks about in Galatians 3: 26 – 29,

“So, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, 27 for all of you who were baptised into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise”.

 Paul speaks in Galatians 4 of how God worked through the process of birth when Jesus came to earth born of a woman, Mary to be redeem us from our sins so that we could receive the gift of Sonship or being part of the blessed family of God, Galatians 4: 4 – 7,

“But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. 6 Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir”.

 So, all the promises of God made to Israel in the Old Testament are now applicable to Christians as we are no longer foreigners and strangers as Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2 but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, Ephesians 2: 19 – 22,

“Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit”.

 So, when Psalm 115: 14 says:

“May the Lord cause you to flourish, both you and your children”.

 Through what Christ has done for us we can apply this to ourselves, our human families and even more to the family of God which we belong to through faith or trust alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.

2. The general blessing of all who trust in the Lord alone (vs. 15)

Then the choir sings of God’s general blessings to those who trust in God alone as verse 15 says,

“May you be blessed by the Lord the maker of heaven and earth”

 Spurgeon aptly writes,

“This is an omnipotent blessing, conveying to us all that an Almighty God can do, whether in heaven or on earth. This fullness is infinite, and the consolation which it brings is unfailing: he that made heaven and earth can give us all things while we dwell below, and bring us safely to his palace above. Happy are the people upon whom such a blessing rests; their portion is infinitely above that of those whose only hope lies in a piece of gilded wood, or an image of sculptured stone”.

Spurgeon is picking up the point that the wording of verse 15 might seem to be a very general blessing but it is a blessing that comes from,

“The Lord the maker of heaven and earth”

 Because he is the maker of heaven and earth he has unlimited resources and therefore his blessings are unlimited. Paul gives praise to all the blessings we have in Christ as part of being in the family of God in Ephesians 1 and says this in verses 3 – 10,

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ”.

 Many years ago, two Mormon missionaries from America came to my door and wanted to come into my house to give me a blessing and I said, “No I did not need your blessing as I have all the blessings I could handle and more in Christ Jesus already” and I opened my bible and read this passage. They left my house shaking their heads and muttering with an American ascent, “and he doesn’t want our blessing”.

My fifth and final verse of my new song inspired by the words of this Psalm sums up what I learnt from these verses in the Psalm:

May the Lord bless our families

As we come to him on our knees.

Praise the Lord who made heaven and earth

For his transformed us by spiritual re-birth.

4. (16 – 18) A FINAL CALL TO PRAISE THE LORD ALONE

1. (vs. 16)   Why God alone deserves our praise

 According to Kittel’s liturgical plan for this Psalm the final two verse were sung or said by the entire ancient Hebrew congregation. They represent a final call to praise the Lord alone and verse 16 makes it clear why we should do so,

“The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to mankind”.

 The writer of Psalm 115 has made it clear that idol gods’ have no power or worth so we should not trust in them or give them praise but The Lord, the God of the bible is according to verse 15,

“The maker of heaven and earth


And now in verse 16 the heaven and earth belong to him and so he alone deserves our trust and praise.

Then verse 16 gives us another reason to praise God alone and that is because he has given to us the earth. This idea comes directly from the first book of the bible Genesis, in Genesis 1: 26 – 28,

“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”

 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female, he created them. 28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

Mankind was given the earth to rule over it but because of sin or rebellion to God the earth now is cursed and we struggle and toil to subdue it and work in it as we read in Genesis 3: 17 – 19,

“To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. 18  It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust, you are and to dust you will return.”

However, God has still given the earth to mankind and this should cause us to do two things

1. Praise God for all he has given us in this world and this life.
2. Seek to look after what he has given us in this world and this life.

Paul speaks of creation groaning in Romans 8: 18 – 21 as it to awaits its release from our sin and its consequences,

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God”

Paul goes on to say that because we, even as God’s children groan as well because we still live in a fallen world. But we groan with a great hope and with great support from God’s Holy Spirit who helps us as we groan or struggle at times in this fallen world, Romans 8: 22 – 27,

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?

 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God”.

So, we have much to praise God for as he who we trust in and who blesses us even in our struggles in this world as we seek to live for him.

2. (17 – 18)  While you’re alive you must praise the Lord

So, the Psalm ends with what seems a strange final call to praise in verses 17 – 18,,

“It is not the dead who praise the Lord, those who go down to the place of silence; 18  it is we who extol the Lord, both now and forevermore. Praise the Lord”.

 It was Albert Barnes who best explained the real meaning of these final two verses to me with this,

“The dead praise not the Lord – The meaning of this is, that as those who are dead cannot praise God, or cannot worship him, this should be done while we are in the land of the living. This opportunity, like all other opportunities, will be cut off in the grave, and hence, we should be faithful in this duty, and should avail ourselves of this privilege, while life lasts”.

Some say that this Psalm was written after a battle where dead soldiers were real in the minds of the people but I don’t think this is necessary to understand while the writer of Psalm 115 chose to speak about the living praising God and as the dead cannot praise the Lord.

However, from a New Testament point of view the dead in Christ are with the Lord and there they join the angels in praise forevermore as we read in Revelation 19: 4 – 8,

“The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: “Amen, Hallelujah!” 5 Then a voice came from the throne, saying:

“Praise our God, all you his servants, you who fear him, both great and small!” 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting: “Hallelujah! For our Lord God Almighty reigns. 7 Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. 8 Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.”

The point of this final call to praise the Lord alone is expressed in verse 18,

“It is we who extol the Lord both now and forevermore”.

 The first question of the famous Westminster Catechism is:

“What is the chief end of man?”

 And the answer is:

 “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever”.

 Our lives as well as our worship of our Lord should be in an attitude of praise as Paul makes it clear in 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 – 18,

“Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.

 We have learnt in this Psalm that there are many reasons why we should praise and trust God alone and so it is only fitting that the final words of this Psalm is,

“Praise the Lord”

 Or as it is in the ancient Hebrew language:

“Hallelujah”.

 I Close this Psalm talk with the full set of words for the new song I composed based on and inspired by this Psalm and what it taught me and then I will close the Psalm talk with a prayer.

NOT FOR ME BUT FOR THE LORD (Based on Psalm 115)

 Chorus:

Not for me but for the Lord

That’s the way it’s got to be

Glorify the Lord up above

And praise him for his wondrous love.

 

Where is your God they say

Who you pray to every day

Our God is in heaven up above

And he cares for us with his love.

 

Chorus:

 

Turn from this worlds idol now

For they have no spiritual power

They cannot help you when you’re down

They are useless when life causes you to frown.

 

Chorus:

 

So, trust in the Lord to day

He will shield you when you pray

He came from heaven up above

To help and save us by his love.

 

Chorus:

 

The Lord will remember us

And all we have to do is trust.

He promises us to bless us all our days

If we turn to him and give him praise.

 

Chorus:

 

May the Lord bless our families

As we come to him on our knees.

Praise to the Lord who made heaven and earth

For his transformed us by spiritual re- birth.

 

Chorus:

 

Not for me but for the Lord

That’s the way it’s got to be

Glorify the Lord up above

And praise for his wondrous love.

 

By: Jim Wenman

 

PRAYER:

 I praise you Lord above because you are such a great and loving God and I know this because you sent Jesus into our world to die for me so that my sins could be forgiven and through that I have become a member of your eternal family. I recognise that you alone deserve all praise and glory and I reject any alternative to you and your word and I seek to trust you and you alone. I know from your word that if I trust you your promise is to help and protect me. I thank and praise you Lord for your many blessings and I ask that you will help me to always trust in you alone as you are the Lord and creator of the universe who loves me even though I don’t deserve this love. In the glorious name of Jesus Christ, I pray, Amen.