Psalms 115:14

INVOKING THE BLESSING OF GOD

"Jehovah increase you more and more,

You and your children.

Blessed are ye of Jehovah,

Who made heaven and earth.

The heavens are the heavens of Jehovah;

But the earth hath he given to the children of men.

The dead praise not Jehovah,

Neither any that go down into silence;

But we will bless Jehovah

From this time forth and forevermore.

Praise ye Jehovah."

"Increase you more and more" (Psalms 115:14). In the KJV, the promise here is stated as prophecy of what will be; but as Miller noted, "The rendition that expresses a prayer or a hope is better."[17] If the psalm was written shortly after the return from captivity, this blessing would have been especially appropriate for Israel at that time.

"The dead praise not Jehovah" (Psalms 115:17). A statement like this is usually the signal for writers to relate how the Hebrews had no hope of a future life; but such a view is untenable. THe Jews did believe in the after-life, as affirmed in Psalms 16:9-11; 17:15; 49:15; 73:23,34 and in Isaiah 26:19, and in many other direct statements and allusions in the Old Testament. See our comments on all those references. "Too often this verse is made the substance of a supposed Old Testament view of death, bringing it into conflict with the evidence."[18] J. W. Burns also observed the same truth, declaring that, "Part of this text has been quoted to support the opinion that the Old Testament saints were in the dark on the subject of immortality. The whole text here goes to prove the very opposite."[19]

"We will bless Jehovah from this time forth and forevermore" (Psalms 115:18). Briggs downgraded what is stated here to make it mean, "In all subsequent generations and ages,"[20] but that is not what the passage says. It is not "all subsequent generations: that shall praise the Lord, it is the psalmist himself and his fellow-worshippers. We will bless Jehovah ... forevermore. "`Forevermore' is a word of very frequent use; and it has but one meaning, and that meaning is Eternity."[21]

In fact, there is a little noticed distinction made in Psalms 115:17 between the "dead who praise not Jehovah" and "any that go down into silence." The word "neither" in our text proves that two classes of people are indicated, not merely one. Since those that "go down into silence" are obviously those who die and descend into Sheol, who are the "dead" of the previous clause? It appears that they are the "dead" worshippers of the dead idols mentioned above, of whom the psalmist stated that they would be like what they worshipped. If this is correct, the people referred to are like the person whom Paul mentioned, "being dead while living" (1 Timothy 5:6).