Psalms 115:16

16. The heaven, even the heavens Hebrew, The heavens, the heavens to Jehovah; that is, belong to him. This prepares for the next utterance.

The earth hath he given to the children of men Hebrew, To the children of Adam. אדם , Adam, here, should be taken as a proper name. God, the possessor of all worlds, has sovereignly given the earth to the sons of Adam as their patrimony, to be used for their good and his glory. It being a gift, man holds it subject to the will of God. The reference is to the original grant, (Genesis 1:28,) but the scope and occasion require the further idea of a special grant to nations, or a providential order of their settlement and boundaries. This doctrine is taught in Deuteronomy 32:8; Acts 17:26. It is also displayed in the settlement of nations, according to family ties and language, at the dispersion: Genesis 10:5; Genesis 10:20; Genesis 10:31-32. So was the dwelling of Ishmael determined: Genesis 16:12; Genesis 17:20; Genesis 25:18. So also of Edom, Moab, and Ammon: Deuteronomy 2:5; Deuteronomy 2:18-19. Especially had God given to Israel the land of Canaan, (Genesis 17:8,) and “when he divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated [dispersed] the sons of Adam, he firmly established the bounds of the [Hebrew] people according to the number of the children of Israel:” Deuteronomy 32:8. The argument, then, of our psalmist stands thus: The earth has God given as a patrimony to the children of Adam, dividing it to the nations according to a providential order, which cannot be broken up but by his permission. In giving the nations their separate portions, he has fixed specially the bounds of Israel’s inheritance, and no combinations of enemies shall dispossess him. This view meets the connexion and scope of the psalm. Israel had just been rescued from a hostile power which had purposed to destroy his nationality and to make the land a spoil.