The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 115:1-18

The Pulpit Commentary · Joseph S. Exell and contributors · Public domain

EXPOSITION

A LITURGICAL psalm, in which a divided choir, together with a leader—a priest or precentor—take separate parts. The occasion is one of danger (Psalms 115:2), but, at the same time, of confident hope and trust (Psalms 115:3, Psalms 115:9-15). A portion of the choir begin with an appeal to God for help against the heathen, whose vain worship of idols they cover with scorn (Psalms 115:1-8). The leader then exhorts to trust in God in the first clause of three consecutive verses (Psalms 115:9, Psalms 115:10, Psalms 115:11), half the choir responding in the second clause. The whole choir raises a joyful strain in Psalms 115:12, Psalms 115:13, the leader re-spending in Psalms 115:14-16, and the choir and congregation together concluding the whole with a final burst of praise in Psalms 115:17, Psalms 115:18.

Metrically, the psalm falls into four stanzas or strophes—the first of three verses (Psalms 115:1-3), and the other three of five verses each (Psalms 115:4-8; 9-13; 14-18).

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