Psalm - 115:11



11 You who fear Yahweh, trust in Yahweh! He is their help and their shield.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Psalm 115:11.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Ye that fear the LORD, trust in the LORD: he is their help and their shield.
Ye that fear Jehovah, trust in Jehovah: He is their help and their shield.
They that fear the Lord hath hoped in the Lord: he is their helper and their protector.
Ye that fear Jehovah, confide in Jehovah: he is their help and their shield.
Ye fearing Jehovah, trust in Jehovah, 'Their help and their shield is He.'
You worshippers of the Lord, have faith in the Lord: he is their help and their breastplate.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Ye who fear Jehovah! He does not speak of strangers, as some erroneously suppose, as if this were a prediction respecting the calling of the Gentiles. Connecting them with the children of Israel and with the sons of Aaron, they are of opinion that he refers to the heathens and to the uncircumcised who were not yet gathered into the sheepfold. By parity of reason one might infer, that the priests are not of the seed of Abraham, because they are separately mentioned. It is more probable that there is in these words a tacit correction of what he had said before, by which he makes a distinction between the genuine worshippers of God and those hypocrites who were the degenerate sons of Abraham. Not a few of the seed of Abraham according to the flesh having departed from the faith of their father, the prophet here restricts the promise to those who, having received it by faith, were worshipping God in purity. We now perceive the reason for his first addressing the Israelites, next the house of Aaron, and then the fearers of Jehovah It is as if a person in our times were to point his exhortation first to the whole body of the Church, and then come more particularly to the ministers and teachers, who ought to be ensamples to others. And as many falsely pique themselves upon the mere name of being connected with the Church, and hence deserve not to be classed with God's true followers, he expressly mentions the genuine and not the counterfeit worshippers of God.

Ye that fear the Lord - All the people that reverence God; all his true worshippers.

Ye that fear the Lord - All real penitents, and sincere believers, trust to the Lord, in the almighty, omniscient, and infinitely good Jehovah.
He is their help and shield - He is the succor, support, guardian, and defense of all who put their confidence in him.

Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord,.... Which is said not to distinguish true saints from hypocrites, in Israel or in Aaron's house; rather to describe such who belonged to neither: but, as Aben Ezra interprets it, who feared the Lord, of every people and nation; or proselytes, as Jarchi explains it: the distinction between the people of the Jews, and the proselytes among them, under the character of those that feared the Lord, may be observed in Acts 13:26. It takes in all true worshippers of the Lord; and who are exhorted to trust in him, for faith and fear are consistent; and where there is the one, there is the other; where there is the true fear of God, not a slavish nor an hypocritical fear, but a holy reverence and a godly fear, there will be faith and confidence in him. Job was a man that feared the Lord, and yet trusted in him; these characters meet in the same persons, see Psalm 31:19.
He is their help and their shield; the help and shield of all those that fear the Lord, their protector and defender, and therefore should trust in him. The word "ezer", translated help, in this and the two preceding verses, is applied to God, and often in this book of Psalm, as a title and epithet belonging to him; and it may be observed that "Aesar", in the Etruscan language, signifies God (z).
(z) Sueton. in Angust. c. 97.

Ye that fear - All of you who worship the true God, not only Israelites, but even Gentile proselytes.

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