성경 주석서

Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, [and] for thy truth’s sake.

Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us — This is the godly man’s motto, and his daily practice. See Genesis 41:16 Acts 3:12 ; Acts 3:16 1 Corinthians 15:10 Luke 19:16 . Not we, but thy talents, have gained other five, and other two (Georg. Fabric. Chenmieenses virus de seipso).

Sed quicquid potuit, gloria, Christe, tua est.

There is no merit at all in us, saith the Chaldee here; the bowls of the candlestick had no oil but that which dropped from the olive branches. It is therefore very good counsel that Austin gives his friend Boniface, In omnibus bonis actibus tuis illi da claritatem, tibi humilitatem, In all thy good deeds give God the glory, and take up lowly thoughts of thyself.

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

Wherefore should the heathen say — Why should they thus be suffered or occasioned to blaspheme thee, and twit us with our religion? Hence some conceive that this psalm was made in the time of the Babylonish captivity by Daniel (saith one Jewish doctor), when he expounded Nebuchadnezzar’s dream; by the three worthies (saith another), when they were in the fiery furnace. See Psalms 42:10 ; Psalms 79:10 .

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But our God [is] in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

But our God is in the heavens — Where your terricula country, your fearful idols never were; like as one, being asked by a Papist, Where was your religion before Luther? answered, In the Bible, where your religion never was. This "but" seemeth uttered with indignation. Aξιωματικωτατος μεν εστιν ο Bασιλευς ημων , saith Basil, on a like occasion; our God is no dunghill deity.

He hath done whatsoever he hath pleased — Without either help or hindrance of any.

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Their idols [are] silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.

Their idols are silver and gold — Take them at the best, they are no better; and what is silver and gold but the guts and garbage of the earth? But some of them might say, as Priapus in Horace,

Herodotus telleth us, that Amasis had a large laver of gold, wherein both he and his guests used to wash their feet. This vessel he brake and made a god of it; which the Egyptians devoutly worshipped. And the like idolomany is at this day found among Papists; what distinction soever the world would fain make between an idol and an image, which indeed (as they use them) are all one.

The work of men’s hands — And therefore they must needs be goodly gods, when made by bunglers especially, as was the cross of Cockram; which, if it were not good enough to make a god, would make an excellent devil, as the mayor of Doncaster merrily told the complainants (Acts and Mon. fol. 1340).

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

They have mouths, but speak not — Unless the devil haply speak in them, and by them, as at Delphos; or the false priests, as here, in times of Popery.

Eyes have they, but they see not — And yet with wires and other devices they were made here once to goggle their eyes, to move their chaps apace, as well apaid when something of worth was presented them; as if otherwise, to look at eyes’ end, and to hang a lip.

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They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:

They have ears, but they hear not — But are as deaf as door nails to the prayers of their suppliants. The Cretans pictured their Jupiter without ears; so little hearing or help they hoped for from him. Socrates, in contempt of heathen gods, swore by an oak, a goat, a dog; as holding these better gods than those. Varro saith, they that first brought in pictures to be worshipped, Ii civitatibus suis et metum dempserunt, et errorem addiderunt, took away fear, and brought in error (Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. iv. cap. 31.)

Noses have they, but they smell not — As the painter may paint a flower with fresh colours, but not with sweet savour, with this motto, No further than colours; so the carver may draw out an image, but not make it draw its breath, with this motto, No further than fashion.

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They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.

They have hands, but they handle not — Curious and artificial (for art is Nature’s ape), but useless, and for show only. If Esculapius, or the lady of Loretto, restore the lame or the blind, it is the devil with his lying wonders, 2 Thessalonians 2:9

Feet have they, but they walk not — As those pictures in Plato made by Daedalus, which, if they were not bound, would fly away; or Vulcan’s three-footed stools in Homer, which are feigned to have run on wheels of their own accord, to the meeting of the gods, and after that to return in like sort back again. The Tyrians besieged by Alexander chained up their god Hercules, that he might not go from them in that calamnity, and yet they were not delivered.

Neither speak they through their throat — They do not so much as chatter like a crane, or mourn as a dove, Isaiah 38:14 , but are dumb idols, as the apostle calleth them. These are things commonly known, but profitably thus inculcated, for the shaming of senseless idolaters; who yet are so bewitched that they will needs dote upon these gods of their own making. O vanas hominum mentes, …, Oh the spirit of fornication, …

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They that make them are like unto them; [so is] every one that trusteth in them.

They that make them are like unto them — Blind and blockish, Vervecum in patria crassoque sub aere nati; given up by a just God to a judiciary stupidity. See Isaiah 44:9-11 , …; Revelation 9:20 , Their foolish hearts were darkened, and they were delivered up to a reprobate sense, to an injudicious mind, Romans 1:24-31 , to strong delusions, vile affections, just damnation.

So is every one that trusteth in them — Idols were never true to such as trusted in them; but such deserve to be deceived, as being miserable by their own choice, John 2:8 .

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