Psalms 135:15

“The idols of the Heathen [are] silver and gold, etc.] This, with what follows, is observed, to show that when God judges his people, and takes vengeance on their enemies, the idols they serve will not be able to protect them, and deliver them out of his hands; and also to prove what is before asserted, that our Jehovah is great above all gods, (<19D505>Psalm 135:5); the matter of which they are made is at best gold and silver, which are the dust and metals of the earth, or what the prophet calls thick clay, (<350206>Habakkuk 2:6); and are the creatures of Jehovah, and at his dispose, who says, the silver and the gold are mine, (<370208>Haggai 2:8,9); and who is infinitely above them in value…”

“The idols of the heathen are silver and gold ... - To show more fully the propriety of praising God, and him alone as God, the psalmist instituted a comparison between him and idols, showing that the gods worshipped by the pagan lacked every ground of claim to divine worship and homage. They were, after all that could be done to fashion, to decorate, and to adorn them, nothing but silver and gold, and could have no better claim to worship than silver and gold as such. They had, indeed, mouths, eyes, ears, but they could neither speak, see, hear, nor breathe. The passage here is substantially the same as in Psalms 115:4-8; and the one was evidently copied from the other, though in the latter…”

“135:15-20 This entire section is repeated in 115:4-11. 135:15-18 Idols corrupt the thinking because they are merely things made by humans; they cannot speak, see, hear, or breathe (Isa 41:22-24; 44:9, 18; Rom 1:21-23).”

“idols: Psa 115:4-8; Deu 4:28; Isa 37:19, Isa 40:19, Isa 40:20, Isa 44:9-20, Isa 46:6, Isa 46:7; Jer 10:3-11; Hab 2:18, Hab 2:19; Act 17:29 Psalms 135:16”

“For the good of His proved church He ever proves Himself to be the Living God, whereas idols and idol-worshippers are vain - throughout following Psa 115:4-8, but with some abridgments. Here only the אף used as a particle recalls what is said there of the organ of smell (אף) of the idols that smells not, just as the רוּח which is here (as in Jer 10:14) denied to the idols recalls the הריח denied to them there. It is to be rendered: also there is not a being of breath, i.e., there is no breath at all, not a trace thereof, in their mouth. It is different in Sa1 21:9, where אין ישׁ (not אין) is meant to be equivalent to the Aramaic אין אית, num (an) est; אין is North-Palestinian, and equivalent…”