To Your Name Be the Glory

The chapter opens by denying glory to the people and assigning it wholly to the LORD's name because of his steadfast love and faithfulness. When the nations ask where Israel's God is, the answer is immediate and decisive: he is in heaven, and he does whatever pleases him.

N¹ot to us, O LORD, not to us, ²Why should the nations say, ³Our God is in heaven;

The psalm then describes the idols of the nations as crafted from silver and gold yet fundamentally powerless: they have mouths, eyes, ears, noses, hands, and feet, but none of these features can actually function. The critique ends with a grim warning that those who make and trust such idols become like them, sharing their emptiness and incapacity.

⁴Their idols are silver and gold, ⁵They have mouths, but cannot speak; ⁶they have ears, but cannot hear; ⁷they have hands, but cannot feel; ⁸Those who make them become like them,

Against dead idols, the psalm calls Israel, the house of Aaron, and all who fear the LORD to trust him as their help and shield. It then reassures them that the LORD is mindful of them and will bless them, small and great alike, increasing them and their children as those blessed by the Maker of heaven and earth.

⁹O Israel, trust in the LORD! ¹⁰O house of Aaron, trust in the LORD! ¹¹You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! ¹²The LORD is mindful of us; ¹³He will bless those who fear the LORD— ¹⁴May the LORD give you increase, ¹⁵May you be blessed by the LORD,

The chapter ends by distinguishing the heavens as the LORD's domain and the earth as the sphere he has given to humankind. Since the dead do not praise the LORD from silence, the living community commits itself to bless him now and forever, closing where the psalm began: in praise that belongs to the living God alone.

¹⁶The highest heavens belong to the LORD, ¹⁷It is not the dead who praise the LORD, ¹⁸But it is we who will bless the LORD,