Deuteronomy 24; Psalms 114–115; Isaiah 51; Revelation 21
It is said that humans are made to worship. The evidence is there. Most people have a god of some kind. Pagans carve them from wood or use metals to shape their images. Wall street bows before the almighty dollar. All sorts of people imagine a god of some shape or form, a god that suits their desires. Even the atheists of this world think that they know everything and there is no god, elevating their opinion as the truth, even making a god of their own ideas.
The God of the Bible is not a statue nor a genie in a bottle nor an imaginary deity. He is holy which means He is above all we can imagine. We cannot pull His strings or predict His doings. Those who worship Him do so because He has revealed Himself, yet those without that revelation cannot and will not bow before what they cannot see.
The psalmist knew all these things. He wrote about them beginning with praise to the God he knew so well and then going on to say what the worship of idols does to the human heart:
Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands. They have mouths, but do not speak; eyes, but do not see. They have ears, but do not hear; noses, but do not smell. They have hands, but do not feel; feet, but do not walk; and they do not make a sound in their throat. Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. (Psalm 115:1–8)
Perhaps the first objection to worshiping the God who reveals Himself is that He must be glorified. There is no place or reason for lifting me up or exalting in anything I do. He is worthy and all that I do apart from Him is selfish and sinful. Even so, He declares His love demonstrated in the life and death of His Son. However for many, the shedding of blood to atone for sin is a disgusting notion. They respond by finding another god or at least mocking those who worship this God.
The psalmist is logical. He knows where God is and what He can do. He mocks the gods of silver and gold and human imagination. How can they do anything? Even sillier is that humans tend to become like whatever they worship so the worship of an idol turns people into babbling blind men and women who cannot hear the voice of God, smell the beauty of His creation, touch the lives of others with His love, or walk through this world in His peace and under His guidance. They deteriorate to uselessness, at least in the eternal scheme of things and wind up being judged for their unbelief.
Is this a generalization an unfair assessment of the human condition? Reading the Scriptures tells me that “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) and that “None is righteous, no not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. all have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one” because “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-12; 18)
This includes me. Without Christ, I am no different than any pagan or maker of idols. Jesus forgives me, lives in me, guides and enables me, yet at times I act as if He does not exist and go my own way with my own ideas. I don’t have to look at the world around me to realize the truths of what the Bible says about humanity; I just have to look in the mirror.
APPLY: The words of the psalmist need to be my thought and focus, today and all my days: “Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to your name give glory, for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.” He faithfully loves and teaches me that He is God and I am not it.
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