Psalm 115 [MT 116:10-19]

"Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Your Name give the praise" [Psalm 115:1]. For that grace of the water that gushed from the rock ("now that rock was Christ" [1 Corinthians 10:4]), was not given on the score of works that had gone before, but of His mercy "that justifies the ungodly." [Romans 4:5] For "Christ died for sinners," that men might not seek any glory of their own, but in the Lord's Name.

Exposition on Psalm 115

When Jesus was entrusting Peter with his sheep, he was entrusting him with us. When he was entrusting Peter with us, he was entrusting the church with his members. So, Lord, entrust your church to your church, let your church entrust itself to you. After all, we say, “Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give the glory.” I mean, what are we without you? Only Peter when he denied you three times. To show up Peter to himself, that is to show up Peter to Peter, the Lord turned his face away from him for a while—and Peter denied him. He turned his face toward him when he looked around—and he wept. Peter washed away his fault with his tears; he poured water from his eyes and baptized his conscience.

Sermon 229P.4

"For Your loving mercy, and for Your truth's sake" [Psalm 115:2]. Observe how often these two qualities, loving mercy and truth, are joined together in the holy Scriptures. For in His loving mercy He called sinners, and in His truth He judges those who when called refused to come. "That the heathen may not say, Where is now their God?" For at the last, His loving mercy and truth will shine forth, when "the sign of the Son of man shall appear in heaven, and then shall all tribes of the earth cry woe;" [Matthew 24:30] nor shall they then say, "Where is their God?" when He is no longer preached unto them to be believed in, but displayed before them to be trembled at.

Exposition on Psalm 115

"As for our God, He is in heaven above" [Psalm 115:3]. Not in heaven, where they see the sun and moon, works of God which they adore, but "in heaven above," which overpasses all heavenly and earthly bodies. Nor is our God in heaven in such a sense, as to dread a fall that should deprive Him of His throne, if heaven were withdrawn from under Him. "In heaven and earth He has made whatsoever pleased Him." Nor does He stand in need of His own works, as if He had place in them where He might abide; but endures in His own eternity, wherein He abides and has done whatsoever pleased Him, both in heaven and earth; for they did not support Him, as a condition of their being created by Him: since, unless they had been created, they could not have supported Him. Therefore, in whatsoever He Himself dwells, He, so to speak, contains this as in need of Himself, He is not contained by this as if He needed it. Or it may be thus understood: "In heaven and in earth He has done whatsoever pleased Him," whether among the higher or the lower orders of His people, He has made His grace His free gift, that no man may boast in the merits of his own works....

Exposition on Psalm 115

Therefore, there is no falseness in God’s promises because for the all-powerful there is no problem about doing things. And so the effects of the will are never lacking because the will itself is nothing other than power. Whatever God wills, he can do; he can do as much as he wishes.So it is rightly said of him alone, “He does whatever he pleases.” And again, “For you have power to act whenever you choose.” So we have said that there is as much power of will there as there is will itself for the power. Since for the one to whom it is subject, when he shall will, he can, willing being nothing other than power.

Letter to Monimus 1:12.4-5

4–7

But this all inspired Scripture also teaches more plainly and with more authority, so that we in our turn write boldly to you as we do, and you, if you refer to Scripture, will be able to verify what we say. For an argument when confirmed by higher authority is irresistibly proved. From the first then the divine Word firmly taught the Jewish people about the abolition of idols when it said, “You shall not make for yourself a graven image or the likeness of anything that is in the heaven above or in the earth beneath.” But the cause of their abolition another writer declares, saying, “The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the works of human hands; they have a mouth and will not speak, they have eyes and will not see, they have ears and will not hear, they have noses and will not smell, they have hands and will not handle, they have feet and will not walk.” Nor has it passed over in silence the doctrine of creation; but, knowing well its beauty, lest any attending solely to this beauty should worship things as if they were gods, instead of God’s works, it teaches people firmly beforehand when it says, “And do not, when you look up with your eyes and see the sun and moon and all the host of heaven, go astray and worship them, which the Lord your God has given to all nations under heaven.” But he gave them, not to be their gods but that by their agency the Gentiles should know, as we have said, God the Maker of them all.

Against the Heathen 45:2-3

"Their idols," he says, "are silver and gold, even the work of men's hands" [Psalm 115:4]. That is, although we cannot display our God to your carnal eyes, whom you ought to recognise through his works; yet be not seduced by your vain pretences, because ye can point with the finger to, the objects of your worship. For it were much worthier for you not to have what to point to, than that your hearts' blindness should be displayed in what is exhibited to these eyes by you: for what do ye exhibit, save gold and silver? They have indeed both bronze, and wood, and earthenware idols, and of different materials of this description; but the Holy Spirit preferred mentioning the more precious material, because when every man has blushed for that which he sets more by, he is much more easily turned away from the worship of meaner objects. For it is said in another passage of Scripture concerning the worshippers of images, "Saying to a stock, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth." [Jeremiah 2:27] But lest that man who speaks thus not to a stone or stock, but to gold and silver, seem wiser to himself; let him look this way, let him turn hitherwards the ear of his heart: "The idols of the Gentiles are gold and silver." Nothing mean and contemptible is here mentioned: and indeed to that mind which is not earth, both gold and silver is earth, but more beautiful and brilliant, more solid and firm. Employ not then the hands of men, to create a false Deity out of that metal which a true God has created; nay, a false man, whom you may worship for a true God....

Exposition on Psalm 115

5–7

"For they have mouths, and speak not: eyes have they, and see not" [Psalm 115:5]. "They have ears, and hear not: noses have they, and smell not" [Psalm 115:6]. "They have hands, and handle not; feet have they, and walk not; neither cry they through their throat" [Psalm 115:7]. Even their artist therefore surpasses them, since he had the faculty of moulding them by the motion and functions of his limbs: though you would be ashamed to worship that artist. Even you surpass them, though you have not made these things, since you do what they cannot do. Even a beast does excel them; for unto this it is added, "neither cry they through their throat." For after he had said above, "they have mouths, and speak not;" what need was there, after he had enumerated the limbs from head to feet, to repeat what he had said of their crying through their throat; unless, I suppose, because we perceive that what he mentioned of the other members, was common to men and beasts? For they see, and hear, and smell, and walk, and some, apes for instance, handle with hands. But what he had said of the mouth, is peculiar to men: since beasts do not speak. But that no one might refer what has been said to the works of human members alone, and prefer men only to the gods of the heathen; after all this he added these words, "neither cry they through their throat:" which again is common to men and cattle....How much better then do mice and serpents, and other animals of like sort, judge of the idols of the heathen, so to speak, for they regard not the human figure in them when they see not the human life. For this reason they usually build nests in them, and unless they are deterred by human movements, they seek for themselves no safer habitations. A man then moves himself, that he may frighten away a living beast from his own god; and yet worships that god who cannot move himself, as if he were powerful, from whom he drove away one better than the object of his worship....Even the dead surpasses a deity who neither lives nor has lived....

Exposition on Psalm 115

The result that ensues is that described in the next verse: "They that make them are like them, and so are all such as put their trust in them" [Psalm 115:8]. Let them therefore see with open eyes, and worship with shut and dead understandings, idols that neither see nor live.

Exposition on Psalm 115

9–11

"But the house of Israel has hoped in the Lord" [Psalm 115:9]. "For hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man sees, why does he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." [Romans 8:24-25] But that this patience may endure to the end, "He is their helper and defender." Do perhaps spiritual persons (by whom carnal minds are built up in "the spirit of meekness," [Galatians 6:1] because they pray as higher for lower minds) already see, and is that already to them reality which to the lower is hope? It is not so. For even "the house of Aaron has hope in the Lord" [Psalm 115:10]. Therefore, that they also may stretch forward perseveringly towards those things which are before them, and may run perseveringly, until they may apprehend that for which they are apprehended, [Philippians 3:12-14] and may know even as they are known, [1 Corinthians 13:12] "He is their helper and defender." For both "fear the Lord, and have hoped in the Lord: He is their helper and defender" [Psalm 115:11].

Exposition on Psalm 115