Psalm 115 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 115 (1928 BCP) is the psalm Non nobis, Domine in the Psalter of the Book of Common Prayer (1928). In the 1928 monthly cycle it is appointed with Psalm 114 at Evening Prayer on the Twenty-third Day. It turns from the derision of nations and the speechless work of human hands to trust, blessing, and the praise of the living God.
Prayer Book Text and Daily Office Appointment
The 1928 Prayer Book places Psalm 115 after Psalm 114 beneath “The Twenty-third Day. Evening Prayer.” Its first movement refuses self-glory and contrasts the Lord's free action with idols that cannot act:
NOT unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the praise; * for thy loving mercy, and for thy truth’s sake. 2 Wherefore shall the heathen say, * Where is now their God? 3 As for our God, he is in heaven: * he hath done whatsoever pleased him. 4 Their idols are silver and gold, * even the work of men’s hands. 5 They have mouths, and speak not; * eyes have they, and see not. 6 They have ears, and hear not; * noses have they, and smell not. 7 They have hands, and handle not; feet have they, and walk not; * neither speak they through their throat. 8 They that make them are like unto them; * and so are all such as put their trust in them.
The point is not that God is merely distant: the Psalm praises the Creator whose life and agency cannot be reduced to an object made and controlled by worshippers. Its opening petition therefore gives the praise to God's Name because mercy and truth, not Israel's achievement, answer the nations' question.
The middle stanzas make trust a corporate summons. Israel, Aaron's house, and all who fear the Lord are each called to the same dependence; the repeated answer names the Lord as “helper and defender.”
But thou, house of Israel, trust thou in the LORD; * he is their helper and defender. 10 Ye house of Aaron, put your trust in the LORD; * he is their helper and defender. 11 Ye that fear the LORD, put your trust in the LORD; * he is their helper and defender. 12 The LORD hath been mindful of us, and he shall bless us; * even he shall bless the house of Israel, he shall bless the house of Aaron. 13 He shall bless them that fear the LORD, * both small and great. 14 The LORD shall increase you more and more, * you and your children. 15 Ye are the blessed of the LORD, * who made heaven and earth.
The threefold address prevents a private reading of trust. Worship embraces the whole people, its ministers, and every God-fearing hearer; the blessing “both small and great” rejects a praise reserved for the prominent. The final verses return to the Creator-creature distinction and make living praise the congregation's answer.
All the whole heavens are the LORD’S; * the earth hath he given to the children of men. 17 The dead praise not thee, O LORD, * neither all they that go down into silence. 18 But we will praise the LORD, * from this time forth for evermore. Praise the LORD.
Scripture Received in Christian Teaching
Paul gives a closely related account of the error which the Psalm exposes: creatures and images receive the devotion due to their Maker.
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. ... And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. ... Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
Romans does not turn Psalm 115 into an argument about ancient statues only. Both passages diagnose a reversal: people try to secure glory, trust, or service in what is creaturely rather than giving thanks and praise to the Creator. This is why the Psalm’s opening “Not unto us” belongs with its warning about idols.
Paul's address in Athens similarly joins God's transcendence with his generous nearness to creatures:
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things.
This helps specify the Psalm's “in heaven”: it does not make God absent from the earth, but confesses that he is not dependent on the things human hands make. The earth is a gift to humankind, while the giver remains Lord of heaven and earth.
Received Christian Interpretation
Augustine treats the opening as a confession that excludes self-congratulation. His reading makes the Psalm's glory-language a theological judgment: grace is given before it can be claimed as a human achievement.
For “Christ died for sinners,” that men might not seek any glory of their own, but in the Lord's Name.
That is an explicitly Christian interpretation, not a substitute for the Psalm's historical protest against idols. It clarifies how the Church can pray “Not unto us” in the light of the gospel: praise is directed away from the worshipper's merit and toward God's mercy.
Augustine also follows the Psalm's contrast between a made image and a living worshipper:
Even their artist therefore surpasses them, since he had the faculty of moulding them by the motion and functions of his limbs: though you would be ashamed to worship that artist. Even you surpass them, though you have not made these things, since you do what they cannot do.
His argument is deliberately concrete. The Psalm's catalogue of powerless organs is not a contempt for material creation; it unmasks the absurdity of offering worship to a thing that cannot receive or return it.
John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale observe that verses 9–11 have the form of a liturgical exchange:
It appears almost certain, from the structure of these three verses, with their recurring refrain ... that a change here was made in the musical and liturgical use of the Psalm, as the first eight verses seem to be intended to be sung with a full choir, and then the first strophe of each of the three succeeding ones as a solo, with full response from the choir again.
The proposal is an interpretation of the Psalm's structure, not a rubric of the 1928 book. Yet it illuminates the Prayer Book's corporate use: the repeated “helper and defender” is especially apt for a congregation that voices trust together rather than treating the Psalm as private reflection.
Use in Worship
At Evening Prayer on the Twenty-third Day, Psalm 115 follows Psalm 114's recollection of the exodus. It answers that saving history by refusing the praise of human achievement, rejecting the impotence of idols, and calling Israel, Aaron's house, and all who fear the Lord to trust. Its final “we will praise” gives a congregation language for thankful, creaturely worship of the living Creator.
See Also
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Evening Prayer (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 114 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 116 (1928 BCP)
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
External Links
- The 1928 BCP Psalter: Psalms 101–150 (Justus Anglican)
- Augustine, Exposition on Psalm 115
- Neale and Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 115, Non nobis, Domine, verses 1–8, Twenty-third Day, Evening Prayer, p. 485, Justus Anglican, “The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalter,” Psalm 115.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 115, Non nobis, Domine, verses 9–15, Twenty-third Day, Evening Prayer, p. 485, Justus Anglican, “The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalter,” Psalm 115.
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), “The Psalter,” Psalm 115, Non nobis, Domine, verses 16–18, Twenty-third Day, Evening Prayer, p. 486, Justus Anglican, “The 1928 Book of Common Prayer: Psalter,” Psalm 115.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command (Authorized Version, 1611), Romans 1:21–23, 25, Bible Gateway, “Romans 1:21–25 KJV”.
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues: and with the Former Translations Diligently Compared and Revised by His Majesty’s Special Command (Authorized Version, 1611), Acts 17:24–25, Bible Gateway, “Acts 17:24–25 KJV”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 115, §1, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 115”.
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 115, §5, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888), New Advent, “Exposition on Psalm 115”.
- ↑ John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms: From Primitive and Mediaeval Writers; and From the Various Office-Books and Hymns of the Roman, Mozarabic, Ambrosian, Gallican, Greek, Coptic, Armenian, and Syriac Rites, vol. III, Psalms LXXXI–CXVIII (London: Joseph Masters; New York: Pott and Amery, 1871), pp. 486–487, commentary on Psalm CXV, verses 9–11, Internet Archive, “A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III”.