For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens.
Parallel translations
- KJV For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.
- BSB For all the gods of the nations are idols, but it is the LORD who made the heavens.
- NKJV For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.
- NASB For all the gods of the peoples are idols, But the Lord made the heavens.
- NLT The gods of other nations are mere idols, but the Lord made the heavens!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
All the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. The nations' gods are nothing, while the LORD is the true Creator.
Overview
The psalmist contrasts lifeless idols with the LORD who created the heavens. The 'gods' of the nations are powerless nothings, unable to make or save. Only the Creator God is worthy of worship, a truth the gospel proclaims as it turns people from idols to the living God through Christ (1 Thessalonians 1:9; Isaiah 44:9-20).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 13
- Ps 115:15Blessed are you by Yahweh, who made heaven and earth.
- Isa 42:5Thus says God Yahweh, he who created the heavens and stretched them out, he who spread out the earth and that which comes out of it, he who gives breath to its people and spirit to those who walk in it.
- Jer 10:11–12“You shall say this to them: ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens.’”
- Ps 135:18Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- 1 Cor 8:4Therefore concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that no idol is anything in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
- Jer 10:3–5For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the ax.
- Jer 10:14–15Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
- Isa 44:8–28Don’t fear, neither be afraid. Haven’t I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don’t know any other Rock.”
- Acts 19:26You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands.
- Ps 135:15The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands.
- Ps 115:3–8But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases.
- Isa 46:1–2Bel bows down. Nebo stoops. Their idols are carried by animals, and on the livestock. The things that you carried around are heavy loads, a burden for the weary.
- Gen 1:1In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 96:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.