A manual of the book of Psalms · Martin Luther
PSALM CXV.
_Because God is truly glorious, and idols are vanity, he exhorteth to confidence in God.—God is to be blessed for his blessings._ Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, _and_ for thy truth’s sake. Wherefore should the heathen say, Where _is_ now their God? But our God _is_ in the heavens; he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols _are_ silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; They have ears, but they hear not; noses have they, but they smell not; They have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; _so is_ every one that trusteth in them. O Israel, trust thou in the LORD; he _is_ their help and their shield. O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD; he _is_ their help and their shield. Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD; he _is_ their help and their shield. 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. He will bless them that fear the LORD, _both_ small and great.
The LORD shall increase you more and more, you and your children. Ye _are_ blessed of the LORD which made heaven and earth. The heaven, _even_ the heavens, _are_ the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. The dead praise not the LORD, neither any that go down into silence. But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD. This is a glorious Psalm of thanksgiving, wherein the God of Israel is praised, as being the one, only, true, living God, the Saviour of all men, and especially of them that believe; and wherein also, all the other gods of the nations, who can save neither themselves nor others, are confessed, in the true faith, to be dumb idols.
Wherefore the Psalmist, in the first verse, saith “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory.” As if he had said, ‘Look not upon us, O Lord, to see how good or how righteous we are, for if thou do this, thou wilt never help us, thou wilt never save us; we shall remain a people without salvation, and without God, like all the nations around us; or we shall ever be at an uncertainty whether we shall be saved or not. But look, O our God, at thy holy word, and at the glory of thine own name,—that thou callest thyself our God; and that thou art the true and the living God, with whom is mercy, and with whom is plenteous redemption. According, O Lord, to thy promises of grace, according to thy counsel and thy covenant, in the which thou hast said, “I am the Lord your God;” according to this thy glorious name deal thou with us, O Lord; but not according to any name of ours, whereby we may be called sacrificers, or good-workers, or singers, or fathers, or the like: for all these names the nations that know not thee may assume, and yet remain still nations without God.’
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.