Scripture Daily

Context No. 1543 of 4322 · Psalms

Context · Reflection

Psalms 115:1-18: in context

1Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your loving kindness, and for your truth’s sake. 2Why should the nations say, “Where is their God, now?” 3But our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. 4Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. 5They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. 6They have ears, but they don’t hear. They have noses, but they don’t smell. 7They have hands, but they don’t feel. They have feet, but they don’t walk, neither do they speak through their throat. 8Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them. 9Israel, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. 10House of Aaron, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. 11You who fear the LORD, trust in the LORD! He is their help and their shield. 12The LORD remembers us. He will bless us. He will bless the house of Israel. He will bless the house of Aaron. 13He will bless those who fear the LORD, both small and great. 14May the LORD increase you more and more, you and your children. 15Blessed are you by the LORD, who made heaven and earth. 16The heavens are the LORD’s heavens, but he has given the earth to the children of men. 17The dead don’t praise the LORD, nor any who go down into silence, 18but we will bless the LORD, from this time forward and forever more. Praise the LORD!

This psalm gives glory to God and mocks the idols of the nations. Not to us, LORD, but to your name give glory. Where is their God, the nations ask; but our God is in the heavens and does as he pleases, while their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths but do not speak, eyes but do not see, ears but do not hear, hands but do not feel, feet but do not walk. And then a sharp line: those who make them become like them, and so does everyone who trusts in them. Trust instead in the LORD, the psalm urges; he is our help and shield.

The arresting line is the one about idols and their makers: those who make them become like them. The psalm has just described the idols as lifeless, mouths that do not speak, eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, dead things unable to do anything; and then it says that those who make and trust them become like them. This is a truth about worship that reaches far beyond carved images: we become like what we worship. What we give our ultimate devotion to shapes us into its likeness over time. Worship dead idols, things that cannot see or hear or feel, and you become spiritually blind, deaf, and unfeeling yourself, deadened by the dead things you serve. The principle cuts both ways, and it is not only about literal idols. Whatever we worship, whatever we give our deepest devotion and trust to, we come to resemble; our object of worship forms us into its image. Give ourselves to lifeless, empty things, to wealth, status, or any dead idol, and we are deadened by them; give ourselves to the living God, and we are made alive, coming to reflect his character. This searches what we actually worship, because it is shaping us into its likeness whether we notice or not. We are becoming like what we worship. The dead idols make dead worshipers; the living God makes his worshipers alive. What we worship, we become.

What am I actually worshiping, giving my deepest devotion and trust to, and what is it making me into, since we become like what we worship, deadened by dead idols or made alive by the living God whose likeness his worshipers come to reflect?

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