Psalm 115:18

But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

115:9-18 It is folly to trust in dead images, but it is wisdom to trust in the living God, for he is a help and a shield to those that trust in him. Wherever there is right fear of God, there may be cheerful faith in him; those who reverence his word, may rely upon it. He is ever found faithful. The greatest need his blessing, and it shall not be denied to the meanest that fear him. God's blessing gives an increase, especially in spiritual blessings. And the Lord is to be praised: his goodness is large, for he has given the earth to the children of men for their use. The souls of the faithful, after they are delivered from the burdens of the flesh, are still praising him; but the dead body cannot praise God: death puts an end to our glorifying him in this world of trial and conflict. Others are dead, and an end is thereby put to their service, therefore we will seek to do the more for God. We will not only do it ourselves, but will engage others to do it; to praise him when we are gone. Lord, thou art the only object for faith and love. Help us to praise thee while living and when dying, that thy name may be the first and last upon our lips: and let the sweet savour of thy name refresh our souls for ever.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

But we will bless the Lord ... - While life lasts; now and ever onward. Our lives are spared; and while those lives shall be continued they shall be spent in praise. We will transmit the praise to future times; and when we are dead, the voice of praise shall be prolonged by those who come after us. It may be added here that we have now higher and clearer views of the grave and of the future world than the psalmist had, and that though it is certain that our voices of praise must be stilled by death, yet in another world we shall continue the work of praise in strains more lofty than here, and in a continuance of service that shall never end. The grave is, indeed, before us all; but so is also heaven, if we belong to those who truly fear the Lord, and who sincerely worship him through Christ Jesus.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

18. Hence let us fulfil the purpose of our creation, and evermore show forth His praise.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

But we will bless the Lord; but we hope for better things, that notwithstanding our present and urgent danger, yet thou wilt deliver us, and so give us occasion to bless thy name; whereby thou wilt have the praise and glory of our deliverance.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

But we will bless the Lord from this time forth and for evermore,.... The Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, Ethiopic, and Arabic versions, render it, "we who are alive"; both in a corporeal and in a spiritual sense who, as long as we live, and while we have a being, will bless the Lord; being made spiritually alive, quickened by the Spirit and grace of God, and so capable of ascribing blessing, praise, and glory to him, for all the great and good things he has done; and especially when in lively frames, or in the lively exercise of grace: and that from this time; under a sense of present favours, and outward mercies being renewed every day; yea, throughout the whole of life, and so to all eternity in the world above; see Isaiah 38:19.

Praise the Lord; let others do the same as we; let us join together in this work, now and hereafter.

Geneva Study Bible

But we will bless the LORD from this time forth and for evermore. Praise the LORD.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

18. But we (emphatic), we the living (as the LXX adds), will bless Jah. Cp. Psalm 118:17; Isaiah 38:18 ff.

for evermore] In the spirit of faith the congregation sees no limit to the continuance of its existence or to its tribute of praise. What in the O.T. is a national hope becomes in the N.T. a personal hope.

The LXX and Jer. transfer the concluding Hallelujah to the beginning of Psalms 116.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 18. - But we will bless the Lord; literally, we will bless Jah - the shortened, and perhaps more emphatic, form of Jehovah. We, so long as we have any being, will sing praises unto our God (Psalm 146:2) - we will bless him, praise him, give thanks to him, from this time forth, and for evermore - not an absolute assertion of immortality, but a strong instinctive anticipation of it. Praise the Lord (see Psalm 104. - 106, 113, etc.).



Psalm 115:18

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The voice of consolation is continued in Psalm 115:15, but it becomes the voice of hope by being blended with the newly strengthened believing tone of the congregation. Jahve is here called the Creator of heaven and earth because the worth and magnitude of His blessing are measured thereby. He has reserved the heavens to Himself, but given the earth to men. This separation of heaven and earth is a fundamental characteristic of the post-diluvian history. The throne of God is in the heavens, and the promise, which is given to the patriarchs on behalf of all mankind, does not refer to heaven, but to the possession of the earth (Psalm 37:22). The promise is as yet limited to this present world, whereas in the New Testament this limitation is removed and the κληρονομία embraces heaven and earth. This Old Testament limitedness finds further expression in Psalm 115:17, where דּוּמה, as in Psalm 94:17, signifies the silent land of Hades. The Old Testament knows nothing of a heavenly ecclesia that praises God without intermission, consisting not merely of angels, but also of the spirits of all men who die in the faith. Nevertheless there are not wanting hints that point upwards which were even better understood by the post-exilic than by the pre-exilic church. The New Testament morn began to dawn even upon the post-exilic church. We must not therefore be astonished to find the tone of Psalm 6:6; Psalm 30:10; Psalm 88:11-13, struck up here, although the echo of those earlier Psalms here is only the dark foil of the confession which the church makes in Psalm 115:18 concerning its immortality. The church of Jahve as such does not die. That it also does not remain among the dead, in whatever degree it may die off in its existing members, the psalmist might know from Isaiah 26:19; Isaiah 25:8. But the close of the Psalm shows that such predictions which light up the life beyond only gradually became elements of the church's consciousness, and, so to speak, dogmas.