Psalm 115:2

Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

115:1-8 Let no opinion of our own merits have any place in our prayers or in our praises. All the good we do, is done by the power of his grace; and all the good we have, is the gift of his mere mercy, and he must have all the praise. Are we in pursuit of any mercy, and wrestling with God for it, we must take encouragement in prayer from God only. Lord, do so for us; not that we may have the credit and comfort of it, but that they mercy and truth may have the glory of it. The heathen gods are senseless things. They are the works of men's hands: the painter, the carver, the statuary, can put no life into them, therefore no sense. The psalmist hence shows the folly of the worshippers of idols.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wherefore should the heathen say - The nations; they who worshipped idols, and who claimed that those idols were true gods. Why should we, thy people, be so left, so forsaken, so afflicted, as to lead these idolaters to suppose that we worship a false God, or that the God whom we adore is destitute of power or faithfulness; either that he does not exist, or that he cannot be relied on. It is evident that they were now in circumstances which would give some plausibility to the question here asked.

Where is now their God? - They seem to be forsaken. God, the God whom they worship, does not come forth for their defense. If he exists at all, he is destitute of power, or he is not true to the people who worship him, and he cannot be trusted. Compare Psalm 42:3, note; Psalm 42:10, note; Psalm 79:10, note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

2. Where is now, &c.—"now" is "not a particle of time, but of entreaty," as in our forms of speech, "Come now," "See now," &c.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Wherefore should the heathen say? why dost thou suffer them, or give them any colour or occasion, to say or think so, by conniving at their wickedness, and by giving thy people into their hands?

Where is now their God? he is no where; he is lost, or at a loss, either unable, or unwilling, or not at leisure to save them.

Their God; who hath undertaken to be their God and Saviour, and whom they only worship, and of whom they use to boast and insult over us and over our gods.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Wherefore should the Heathen say,.... The nations about Israel, the nations of the world; the Gentiles in any age; the Papists in ours, sometimes called the Heathen, Psalm 10:16. The church expostulates with the Lord why those should be suffered to say, in a reproachful, insulting, manner, and by way of triumph,

where is now their God? that they have boasted of would help them; in whom they have put their trust and confidence; why does not he help them, as he has promised, and they expect? Thus the church suggests, that if the Lord did not appear for them, his own glory lay at stake. Such language is generally used by their enemies, when the people of God were in any distress; see Psalm 42:10.

Geneva Study Bible

Wherefore should the heathen say, {b} Where is now their God?

(b) When the wicked see that God does not always accomplish his promise as they imagined, they think there is no God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

2. So Psalm 79:10. Cp. Psalm 42:3; Psalm 42:10; Exodus 32:12; Numbers 14:13 ff.; Joel 2:17; Micah 7:10. Now does not mean at the present time as contrasted with the past, but is a particle emphasising the question, where, prithee?

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 2. - Wherefore should the heathen say, Where is now their God? (comp. Psalm 42:3, 10; Psalm 79:10). If Israel is un-helped, the heathen will triumph, and ask scornfully what has become of Israel's God? Is he unable, or is he unwilling, to deliver them? Psalm 115:2

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

It has to do not so much with the honour of Israel, which is not worthy of the honour (Ezekiel 36:22.) and has to recognise in its reproach a well-merited chastisement, as with the honour of Him who cannot suffer the reproaching of His holy name to continue long. He willeth that His name should be sanctified. In the consciousness of his oneness with this will, the poet bases his petition, in so far as it is at the same time a petition on behalf of Israel, upon God's cha'ris and alee'theia as upon two columns. The second על, according to an express note of the Masora, has no Waw before it, although the lxx and Targum insert one. The thought in Psalm 115:2 is moulded after Psalm 79:10, or after Joel 2:17, cf. Psalm 42:4; Micah 7:10. איּה־נא is the same style as נגדּה־נּא in Psalm 116:18, cf. in the older language אל־נא, אם־נא, and the like.