Psalm 115:11

Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

115:9-18 It is folly to trust in dead images, but it is wisdom to trust in the living God, for he is a help and a shield to those that trust in him. Wherever there is right fear of God, there may be cheerful faith in him; those who reverence his word, may rely upon it. He is ever found faithful. The greatest need his blessing, and it shall not be denied to the meanest that fear him. God's blessing gives an increase, especially in spiritual blessings. And the Lord is to be praised: his goodness is large, for he has given the earth to the children of men for their use. The souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burdens of the flesh, are still praising him; but the dead body cannot praise God: death puts an end to our glorifying him in this world of trial and conflict. Others are dead, and an end is thereby put to their service, therefore we will seek to do the more for God. We will not only do it ourselves, but will engage others to do it; to praise him when we are gone. Lord, thou art the only object for faith and love. Help us to praise thee while living and when dying, that thy name may be the first and last upon our lips: and let the sweet savour of thy name refresh our souls for ever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Ye that fear the Lord ... - All the people that reverence God; all his true worshippers.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

9-13. The repetitions imply earnestness.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

All and every one of you who worship the true God, not only Aaronites and Israelites, but even Gentile proselytes, who are said to come to trust under the wings of the God of Israel, Ruth 2:12. And such there were many at this time in the church of Israel, whom therefore he fitly invites to trust God, because he is no less their than the Israelites’ help and shield, as it follows.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord,.... Which is said not to distinguish true saints from hypocrites, in Israel or in Aaron's house; rather to describe such who belonged to neither: but, as Aben Ezra interprets it, who feared the Lord, of every people and nation; or proselytes, as Jarchi explains it: the distinction between the people of the Jews, and the proselytes among them, under the character of those that feared the Lord, may be observed in Acts 13:26. It takes in all true worshippers of the Lord; and who are exhorted to trust in him, for faith and fear are consistent; and where there is the one, there is the other; where there is the true fear of God, not a slavish nor an hypocritical fear, but a holy reverence and a godly fear, there will be faith and confidence in him. Job was a man that feared the Lord, and yet trusted in him; these characters meet in the same persons, see Psalm 31:19.

He is their help and their shield; the help and shield of all those that fear the Lord, their protector and defender, and therefore should trust in him. The word "ezer", translated help, in this and the two preceding verses, is applied to God, and often in this book of Psalms, as a title and epithet belonging to him; and it may be observed that "Aesar", in the Etruscan language, signifies God (z).

(z) Sueton. in Angust. c. 97.

Geneva Study Bible

Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 11. - Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord. Professor Cheyne explains this of proselytes, the σεβόμενοι of the Acts; but surely the order followed is one of climax - first, ordinary Israelites; next, those officially holy, the priests; finally, those actually holy, the truly faithful Israelites. He is their Help and their Shield. It would have been better in every case to have kept the Hebrew order of the words - "Their Help and their Shield is he." Psalm 115:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

After this confession of Israel there now arises a voice that addresses itself to Israel. The threefold division into Israel, the house of Aaron, and those who fear Jahve is the same as in Psalm 118:2-4. In Psalm 135 the "house of Levi" is further added to the house of Aaron. Those who fear Jahve, who also stand in the last passage, are probably the proselytes (in the Acts of the Apostles σεβόμενοι τὸν Θεόν, or merely σεβόμενοι)

(Note: The appellation φοβούμενοι does not however occur, if we do not bring Acts 10:2 in here; but in Latin inscriptions in Orelli-Hentzen No. 2523, and in Auer in the Zeitschrift fr katholische Theologie 1852, S. 80, the proselyte (religionis Judaicae) is called metuens.))

at any rate these are included even if Israel in Psalm 115:9 is meant to signify the laity, for the notion of "those who fear Jahve" extends beyond Israel. The fact that the threefold refrain of the summons does not run, as in Psalm 33:20, our help and shield is He, is to be explained from its being an antiphonal song. In so far, however, as the Psalm supplicates God's protection and help in a campaign the declaration of confident hope, their help and shield is He, may, with Hitzig, be referred to the army that is gone or is going forth. It is the same voice which bids Israel to be of good courage and announces to the people the well-pleased acceptance of the sacrifice with the words "Jahve hath been mindful of us" (זכרנוּ ה, cf. עתּה ידעתּי, Psalm 20:7), perhaps simultaneously with the presentation of the memorial portion (אזכרה) of the meat-offering (Psalm 38:1). The יברך placed at the head is particularized threefold, corresponding to the threefold summons. The special promise of blessing which is added in Psalm 115:14 is an echo of Deuteronomy 1:11, as in 2 Samuel 24:3. The contracted future יסף we take in a consolatory sense; for as an optative it would be too isolated here. In spite of all oppression on the part of the heathen, God will make His people ever more numerous, more capable of offering resistance, and more awe-inspiring.