“IN THE BEGINNING God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1, NIV). Thus begins the grand narrative that runs through all the pages of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation: the story of God’s relationship to creation and especially to the human beings he created in his image.

As we began our study of the Psalms, we pondered songs and poetry filled with wonder at creation as well as its Creator and Sustainer. Psalm 104, for example, envisioned God as the one before whom the earth trembles and the mountains smoke. The Creator sets the earth securely on its foundations, then thunders at the waters; they flee and find their proper places, providing water for the animals and trees. Indeed, all living things depend on the sovereign care of God. The psalmist thus rejoices in God and vows to praise him forever. Similarly, we saw how Psalm 95 declared that everything from the highest mountain peak to the deepest depths of the earth was made by God and belongs to him. The psalmist therefore invites God’s people to join in praise: “Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker” (Ps 95:6).

By contrast, as we’ve seen in Psalm 115, the so-called “gods” of other nations are no gods at all. They cannot do anything and are not worthy of worship and trust. The psalm therefore encourages the people to put their trust in the one true God, who is mindful of his people and will bless them. Indeed, at this point in the liturgy the worship leader turns to pronounce a blessing upon the people:

May the LORD cause you to flourish,
    both you and your children.
May you be blessed by the LORD,
    the Maker of heaven and earth. (Ps 115:14-15, NIV)

The Creator God is not made by human hands; quite the contrary, he made the hands that make the idols. It is meaningful to be blessed in the name of this God, who does as he wills and in fact can do all things. To call God “the Maker of heaven and earth” seems to echo the creation story, the very first verse of Scripture. The Genesis account also speaks of God blessing humankind and giving them dominion over the earth and all its creatures (Gen 1:28). In that vein, therefore, the psalmist continues:

The highest heavens belong to the LORD,
    but the earth he has given to mankind. (vs. 16)

Earlier, the psalmist answered the question “Where is their God?” by insisting that the God of Israel is in heaven. But the earth belongs to humanity. As we saw in Psalm 8, this fact too is a source of wonder. The psalmist looks up into the vast heavens and marvels that the Creator would care so much about his human creatures:

When I consider your heavens,
    the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
    which you have set in place,
what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them? (Ps 8:3-4)

But again, the author of Psalm 8 continues, despite the seeming insignificance of humanity, God has put them in charge of the earth:

You have made them a little lower than the angels
    and crowned them with glory and honor.
You made them rulers over the works of your hands;
    you put everything under their feet:
all flocks and herds,
    and the animals of the wild,
the birds in the sky,
    and the fish in the sea,
    all that swim the paths of the seas. (vss. 5-8)

Similarly, the vision of Psalm 115 moves down from the highest of the heavens, the dwelling place of God, to the earth, the dwelling place of humanity. And to complete the movement, it seems, the psalmist continues the descent into the shadowy underworld, where the dead reside:

It is not the dead who praise the LORD,
    those who go down to the place of silence;
it is we who extol the LORD,
    both now and forevermore. (vss. 17-18)

The dead don’t praise God; we saw a similar idea in Psalm 30. There, the psalmist remembers crying out in distress, pleading with God that if he dies, he can no longer praise God’s faithfulness (vs. 9). And we can add to that the prayer of King Hezekiah, after God saved him from a life-threatening illness:

For the grave cannot praise you,
    death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
    cannot hope for your faithfulness.
The living, the living—they praise you,
    as I am doing today;
parents tell their children
    about your faithfulness. (Isa 38:18-19)

Thus in Psalm 115, too, it is the vocation of the faithful to praise God while they live. The stories of God’s covenant love and faithfulness are to be remembered and proclaimed in the assembly and passed down from generation to generation. And as we might expect of the psalms in the Hallel, this one ends with a final, resounding Hallelujah.

Psalm 115 begins and ends on a note of praise, but the context is one in which the people feel belittled for their faith. They need to be reminded that there is only one true God, whatever the nations might say. And thus the psalmist teaches, in a way to be reinforced through liturgy, that only this God is both sovereign and faithful. Only this God is the Creator of all that is. Only this God can be trusted to bless the people as their provider and protector. This is the God to both fear and praise, to whose name belongs all glory.

It’s the reminder that we need too, living as we do in a world in which we are surrounded by idols. Let us give praise and glory only to the Maker of heaven and earth, and do so together. And if you want a psalm of praise that further celebrates the love and faithfulness, the grace and compassion of God, just keep reading — for Psalm 116 will give us just that.