I. (115:1–8) Only One God Deserves Praise. The opening stanza develops the idea that only the Lord deserves “glory” (i.e., honor)—(1) because of his “steadfast love and . . . faithfulness” (cf. comment on 92:1–5; texts draw on Ex. 34:6) and (2) because he is “in the heavens” (a position of rule over all; cf. Ps. 113:4–5) and “does all that he pleases” in sovereign power (135:6; Isa. 46:10), unlike the gods the Gentiles worship (Ps. 115:4–8). The expression to “give glory” is equivalent to “ascribe glory” (29:1–2; 96:7–8), that is, to accord honor to someone. Final honor belongs to God alone. The opening words in Latin (Non nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam; 113:9 Vulgate) supply the familiar song.

The rest of the stanza establishes that the Gentiles are wrong to withhold honor and worship from the true God; it therefore discourages the people of Israel from joining the Gentiles’ benighted ways. Psalm 115:2 imagines that the Gentiles would be foolish if they were to say “Where is their God?” The concern for the Lord’s reputation among the nations occurs as early as Exodus 32:12; Numbers 14:13–14. When Israel remembers that her very calling includes making God’s name known among the Gentiles (Josh. 4:24; 1 Kings 8:41–43), the people will see that more than their own self-esteem is at stake here: if the Gentiles think this way, they will not receive God’s light.

The true God (“our God”) is “in the heavens,” far above all earthly power (Ps. 115:3). The confession that God “does all that he pleases” is pertinent in reply to the Gentiles’ taunt (v. 2); elsewhere, Gentiles confess this once they realize that the Lord is the true God (cf. Dan. 4:35; Jonah 1:14).

Psalm 115:4–8 is what could be called a satire on idolatry, exposing the folly of worshiping idols, much like Isaiah 44:9–20. This form became prominent among Jews and Christians in the Greco-Roman world. This pattern builds on texts such as Deuteronomy 4:28 and the regular denunciation of idols as the “work of human hands”—and therefore unworthy of human worship (cf. Deut. 27:15; 31:29; 2 Kings 19:18; Isa. 2:8; Jer. 1:16; Mic. 5:13). Psalm 135:15–18 repeats most of these verses.

If these gods are unworthy of Israel’s worship, it is a tragedy that the Gentiles both “make them” and “become like them” (lifeless and useless); let Israel take warning! Israel’s calling in the world is to foster a community life in which likeness to the true God (who made man, not the other way around!) can flourish among its members.

II. (115:9–11) Let God’s People Trust Him as Their Help and Shield. In response to the warning, this stanza calls all the members of God’s people (“Israel,” “house of Aaron,” and “you who fear the Lord”; cf. 118:2–4) to “trust in the Lord.” The Lord alone is qualified to be “their help and their shield” (cf. 33:20; 28:7; Deut. 33:29).

The “house of Aaron” was the specific family within the tribe of Levi that supplied the priests (Ex. 28:1; Num. 16:8–11). Some take “You who fear the Lord” to be a designation of Gentiles worshipers of the Lord; by the time of the NT, Gentiles who adhered to synagogue regulations were called God-fearers (Acts 10:2; 13:16). Certainly the OT expected that Gentiles would come to “fear the Lord” (cf. 1 Kings 8:43), but there is no evidence from either the OT or the Apocrypha that this term had taken on its specialized sense early enough for the psalm to use it. Rather, the term describes Israel as a community bound to the Lord by covenant; it perhaps designates especially those members with true piety. At the same time, the term is wide enough to include all who worship the Lord—even if they are from neither the house of Aaron nor even ethnic Israel—and once Gentiles in the Greco-Roman world began attending synagogue, they could see themselves as being addressed here.

III. (115:12–15) The Lord Blesses His Faithful People. The next stanza expresses the confidence that God will indeed bless his people, and it prays that he will continue to do so. The worshipers insist by faith that “the Lord has remembered us”; the evidence is their very presence as a worshiping assembly.

Psalm 115:14 echoes Deuteronomy 1:11, which anticipates that God’s people will “increase” through their “children”). And Psalm 115:15 echoes Genesis 1:28, 31; God called Israel in order to give them the privileges Adam failed to hold.

IV. (115:16–18) We Will Bless the Lord Forever. Therefore the psalm closes by having the congregation sing of its renewed dedication to “bless the Lord” (in response to his blessing; Ps. 115:12–15).

Verse 15 had affirmed that the Lord has made heaven and earth, and verse 16, as it were, allocates them (imaginatively, not spatially): “the heavens” are where the Lord dwells (in the place of rule; cf. v. 3), while “the earth he has given to the children of man” (to humanity in general, for whom Israel is the first installment of its renewal in God’s image).

Verse 17 says, “The dead do not praise the Lord”; cf. comments on 6:1–5 [at v. 5]; 88:10–12. The people of Israel, gathered to celebrate God’s mighty deeds, promise to use their bodies and voices to bless the Lord. Therefore they call one another to that task: “Praise the Lord!”