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. 2 Wherefore should
the heathen say, Where is now their God? 3 But our God is in the heavens: he hath
done whatsoever he hath pleased. 4 Their
idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes
have they, but they see not: 6 They have
ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: 7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet
have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto them; so
is every one that trusteth in them.
Of the few religions in opposition to Christ today there is one
that is extremely violent that basically worships the ancient god, Baal, under
a different name that would say to the Christians it slaughters, “Where is thy
God?” In the western world a sort of god of inert forces is worshipped who is a
god composed of mathematical constructs, unproveable theory, and computer
simulations.
Still, there is the ancient Gnostic heresy of perfectible
humankind, secret knowledge of an elite, and an evolution of mankind towards
enlightenment and a classless, statusless society ruled by dictators in the
name of some vacuous concept of “the people”, today called Communism as its
millennial age to come and Socialism as the economic tool designed to deliver
mankind to that goal. It, too, has slaughtered its tens of millions in the 20th
century and many Christians.
Either or all three could be the religion of the Beast of
Revelation.
Daniel 11:38 But in his
estate shall he honour the God of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not
shall he honour with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant
things.
“Where is thy God?,” they would proclaim as they committed their
sordid deeds.
But their gods are empty things, meaningless vapors, figments of
their own imaginations, no different than Dagon or Ishtar of old,
manifestations of the Adversary, Satan, also called Lucifer who hates God the
Creator and mankind with a fury, and who is doomed for eternity.
And those people who worship these gods are very much like them. Only
the God who created us, the God of the Bible, is worthy of glory and praise,
not just His name but His mercy and for the truth of His sovereign reign over
all.
Psalm 115:9 ¶ O Israel,
trust thou in the LORD: he is their help and their shield. 10 O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD: he is
their help and their shield. 11 Ye that
fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
12 The LORD hath been mindful of us: he
will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the
house of Aaron. 13 He will bless them
that fear the LORD, both small and great. 14 The LORD shall increase you more and more,
you and your children. 15 Ye are
blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. 16 The heaven, even the heavens, are
the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. 17 The dead praise not the LORD, neither any
that go down into silence. 18 But we
will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.
This verse comes to mind for us.
Isaiah 26:3 Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in
thee.
And for Israel in particular see this.
Deuteronomy 33:29 Happy art
thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD, the shield
of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be
found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.
Aaron, the priestly line is then told the same thing.
For those of us who trust in the Lord, He is our helper to move us
forward in life and He is our shield to protect us from physical forces and
spiritual forces against us. While we do not always feel protected, especially
when things go horribly wrong, and I’m thinking of a child with cancer or the genocide
of Nigerian Christians we must, in order to make sense of anything, look at things
from the point of view of eternity or else we would go mad with grief.
The context of this Psalm is that God will bless Israel and its
priestly class in this present world. He will bless both the important person
and the unimportant person, rich and poor alike, and cause them to increase,
but the promise is contingent upon faithfulness and trust. The God who made
Heaven and Earth will bless them.
Then, the promises of this Psalm are brought into the temporal,
worldly realm. We are only to know what goes on in this Earth and we don’t even
have all of that information. What is happening in the Heavens is for God to
see. This is not a rejection of spaceships and satellites but an understanding
of what is in man’s purview and what is not.
Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret
things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong
unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Christians are always talking about things of which they can know almost
nothing; secret codes in the numbers of the Bible and the exact meaning of
prophecies in the Old and New Testaments. And yet, we would have more than
enough, without speculating, more than enough to consider if we were to spend
more time in the Bible verses that tell us how to treat God and how to treat
our neighbors, our fellow men and women.
This Psalm emphasizes for both the temporal minded and the eternal
minded, for the earthly minded and for the spiritual minded, to bless the Lord
for now and for all time, to praise the Lord, the One who created you and
causes you to sit with Him in Heaven.
Ephesians 2:4 ¶ But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6 And hath raised us up together, and made us
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7 That in the ages to come he might shew the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
One final note;
17 The dead praise not the
LORD, neither any that go down into silence.
This verse is part of the emphasis for the Israelite of the temporal
nature of this Psalm. They were focused on God’s promises to them in the land
of the living while we as Christians, both Jew and Gentile, are focused on
eternity. Theologians tell us that this verse says that physical, earthly
praise in our fragile existence ceases at death and the unsaved dead cannot
praise God, only lament their suffering.
Luke 16:23a And in hell he
lift up his eyes, being in torments,, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus
in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of
his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
The last thing I want to emphasize to you followers of Christ is found
in the last verse of this Psalm.
But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore.
Praise the LORD.
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