Psalms 115:6 Meaning and Explanation
“They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read Full Chapter →Idols can seem like a remote subject until we notice what the psalm is actually measuring. The test being applied is responsiveness. Verse 6 asks whether the thing we trust can register our presence at all, and that question travels easily into any age, since we still hand our confidence to things that cannot hear us.
The psalm's inventory of idols continues with ears that receive no sound and noses that catch no scent. Every organ of perception is present in form, and none of it functions.
The Context of Psalms 115:6
Psalm 115 opens by refusing glory for Israel and directing it to the LORD's name, then answers a taunt from the nations asking where Israel's God is. Verse 3 replies that God is in the heavens and does what he pleases. Verses 4 through 7 then describe the idols of those nations, working down the body from mouth and eyes to ears and noses, then hands, feet, and throat. Verse 6 stands in the middle of that list. Verse 8 draws the conclusion about the makers, and verse 9 turns to a call for trust.
What Does Psalms 115:6 Mean?
The line is built on a repeated pattern: an organ named, then its function denied. Ears are present; hearing is absent. Noses are present; smell is absent. Two senses are chosen with care. Hearing is how a god would receive prayer, and smell is how an idol would receive the offerings burned before it. Worshippers in the ancient world brought both words and incense to these images. The psalm points out that the images can take delivery of neither. Every feature is sculpted, complete, and inert. The craftsmanship is real; the capacity behind it is missing entirely.
Placed inside the psalm's argument, this verse answers the nations' question of verse 2. Their taunt assumed that a God without an image is a God without presence. The psalm replies by comparing capacities. Israel's God is in the heavens and acts as he pleases; the gods of the nations have sense organs that do nothing. Verse 8 then states the sober consequence, that makers come to resemble what they make. Scripture returns to this theme often, from the prophets who mocked the carpenter who worships his own leftover wood to the apostles who called new believers away from lifeless things toward the living God.
The comparison the psalm draws is finally about a God who hears. Israel's history rests on a LORD who heard groaning in Egypt and came down. Jesus taught his disciples to pray to a Father who knows what they need before they ask, and the Gospels show him hearing a blind beggar over the noise of a crowd. Revelation 9:20 later repeats this psalm's language about idols that can neither see nor hear nor walk, showing that the warning stayed current. The living God receives what we bring, which is the difference the whole psalm is trying to make plain.
Psalms 115:6 in the Original Language
aph (אַף), 'noses' -- the Hebrew word for nose or nostril. The same term is used for breathing and, by extension, for anger. Its appearance here is pointed, since the idol has the organ through which life and feeling are pictured, with no breath moving through it.
Bible Verses Related to Psalms 115:6
“They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths.”
- Psalm 135:17
“They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.”
- Psalm 115:8
“They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand.”
- Isaiah 44:18
“They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.”
- Jeremiah 10:5
Where Psalms 115:6 Echoes in Scripture
Isaiah 6:9 describes a people who hear without understanding and whose ears have grown heavy, and Jesus quotes those words in Matthew 13:14 to explain why parables were received the way they were. Set beside Psalm 115:6, the connection is striking. What the psalm observes in carved images, the prophet observes in worshippers, which is exactly the outcome verse 8 predicts. Sustained attention to what cannot answer gradually dulls our own capacity to hear.
How to Apply Psalms 115:6 Today
The practical test in this verse is worth applying to our own confidences. Whatever we lean on most heavily, we can ask whether it hears us. A bank balance, a reputation, a follower count, or a favourite theory can absorb enormous attention and return nothing when we are genuinely in trouble. The psalm is gentle in its method, simply asking what a thing can do. Setting our hopes on what actually responds keeps us from a slow flattening of soul, and it frees real gratitude to go where it belongs.
Reflection & Prayer
Which of our loyalties has never once answered back, and how much of our energy does it still receive? A prayer to borrow: Living God, you hear. Show me where I have been speaking to things that cannot listen, and turn my attention back to you. Open my own ears, and keep them open when your word is uncomfortable. Amen.