Albert Barnes Commentary Psalms 96:5

"For all the gods of the peoples are idols; But Jehovah made the heavens." — Psalms 96:5 (ASV)

For all the gods of the nations are idols - All the gods worshipped by the people of other lands are mere “idols.” None of them can claim to have a real existence as gods.

The word rendered here as “idols” is translated by the Septuagint as δαιμόνια (daimonia)—“demons.” The Latin Vulgate similarly has daemonia. The Hebrew word—אליל ('ĕlı̂yl)—properly means “of nothing,” “empty,” and “vain” .

The meaning here is that they were mere nothings; they had no real existence. They were the creations of the imagination. They could not in any sense be regarded as what they were claimed to be, nor did they have any claim to reverence and worship as gods. Of most of them, it was a fact that they had no existence at all but were mere creatures of fancy.

Of those that did really exist, such as the sun, moon, stars, animals, or the spirits of departed people, though it was true that they had an actual existence, it was also true that they had no existence “as gods,” or as entitled to worship.

Therefore, the worship offered to them was as vain as that offered to mere beings of the imagination. This verse is extracted literally from 1 Chronicles 16:26. The Hebrew is the same.

But the Lord made the heavens - Yahweh created the heavenly hosts, and therefore He is the true God and is entitled to worship. The power of “creation”—of causing anything to exist where there was nothing before—must belong to God alone and is the highest act of Divinity. No pretended pagan god has that power; no man has that power. The true God has reserved the exercise of that power to Himself and has never, in any instance, imparted it to a created being.