Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 115:12
The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless [us]; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
12. Jehovah who hath remembered us will bless (us)] By bringing them back from Babylon Jehovah proved that He had not forgotten His people (Isa 49:14-15; Psa 98:3; Psa 136:23), and the Psalmist points to this deliverance as a pledge that He will still further bless them.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The Lord hath been mindful of us – This would be especially appropriate if the psalm was written, as is commonly supposed, after the return from the captivity of Babylon. In such circumstances it would be every way proper to bring before the mind of the people the fact that God had remembered them and had delivered them.
He will bless us – Our past experience furnishes the fullest evidence that he will continue to bless us. He who has delivered us from so great calamities, and who has restored us to our native land after so long and so painful a captivity, will not forsake us now. There can be now no circumstances in which he cannot bestow on us all the blessings which we need; there will be none when we may not hope that he will bless us. If he could save us from such troubles, be can save us from all; if he did thus interpose, we may argue that he will always grant us his help when we need it.
He will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron – Compare Psa 115:9-10.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 115:12
The Lord hath been mindful of us.
The mindfulness of God
I. Grateful acknowledgment for grace bestowed. Have we not abundant reason, individually and collectively, to say one to another in exhortation, and together in thankful acknowledgment to God, The Lord hath been mindful of us? Let us look back and reflect upon the way in which He has led us these many years. Shall we not, like Samuel of old, raise our Ebenezer? And as we travel through the past, until we step from the past into the future, shall net we take encouragement and joyfully exclaim, Jehovah-jireh? In creation, in redemption, in providence and in grace, in the fulness of spiritual blessings provided, and in the measure of grace imparted, we have abundant cause for the grateful acknowledgment, The Lord hath been mindful of us.
II. A grateful sense of past mindfulness begets a sure confidence of future blessing. He will bless us. To what extent does this promise go? He will bless us in our walk and all our work, and in whatever He calls us to do! His blessing will ever rest upon us for good. His everlasting hand will be beneath us and will keep us from falling. He will guide us with His counsel and afterward receive us to glory. You deserve to perish, you deserve to reap what you have sowed, but God is merciful and kind. You may look to Him in confidence, for He will bless you. He will blot out the past, and He will break the power of sin. I have also a word for the true believer in God, who is sorely tempted and doubtful of the future, who is conscious of weakness, knowing painfully the power of temptation, knowing sadly in recollection the influence of this evil world. Do not think you will prove unfaithful at the last. The Lord hath been mindful of you, and it will be in the future as it has been in the past. Look at the promises which He has given for your comfort in His Word. He hath been mindful of you and He will bless you. (Bishop Pelham.)
Past mercies inspire confidence of continued good
Many minds know a good deal of the Roman Emperors forebodings, that if things have long gone well with you, then something amiss is very likely to come. If we could but all rise to the happier argument from the past to the future of a certain ancient and inspired poet, and really believe that The Lord hath been mindful of us: He will bless us. The common way of judging constantly is, that since all has been so pleasant for many days or years, now a smash is due. But though this way of judging be common, and though, to a superficial glance, it seems to be confirmed by facts, it would be very easy to show that it is entirely wrong. (A. K. H. Boyd.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. The Lord hath been mindful] He has never yet wholly abandoned us to our enemies.
He will bless the house of Israel] He will bless the people as a nation; he will bless the priesthood and Levites; he will bless all of them who fear him, great and small, in whatsoever station or circumstances found. There is a great deal of emphasis in this verse: several words are redoubled to make the subject the more affecting. I give a literal translation: –
Ps 115:12: “The Lord has been mindful of us he will bless the house of Israel; she will bless the house of Aaron.
Ps 115:13: He will bless them that fear Jehovah, the small with the great.
Ps 115:14: Jehovah will add upon you, upon you and upon all your children.
Ps 115:15: Blessed are ye of the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. Ver. 16: The heavens of heavens are the Lord’s: but the earth he hath given to the sons of Adam.”
Jehovah is absolute Master of the universe. He has made the heavens of heavens, and also the earth; and this he gives to the children of Adam. When he exiled him from paradise, he turned him out into the earth, and gave it to him and his sons for ever, that they might dress, till, and eat of its produce all their days.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Hath been mindful of us in our former straits and calamities, and therefore we trust he will still
bless us, & c. as it follows. Or, is or will be mindful of us. Though he hath chastened us sore, yet he hath not yet cast us out of the care of his providence.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The Lord hath been mindful of us,…. The Targum is,
“the Word of the Lord hath remembered us for good.”
And is another reason why his people should trust in him: he has been mindful of his covenant with them and promises to them, and has kept them; he remembered them in their low estate, and sent redemption to them; goodness and mercy have followed them all their days. Past experiences of divine favour should encourage trust in the Lord, as well as promises of future blessings, as follow:
he will bless us; with all kind of blessings, temporal and spiritual; with blessings indeed, solid and substantial: it is certain and may be depended upon; he has promised it, and swore to it, that in blessing he will bless. Kimchi interprets it as a wish, “let him bless”: the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, render it in the past tense, “he hath blessed”; but the Targum as we: and as it follows,
he will bless the house of Israel; with whom he has made his new covenant; the household of faith, the family named of Christ, the whole Israel of God.
He will bless the house of Aaron; his priests, his ministers, all that offer up spiritual sacrifices to him; he will bless them with an increase of gifts and grace, and with his presence and Spirit, and therefore they should trust in him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
12 Jehovah hath remembered us Many render the term bless in the past tense, he has blessed, it being the design of the prophet, according to them, to propose the past experience of God’s kindness as an encouragement to cherish good hope for the future: “We have already, from long experience, been taught how valuable the favor of our God is, because from this source alone have flowed our prosperity, our abundance, and our stability.” He assumes the principle, the truth of which ought to be admitted by all, that we neither enjoy prosperity nor happiness further than it pleases God to bless us. As often as the Israelites were rescued from manifold dangers, or succored in time of need, or treated in a friendly manner, so many palpable proofs had they of the loving-kindness of God towards them. As, however, there is no just cause to urge us to change the verb from the future into the past tense, it is quite in unison with the scope of the passage, if we say that the same blessing is here promised to the faithful which they have formerly realized. Thus the meaning will be, that God, mindful of his covenant, has hitherto been attentive to us; therefore, as he has begun to favor us, he will continue to do so for ever. In pronouncing these blessings, he observes the same order as above, assigning to the children of Aaron a superior place in God’s benediction, excluding from it those among the Israelites who were hypocrites.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
12. The Lord hath been mindful of us A recognition of recent victory, or of victory assured by some prophet or oracle upon which the people were wont to rely, as 2Ch 20:14-18; 2Ki 19:20-34. Here, and in Psa 115:13, the above three classes are again brought into view.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Psa 115:12. The Lord hath been mindful of us The Lord remembereth us. Mudge: who remarks, that the priest says this upon observing the favourable signal: “The Lord will certainly bless all those (recapitulating the fore-mentioned) who trust in him.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
All blessings are in the person of the Lord Jesus; and they are secured to his people in his finished salvation. So ran the original charter of grace. Gen 12:3 . Hence; that sweet promise, Isa 44:3 ; and hence the Apostle’s confirmation of it, Eph 1:3-7 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 115:12 The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless [us]; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
Ver. 12. The Lord hath been mindful of us: he will bless us] God hath, God will, is an ordinary Scripture medium, as hath been above noted.
He will bless the house of lsrael
He will bless the house of Aaron
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
He will bless us; He will bless. Figure of speech Anadiplosis (App-6), for emphasis.
the house of Israel. Compare Psa 135:19. See note on Exo 16:31.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
hath: Psa 25:7, Psa 136:23, Gen 8:1, Exo 2:24, Exo 2:25, Isa 44:21, Isa 49:14-16, Act 10:4
the house of Israel: Psa 67:7, Gen 12:2, Gen 12:3, Gen 2:17, Gen 2:18, Act 3:26, Gal 3:14, Gal 3:29, Eph 1:3
Reciprocal: Gen 32:26 – thou bless Num 6:27 – and I will Deu 26:15 – bless thy 2Sa 7:29 – let it please thee to bless Psa 1:1 – Blessed Psa 24:5 – receive
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 115:12-13. The Lord hath been mindful of us In our former straits and calamities, and therefore we trust he will still bless us, for he is still the same; his power and goodness are the same, and his promises inviolable; so that we have reason to hope he that hath delivered, and doth deliver, will yet deliver. He will bless the house of Israel That is, he will bless the commonwealth; will bless his people in their civil and secular interests; he will bless the house of Aaron The church, the ministry; he will bless his people, in their religious concerns. He will bless them that fear the Lord Though they be not of the house of Israel, or of the house of Aaron; for it was a truth before Peter perceived it, that, in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him, Act 10:34-35. He will bless them, both small and great That is, both young and old; both rich and poor; both high and low. God has blessings in store for them that are pious in early life, and for them that are old disciples; both for those that are poor and mean in the world, and those that are rich and make a figure in it; the greatest need his blessing, and it shall not be denied to the meanest that fear him. Both the weak in grace and the strong shall be blessed of God, the lambs and sheep of his flock.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
115:12 The LORD hath been mindful of us: he will bless [us]; he {h} will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron.
(h) That is, he will continue his graces toward his people.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
4. The result of trusting in the Lord 115:12-18
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Trust leads to blessing for all people. The writer made this connection by repeating the same groups (cf. Psa 115:10-11 a and . Psa_115:12-13 a). In bestowing blessing, God does not allow worldly greatness to influence Him; He is gracious to all. The psalmist wished God’s blessing on all His people. Since He made heaven and earth, He is able to bless, and His blessing can be abundant.