The Pulpit Commentary on Psalms 115:4-8

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

The scorn of the heathen is retaliated. They scoff at the God of Israel. What, then, are their own gods? Silver and gold indeed (Psalms 115:4), but the work of human hands. Fashioned into a human shape, as if they were sentient being—but absolutely devoid of all sense and intelligence.

The satire is somewhat roughly worked out (Psalms 115:5-7), but idolatry provokes rough speaking; and the tone here adopted is imitated in Psalms 135:15-18, and echoed in Isaiah 44:9-20. The inspired writers seem to have felt, that, when idolatry came under consideration, the criticism should be brief and trenchant.

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