1
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us,
But to Your name give glory,
Because of Your mercy,
Because of Your truth.
My Thoughts
The psalmist begins Psalm 115:1 by emphasizing that glory should be given solely to God, not to us. This highlights the theme of humility, where believers acknowledge that all mercy and success stem from divine grace rather than personal merit. Commentators stress that God’s glory must be prioritized over personal gain or reputation, reinforcing that prayer should focus on magnifying His name. The psalm conveys a sense of urgency for divine intervention, particularly in circumstances where God’s attributes of mercy and truth are under question. Ultimately, the text calls for a renunciation of self-glorification, urging a commitment to honoring God’s name above all else.
Let this be our meditation today “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, But to Your name give glory”!
Bill
Commentaries:
Matthew Henry
Boasting is here forever excluded, v. 1. Let no opinion of our own merits have any room either in our prayers or in our praises, but let both center in God’s glory.
1. Have we received any mercy, gone through any service, or gained any success? We must not assume the glory of it to ourselves, but ascribe it wholly to God. We must not imagine that we do anything for God by our own strength, or deserve anything from God by our own righteousness, but all the good we do is done by the power of his grace, and all the good we have is the gift of his mere mercy, and therefore he must have all the praise. Say not, The power of my hand has gotten me this wealth, Deu. 8:17. Say not, For my righteousness the Lord has done these great and kind things for me, Deu. 9:4. No; all our songs must be sung to this humble tune, Not unto us, O Lord! and again, Not unto us, but to thy name, let all the glory be given; for whatever good is wrought in us, or wrought for us, it is for his mercy and his truth’s sake, because he will glorify his mercy and fulfill his promise. All our crowns must be cast at the feet of him that sits upon the throne, for that is the proper place for them.
2. Are we in pursuit of any mercy and wrestling with God for it? We must take our encouragement, in prayer, from God only, and have an eye to his glory more than to our own benefit in it. “Lord, do so and so for us, not that we may have the credit and comfort of it, but that thy mercy and truth may have the glory of it.” This must be our highest and ultimate end in our prayers, and therefore it is made the first petition in the Lord’s prayer, as that which guides all the rest, Hallowed be thy name; and, in order to that, Give us our daily bread, etc. This also must satisfy us, if our prayers be not answered in the letter of them. Whatever becomes of us, unto thy name give glory. See Jn. 12:27, 28.
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Enduring Word
Not unto us, but to Your name give glory: The singer of this psalm understood that when God did wonderful things, the glory should be given to God – not to God’s people (not unto us), even if they are in some sense active in the work. The glory should go unto God and His holy name. (Guzik)
i. “This is the godly man’s motto, and his daily practice.” (Trapp)
ii. “Not first for the welfare of the people does [the psalmist] care, but for the vindication of his God. This is a deep note, and all too rare in our music. We are ever in danger of putting the welfare of man before the glory of God.” (Morgan)
iii. “Adoniram Judson, full of ambition, seeking a great name, met with this text, and rebelled against it; but he says that all his bright visions for the future seemed to vanish as these words sounded in his soul, ‘Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.’” (Spurgeon)
iv. These verses were likely in the mind and heart of Jesus on the night before His crucifixion. Singing these words must have moved Him in a way beyond our comprehension. “No soul – neither that of the composer of the song nor that of anyone who employs it – ever entered so completely into all its deep spiritual significance, as did the soul of Jesus, as, before passing out to Olivet, to Gethsemane, to Calvary, He sang it with that little group of men.” (Morgan)
Because of Your mercy, because of Your truth: The mercy of God alone means that He is worthy of praise and glory – not His people who receive His mercy. We may add to that His truth because truth is grounded in Him and not in His people.
i. Mercy translates the great Hebrew word hesed, which may be understood as Yahweh’s grace, His loyal love, His covenant love unto His people. When John later wrote grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17), he wrote with the same idea of the psalmist and saw it perfectly fulfilled in Jesus. (Guzik)
ii. “Thy mercy gave thy promise, thy truth fulfilled it.” (Clarke)
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Charles Spurgeon
It will be well to remember that this psalm was sung at the Passover, and therefore it bears relationship to the deliverance from Egypt. The burden of it seems to be a prayer that the living God, who had been so glorious at the Red Sea and at the Jordan, should again for his own name’s sake display the wonders of his power.
“Not unto us, O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory.” The people undoubtedly wished for relief from the contemptuous insults of idolaters, but their main desire was that Jehovah himself should no longer be the object of heathen insults. The saddest part of all their trouble was that their God was no longer feared and dreaded by their adversaries. When Israel marched into Canaan, a terror was upon all the people roundabout, because of Jehovah, the mighty God; but this dread the nations had shaken off since there had been of late no remarkable display of miraculous power. Therefore Israel cried unto her God that he would again make bare his arm as in the day when he cut Rahab and wounded the dragon. The prayer is evidently tinctured with a consciousness of unworthiness; because of their past unfaithfulness they hardly dared to appeal to the covenant and to ask blessings for themselves, but they fell back upon the honor of the Lord their God—an old style of argument which their great lawgiver, Moses, had used with such effect when he pleaded, “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.” Joshua also used the like argument when he said, “What wilt thou do unto thy great name?” In such manner also let us pray when no other plea is available because of our sense of sin; for the Lord is always jealous of his honor, and will work for his name’s sake when no other motive will move him.
The repetition of the words, Not unto us, would seem to indicate a very serious desire to renounce any glory which they might at any time have proudly appropriated to themselves, and it also sets forth the vehemence of their wish that God would at any cost to them magnify his own name. They loathed the idea of seeking their own glory, and rejected the thought with the utmost detestation; again and again disclaiming any self-glorifying motive in their supplication.
“For thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.” These attributes seemed most in jeopardy. How could the heathen think Jehovah to be a merciful God if he gave his people over to the hands of their enemies? How could they believe him to be faithful and true if, after all his solemn covenant engagements, he utterly rejected his chosen nation? God is very jealous of the two glorious attributes of grace and truth, and the plea that these may not be dishonored has great weight with him. In these times, when the first victories of the gospel are only remembered as histories of a dim and distant past, skeptics are apt to boast that the gospel has lost its youthful strength, and they even presume to cast a slur upon the name of God himself. We may therefore rightly entreat the divine interposition that the apparent blot may be removed from his escutcheon and that his own word may shine forth gloriously as in the days of old. We may not desire the triumph of our opinions, for our own sakes, or for the honor of a sect, but we may confidently pray for the triumph of truth, that God himself may be honored.
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Albert Barnes
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory – This apparently abrupt commencement of the psalm was undoubtedly in reference to some circumstances which would be well understood at the time when the psalm was composed, but which cannot be definitely ascertained now. It seems to have been in view of some existing troubles, and the language at the same time expresses a hope of the divine interposition and a feeling that the praise of such interposition would belong wholly to God. The phrase “give glory” means, give all the honor and praise. See the notes at Psalms 29:1-2.
For thy mercy – The mercy or the favor which we seek and look for – thy gracious help in the time of trouble.
And for thy truth’s sake – Thy faithfulness to thy promises; thy faithfulness to thy people. The psalmist anticipated this manifestation of faithfulness with confidence; he felt that all the praise for such an anticipated interposition would belong to God.
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John Gill
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory,…. There is no glory due to men; no, not to the best of men, not to be given them on any account whatever; neither on account of things natural, civil, and temporal, nor on account of things spiritual and eternal; but all to be given to the Lord: for, as for their beings and the preservation of them, with all the mercies of life, food, raiment, &c. they are not of themselves, but of the Lord; and so are the salvation of their souls, their election and redemption, their regeneration, conversion, and sanctification, their justification and pardon; whatsoever good thing is in them, or done by them: nor have they anything for the sake of righteousness done by them; nor do they desire to take the glory of past favours to themselves; nor request deliverance from present evils for their own merits, which they disclaim; nor for their own sakes, or that they may be great and glorious; but for the Lord’s sake, for his name’s sake, that he may be glorified; which is the principal sense of the passage. So the Targum, “not for our sakes. O Lord, not for our merit, but to thy name give glory.” Good men desire to glorify God themselves, by ascribing to him the perfections of his nature, and celebrating them; by giving thanks to him for mercies, spiritual and temporal; by exercising faith upon him, as a promising God; and by living to his glory: and they are very desirous that all others would give him the glory due unto his name; and that he would glorify himself, and get himself a glorious and an everlasting name. And indeed the words are addressed to him, and not to others; and particularly that he would glorify, or take the glory of the following perfections:
for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake; so very manifest in the salvation of his people, and in all their deliverances, and therefore ought to have the glory of them. His “mercy,” or his “grace”, as it may be rendered, is displayed in the salvation of his people by Christ, in their regeneration, justification, pardon, and eternal life: and so is his truth, or faithfulness in all his promises; and particularly in the mission of his Son as a Savior, so long promised and expected; and who is “truth” himself, the truth of all promises and prophecies; and by whom the truth of the Gospel came, the Word, which God has magnified above every name.
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Tony Evans
Believers who have a correct perception of God and a correct perception of themselves know that God alone deserves glory, not us. This is because he is the source of faithful love (the kindness he provides to those under his covenant covering) and truth (the absolute standard by which reality is measured).
Tony Evans, The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2019), 564–565.
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Matthew Poole
NOT unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory, for thy mercy, and for thy truth’s sake.
As we entreat thy favor and aid, and that thou wouldst work gloriously on our behalf to bring us out of our present straits and extremities; so we do not desire this out of a vain-glorious humor, as usually men do in such cases, that we may get renown by the conquest of our proud and mighty enemies, but that thy honor may be vindicated from all their contempts and blasphemies; and if thou wilt deliver us, we will not arrogate the praise and glory of it to our own worth or valor, but only to thy mercy and truth.
Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible, vol. 2 (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1853), 177.
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Cross References
Isaiah 48:11 (KJV )
11 For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it:
For how should my name be polluted?
And I will not give my glory unto another.
Ezekiel 36:22 (KJV )
22 Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God; I do not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for mine holy name’s sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.
Psalm 79:9 (KJV )
9 Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of thy name:
And deliver us, and purge away our sins, for thy name’s sake.
Psalm 138:2 (KJV )
2 I will worship toward thy holy temple,
And praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth:
For thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
Psalm 29:2 (KJV )
2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name;
Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
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KJV W/Strongs Bible
115:1 Not unto us, O LORD 3068, not unto us, but unto thy name 8034 give 5414 8798 glory 3519, for thy mercy 2617, [and] for thy truth’s 571 sake.
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Geneva Bible 1560
Psalm 115:1
1 Not (a) unto us, ô Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name give the glorie, for thy loving mercie and for thy truth’s sake.
(a) Because God promised to deliver them, not for their sakes, but for his Name, Isa. 48.11, therefore they ground their prayer upon this promise.
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Final Thoughts:
8
“Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
9
“Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
10
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
11
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.
Isaiah 46:8-11 NASB
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