Not to Us
they have hands, but cannot feel; they have feet, but cannot walk; they cannot even clear their throats. Psalm 115:7 · Berean Standard Bible
And these hands can't feel, these feet can't walk, they can't even produce breath—they're decorative objects pretending to be divine.
The catalog of uselessness reaches its climax. Even the most basic signs of life—movement, sensation, breath—are absent. The psalmist wants you to see how absurd it is to trust in these things.
The psalmist, completing his devastating inventory
This sets up the next verse's warning: what happens when you worship something dead? You start becoming like it.
The extended list culminates: idols are not merely passive but anti-functional—they represent total absence of sentience, will, or responsive presence.
The phrase 'clear their throats' (yakhu ge'onam) carries ironic weight; even the smallest autonomic vocalization—a cough, a sigh—eludes these fabrications. This rhetorical crescendo reaches its peak: the further one catalogs idol-features, the more absurd their veneration becomes. The psalmist is not merely insulting pagan practices but performing an epistemological critique.
The psalmist, completing the reductio ad absurdum of idol-worship.
This exhaustive negation establishes the theological platform for verses 8-18, where human agency and divine responsiveness will be reframed. The pattern reflects Elijah's mockery of Baal prophets (1 Kings 18:27)—ridicule as legitimate theological pedagogy.
5They have mouths, but cannot speak; they have eyes, but cannot see;
6they have ears, but cannot hear; they have noses, but cannot smell;
7they have hands, but cannot feel; they have feet, but cannot walk; they cannot even clear their throats.
8Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
9O Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and shield.
Read all of Psalm 115 — Not to us, O Lord, but to Your name give glory. The idols of the nations have mouths but cannot speak. Our God does whatever He pleases.
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