Psalm 115 (113 B)
God’s people have no idols. Since we have been given to know the one and true God, let us leave aside all that is not God.
1 Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to your name be the glory,
for the sake of your love and faithfulness.
2 Why should the pagans say,
“Where is their God?”
3 There in heaven is our God;
whatever he wishes, he does.
4 Not so the hand-made idols,
crafted in silver and gold.
5 They have mouths that cannot speak,
eyes that cannot see,
6 ears that cannot hear,
noses that cannot smell.
7 They have hands but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk;
neither can they make a sound in their throat.
8 Their makers will be like them,
so will all who trust in them.
9 O Israel, trust in the Lord;
he is your help and your shield!
10 You, family of Aaron, trust in the Lord;
he is your help and your shield!
11 You who fear the Lord, trust in him;
he is your help and your shield!
12 The Lord remembers us and will bless us;
he will bless the family of Israel;
he will bless the family of Aaron;
13 he will bless those who fear the Lord,
both the small and the great.
14 May the Lord shower blessings,
on you and your children as well.
15 May you be blessed by the Lord,
Maker of heaven and earth.
16 Heaven belongs to the Lord,
but the earth he has given to humans.
17 It is not the dead who praise the Lord,
for they have gone down to silence;
18 but it is we, the living, who bless the Lord,
from now on and forever.
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Comments Psalms, Chapter 115
We must constantly denounce the idols of ordinary people as well as the idols of those who pretend to be free of every prejudice. Here is a thought of the poet, Paul Claudel:
“Blessed are you, O my God, who freed me from all the idols and who made me adore you alone, and not Isis or Osiris, or Justice, Progress, Truth, Divi nity, Humanity, the Laws of Nature, of Art or of Beauty.
“And who has not permitted these things to exist, things that are not, or are the vacuum left by your absence. I know that you are not the God of the dead, but of the living.
“Lord, I have found you! The one who finds you no longer tolerates death.”