Not for our sake, Oh Lord, not for our sake but for Your Name: this passage is a conversation on the foolishness and emptiness of idolatry. The poet begins by asking God to be crowned with glory not for our sake but for His own sake. The nations are challenging Israel's faith and we need help answering them! When he says, Why should the nations of the world say, “Where is their God, the conversation that is taking place is much like the one between Rabban Gamaliel and the philosophers: Some philosophers asked, "If your God has no desire for idolatry, why does He not have it cease to exist?" The elders replied, "If what was worshiped were something the world had no need of, He would have made it cease to exist. But people worship the sun and the moon, the stars and the planets. Should He, on account of fools, make the world cease to exist? So the world must go on as is its wont. As for fools who act wrongly, they will have to render an account." Similarly, here, the response to the question, Where is their God, the response is, Our God is in heaven doing whatever He pleases! Since the heavens are God‟s throne and the earth is His footstool, why should God destroy them just to deny foolish people the ability to worship them? While this answer is sufficient for those who worship something significant, how about those who worship inconsequential things: Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands…? Why does God allow such insignificant forms of idolatry to exist when He could wipe them out? If God were to bother destroying these idols it would appear as if they were in fact more significant than they are. Therefore God allows them to be, because those who worship them will become like them – they will be destroyed by their faith in false idols. Besides, idolatry cannot be completely eradicated from the world until the Messianic era and the end of time. Only then will the whole world come to see that there is but one God in the universe. Therefore, let those who believe in God trust in the Lord for He is their help and their shield… even if idolatry continues to exist!

House of Israel, house of Aaron, those who fear the Lord: We divide those “who trust in” the Lord into three groups. Because they trust God, God in turn will bless each of them. God who remembers us: will bless the house of Israel…the house of Aaron…those who fear the Lord…. In fact God's blessing will be so great He will bless every one: You are blessed of the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Why does God love these creatures in particular? They have been given free will to choose or reject the Lord and they have chosen to accept God. Because they have chosen Him, God now chooses them! We see this in the expression, The heavens are the heavens of the Lord but the earth is given to human beings… Heavenly beings don‟t have a choice since they belong to God, while the world belongs to human beings to do with as they please. Even though the dead are closer to state of wholeness than are the living, they too are not as great as the living because they don't have free will and choice either. That is why we say: The dead can’t praise God…but we can praise God, Hallelujah!