4 Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men's hands.
There you shall serve gods, the work of men's hands, wood and stone, which neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell.
For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good."
Some pour out gold from the bag, and weigh silver in the balance. They hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god. They fall down--yes, they worship. They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it, and set it in its place, and it stands, from its place it shall not move: yes, one may cry to it, yet it can not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.
Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols are on the animals, and on the cattle: the things that you carried about are made a load, a burden to the weary [animal]. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity.
Who has fashioned a god, or molten an image that is profitable for nothing?
The image, a workman has cast [it], and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts [for it] silver chains. He who is too impoverished for [such] an offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he seeks to him a skillful workman to set up an engraved image, that shall not be moved.
What am I saying then? That a thing sacrificed to idols is anything, or that an idol is anything? But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God, and I don't desire that you would have communion with demons.
and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone; therefore they have destroyed them.
When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn't know that the city of the Ephesians is temple-keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus?
"What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in it, to make mute idols? Woe to him who says to the wood, 'Awake!' or to the mute stone, 'Arise!' Shall this teach? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it. But Yahweh is in his holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before him!"
For this is even from Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; Indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
They shall be turned back, they shall be utterly disappointed, who trust in engraved images, who tell molten images, You are our gods.
The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they can't speak; They have eyes, but they can't see; They have ears, but they can't hear; Neither is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them; Yes, everyone who trusts in them.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Psalms 115
Commentary on Psalms 115 Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 115
Many ancient translations join this psalm to that which goes next before it, the Septuagint particularly, and the vulgar Latin; but it is, in the Hebrew, a distinct psalm. In it we are taught to give glory,
Some think this psalm was penned upon occasion of some great distress and trouble that the church of God was in, when the enemies were in insolent and threatening, in which case the church does not so much pour out her complaint to God as place her confidence in God, and triumph in doing so; and with such a holy triumph we ought to sing this psalm.
Psa 115:1-8
Sufficient care is here taken to answer both the pretensions of self and the reproaches of idolaters.
Psa 115:9-18
In these verses,