Notes on the Book of Psalms, Psalm 115
The cxv. PSALM.
In some extremity or captivity by or under the heathen, as that of Babylon or Antiochus, &c. This Psalm was made; wherein the Psalmist by an argument of concession, taking their deliverance for granted, first makes his onset upon God, and then by interrogation enforced from the heathen blasphemy, and his peoples fidelity in him, and scorn of all Gods besides him, and God-makers: Then comes to exhort Israel though low brought, to trust firmly in God for better, which be enforceth by an argument of Gods unchangeableness to his Church; and the absolute necessity thereof, for if his Church perish, his praise perisheth, and then all things come to nothing.Psalm cxv.
1NOt unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truths sake.1 O Lord, when thou shalt (as we know thou wilt) have delivered us out of this miserable condition, we promise before hand, we will not rob thee of thy glory, it shall be no merit nor motive out of thy self that shall cause it, thy power and goodness, thy mercy and faithfulness must be it must do it, and when it is done they alone shall wear it, we will acknowledge and ascribe it to nothing else but thee, our great and gracious redeemer.
2Wherefore should the heathen say, where … now their God?2 What ever our demerits are, yet be more mindfull of thine own honour than (by our destruction and captivation, that declaratively are thy people above all the world, and so taken notice of by the heathen) to expose thy self to their scorn and obloquy, and to give them thereby occasion to insult blasphemously over thy power and faithfulness, our trust and confidence, as if our profession and thy promises were mere delusions; and that thou canst not help us, or hast quite rejected us.
3But our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he pleased.3 This, Lord, as to them will be the issue, though neither their Blasphemy nor our misery shall abate of our faith and acknowledgement of thee, both to be our God in covenant and adoption, and the sole God that in heaven art glorious, and from thence rulest all things, and orderest all dispensations here on earth, so that nothing befalls us thy people by any humane power that thou couldst not have hindered if thou wouldest, it is thou that hast set them on work thus to do by us in justice for our sinns, else a hair of our heads could not have perished by them.
4 It is not their Gods,4Their Idols are silver and gold, the work of mens hands. but our own God that is able to do us harm, for they are but Idols at the best, made of Gold and Silver, nor are they so much as their own makers, but have their being from men, that have their being from thee, they make them that made not themselves, and therefore must they needs be goodly Gods:
5 That are utterly liveless,5They have mouths but they speak not: eyes have they but they see not. bare Statues and resemblances, for mans workmanship can go no further, he cannot give life, and consequently neither sence nor motion, and therefore though they have the fashion of a mouth, yet are they speechless, having neither Soul nor Organs to animate and inable them, and so they have the fashion of eyes as well as man can imitate, but are as blind as Beetles.
6 Likewise they have the similitude of ears,6They have ears but they hear not: noses have they but they smell not. but are as deafe as doore-nails, and of noses, but smell neither sweet nor sour.
7 They have very artificiall hands,7They have hands but they handle not: feet have they but they walk not, neither speak they through their throat. but can do nothing with them, and fashionable feet, but can neither go nor stand, but as they are otherwayes upheld, and their neck serves meerly to hold their heads on their shoulders, but is of no Organicall use at all for speech, &c.
8 And they that make them are as void of true understanding,8They that make them are like unto them: so is every one: that trusteth in them. as they of sence, that can so against the light of reason think such things fit to be worshipped which they make, and which made not them, and that when they are made are but inanimate statues, short of all living creatures even the meanest, and what must they then be that put confidence of good or evil in such, but irrational senceless people, and as little able to do good or hurt as they, saving thou the onelyonly living God orders and appoints them.
9O Israel, trust thou in the Lord: he is thy help and thy shield.9 O ye sonns of Israel your fathers, with whom and his seed God made an everlasting covenant, whatever befall you, let not an evil heart of unbelief to depart from the living God, to dumb and deaf Idols, possess you, as he hath peculiarly chosen and adopted you for his people from out all the world, so do you him for your God, from all other Gods, trust in him, relie upon him for your sole helper and defendour against these Idols and Idol worshippers, which can do you just so much hurt as he for your sinns permits them, and no more.
10O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord, he is their help and their shield.10 O ye Preists and Levites that are the successours and assistants of faithfull Aaron in that high office of Preist-hood, and more immediate worshippers of the high God within his holy Temple, do you exemplarily declare your faith of and in the Lord alone that hath so highly honoured you above your brethren, that he is of power al-sufficient, and faithfull of his word and promise to protect and restore his people, and you, to their places and your imployments.
11Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their shield.11 But chiefly you that are nearer and dearer to God than any externall adoption or office can make men, you that are Israelites indeed, spirituall Priests and Levites, the adopted and called of the Lord, that have the spirit of reverence and godly fear in you, do you, as I hope you will not fail to do, trust assuredly in God, for he is your help and shield against worse enemies than these that can but destroy the body, and that do but serve to typifie the power that our ghostly enemies have over us by sinne, as these for sinne, and Gods greater power to deliver us from them, as from these, which he will certainly do.
12 No doubt is to be made of it,12The Lord hath been mindfull of us, he will bless us, he will bless the house of Israel, he will bless the house of Aaron. but that as God hath done, so he will do, exercise mercy in deliverance, as well as justice in afflicting us, if we seek to him, and that he see us mindfull of him, he will be so of us, as ever heretofore in like case, to ours now he was wont to be, Israel and the Priest-hood is still dear to him for old love to our forefathers and the covenant he made with them, and for Aaron his servants sake that Preistly type of our powerfull Mediatour, and therefore will he certainly bless us with joyfull deliverance and restauration.
13 Yea,13He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. for his covenant sake he will bless Israel and Aaron according to the letter, but thank them for it that amongst you are so in the spirit, with whom properly and principally that covenant is made, these, of what outward condition soever, high or low are dear to God, whom he will certainly bless and the rest for their sakes.
14 You are the men that have the promise of this life and of a better,14The Lord shall increase you more and more, you and your children. as you are the blessed seed of blessed Abraham, in whom his name is upheld, because his faith is inherited by you, so shall the Lord raise you up faithfull successours, a more numerous off-spring than ever yet his Church produced, from generation to generation shall the faithfull, your heirs and successours, flourish and multiply.
15You are blessed of the Lord, which made heaven and earth.15 As you are the promised seed, so are you heirs of the blessed promise. He that by his Almighty power made the heavens and the earth, is your God, and for your sakes made he them, and with both heavenly and earthly blessings will he bless you.
16The heaven, even the heavens are the Lords: but the earth hath he given to the children of men.16 The Lord made both and governs both, but so that heaven, the heaven of heavens which is superlative to all the rest, is the more immediate place of his glorious residence and inhabitancy, and the earth of mans, which he hath bountifully furnished with all needfull things for his sustentation and existence there.
17The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence.17 And why hath the Lord done so, lent me life and livelihood here below, but that they should imploy their time and improve those blessings to the praises of him in the highest, for its true, that God made the earth and all things in it for man, but he made man for himself for his praise and glory, who yet praise him not, but serve other Gods, all the world but we, so that if we should perish that are his onelyonly Church on earth, the praises of the Lord would cease upon it, which must not be; whilest it is to have a being, he is to have a people that shall glorifie him.
18But we will bless the Lord, from this time forth and for evermore; Praise the Lord.18 Therefore O Israel, O house of Aaron, and especially ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord that he will be your help and shield, for the Lord will not unchurch himself, no nor us neither, we are the people (though unworthy) that his name is and shall be named upon, chosen out of all the earth, so that how ever we are at the graves mouth, yet deliverance will come, and we shall be restored, else nature must be dissolved, which cannot be, considering what promises are yet to be fulfilled. Therefore be confident in hope, and in the faith hereof ingage our selves for future, when God shall so bless us, that we will answerably bless and praise him, yea, in full assurance let us begin at present, and be doing in that dutie now aswel as hereafter, that the Lord may see the useful existence of a Church for ever on earth, for that they alwayes, and they onelyonly praise him. What ever your condition be then, though it were worse than it is, which at present is bad enough, be sure to praise the Lord, for which you live, and have your Beings, and in you all the world, which else should cease.