Psalm 115:5

They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

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

They have mouths ... - They are shaped like people, but have none of the attributes of intelligent beings.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-7. (Compare Isa 40:18-20; 44:9-20).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

For although the blind heathen are by their idolatrous priests made to believe otherwise concerning their idols, in regard of the spirits which they pretend to dwell in them, yet this is the truth of the matter, and confirmed by long and constant experience, that they are but vain and senseless things; they can neither

speak in answer to your prayers of inquiries, nor see what you do or what you want, nor hear your petitions, nor smell your incenses and sacrifices, nor handle or use their hands, either to take any thing from you, or to give any filing to you: nor so much as mutter, or give the least signification of their apprehension of your condition and concerns.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They have mouths, but they speak not,.... These idols are carved with mouths, but they make no use of them; if any cry to them for they cannot answer them, nor save them from their troubles. Baal's priests cried to their idol, but was no voice heard, nor answer returned; they are rightly called dumb idols, Habakkuk 2:18, 1 Kings 18:26, but our God in the heavens, when his people cry to him, he answers them, and sends them relief; and tells them his grace is sufficient for them, and so they find it to be.

Eyes have they, but they see not; they are made with eyes in their heads, but cannot see with them; they cannot see their worshippers, nor what they bring to them; neither their persons nor their wants, Daniel 5:23, but our God and Father in heaven, he sees in secret the persons and hearts of his people; their desires are before him, and their groanings are not hid from him; his eyes are on the righteous, and are never withdrawn from them.

Geneva Study Bible

They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5, 6. They cannot teach their worshippers (Habakkuk 2:19) or see their needs; they cannot hear prayers offered to them or smell the sweet savour of sacrifices. Jehovah, though He has no bodily form, can truly be said to speak (Isaiah 1:20) and see (Psalm 113:6) and hear (Psalm 6:8) and smell (Genesis 8:21).

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 5-7. - They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: they have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: they have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk net: neither speak they through their throat. Possessing a semblance of every organ of human sense, they are wholly unable to perform any of the functions. That men should worship them, or believe in their power to help, is an utter absurdity. Psalm 115:5

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The poet, with "And our God," in the name of Israel opposes the scornful question of the heathen by the believingly joyous confession of the exaltation of Jahve above the false gods. Israel's God is in the heavens, and is therefore supramundane in nature and life, and the absolutely unlimited One, who is able to do all things with a freedom that is conditioned only by Himself: quod vult, valet (Psalm 115:3 equals Psalm 135:6, Wisd. 12:18, and frequently). The carved gods (עצב, from עצב, cogn. חצב, קצב) of the heathen, on the contrary, are dead images, which are devoid of all life, even of the sensuous life the outward organs of which are imagined upon them. It cannot be proved with Ecclesiastes 5:16 that ידיהם and רגליחם are equivalent to ידים להם, רגלים. They are either subjects which the Waw apodosis cf. Genesis 22:24; Proverbs 23:24; Habakkuk 2:5) renders prominent, or casus absoluti (Ges. ֗145, 2), since both verbs have the idols themselves as their subjects less on account of their gender (יד and רגל are feminine, but the Hebrew usage of genders is very free and not carried out uniformly) as in respect of Psalm 115:7: with reference to their hands, etc. ימישׁוּן is the energetic future form, which goes over from משׁשׁ into מוּשׁ, for ימשּׁוּ. It is said once again in Psalm 115:7 that speech is wanting to them; for the other negations only deny life to them, this at the same time denies all personality. The author might know from his own experience how little was the distinction made by the heathen worship between the symbol and the thing symbolized. Accordingly the worship of idols seems to him, as to the later prophets, to be the extreme of self-stupefaction and of the destruction of human consciousness; and the final destiny of the worshippers of false gods, as he says in Psalm 115:8, is, that they become like to their idols, that is to say, being deprived of their consciousness, life, and existence, they come to nothing, like those their nothingnesses (Isaiah 44:9). This whole section of the Psalm is repeated in Psalm 135 (Psalm 115:6, Psalm 115:15).