Psalm 115:8

Psalm 115:8

Who to worship?

As we commented in v4-5, abandonment of God as Creator starts the decline into idol worship. As soon as the Lord is dismissed as the ultimate power who made us and to whom we are accountable, the enemy is waiting with a thousand and one other substitutes to take His place. The essence of the Christian faith is the worship of one God and His Son Jesus Christ. The journey of faith is an ever-increasing awareness of who we are dealing with and our accountability to Him. With that awareness comes a growing sense of His love, His grace, His guidance and provision and thus an understanding of how completely dependent on Him we all are. How ridiculous to worship idols of gold and silver when, all the time, our Creator is overseeing our journey through life! The psalmist is quite right, if we transfer our allegiance to man-made objects or the worship of created things we become senseless, dead and powerless, just as they are!

When the Lord God divided the nations, He put the elohim in charge of all of them, except for Israel who were to be His portion. (Deuteronomy 32:8-9. Note that some versions talk about the sons of Israel, the correct Hebrew translation is the sons of God or elohim). (Deuteronomy 4:15-20 also refers to this.) These divine powers have control over the spiritual destinies of the nations and for many of them, their use of that power is godless! (See Psalm 82.) It follows that the worship of objects and idols is very much on the agenda of these beings, so whilst the objects themselves are powerless, the manipulatory agents behind them are very active! Let us keep our eyes on our God and trust only in Him lest we be deceived or waylaid on our journey of faith. 

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