Psalms 135:17-21: a reflection

Mocking the lifeless idols of the nations, the psalmist notes their utter helplessness: they have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear, and, he adds pointedly, there is no breath in their mouths. They are dead things. And then comes a line that turns the mockery into a warning: Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them. We become like what we worship. Worship a dead, deaf, breathless thing, and you become spiritually dead, deaf, and lifeless yourself.

Notice the principle buried in the mockery: we grow to resemble what we worship. Those who give themselves to lifeless idols become lifeless; those who trust in things that cannot see or hear grow blind and deaf themselves. Worship is not neutral; it shapes us into the likeness of its object. Give your heart to something dead, and it deadens you.

That principle still holds, and it cuts both ways. We may not bow to carved statues, but we all worship something, give our hearts to something, and we become like it. Give yourself to money, image, or status, any lifeless thing, and it will shape you into its own cold likeness. But give yourself to the living God, and you come alive, growing to reflect his life and love. Consider what you actually worship, what you give your heart to, for you are becoming like it. Choose the living God over every dead idol, and let your worship shape you into his likeness, not into the lifelessness of things that have no breath.