Tuesday, May 15, 2018
Not to us,
O Lord, not to us, but to your name goes all the glory for your unfailing love
and faithfulness. Why let the nations say, “Where
is their God?” Our God is in the heavens, and
he does as he wishes. Their idols are merely things of
silver and gold, shaped by human hands. They
have mouths but cannot speak, and eyes but cannot see. They
have ears but cannot hear, and noses but cannot smell. They
have hands but cannot feel, and feet but cannot walk, and throats but cannot
make a sound. And those who make idols are
just like them, as are all who trust in them.
O Israel,
trust the Lord! He is your helper and
your shield. O priests, descendants of Aaron,
trust the Lord! He is your helper and
your shield. All you who fear the Lord, trust
the Lord! He is your helper and your
shield. The Lord remembers us and will
bless us. He will bless the people of
Israel and bless the priests, the descendants of Aaron. He
will bless those who fear the Lord, both great and lowly.
May the Lord
richly bless both you and your children. May you be blessed
by the Lord, who made heaven and earth. The heavens belong
to the Lord, but he has given the earth to all humanity. The
dead cannot sing praises to the Lord, for they have gone into the silence of
the grave. But we can praise the Lord both
now and forever! Praise the Lord! Psalm 115:1-18(NLT)
Many generations
make the mistake of assuming they do not, and will not, make the mistakes their
parents made. There’s a good bit of
arrogance in that, along with a truckload of ignorance.
The Psalmist’s
words here are a strong caution and pleading that Israel refrain from repeating
the mistakes of their ancestors, trusting idols rather than true God, Jehovah. Yet with clear warning right in front of
them, they did it anyway…over and over again!
We’ve heard that doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a
different result, is the definition of insanity; in this case it includes the
definition of idolatry.
The Psalmist makes
his case against worshipping idols of carved wood and stone – unhearing,
unfeeling, unknowing, and unspeaking gods; therefore unable and useless gods. Then his word turns positive, bidding them to
call on Jehovah, the one, true living God, who is not only able, but loving and
possesses all power to help and provide for the nation.
It’s certainly a
puzzle why we humans reject the genuine so often in favor of a countefeit. Perhaps there is just something about free
will that makes us choose the Burger King philosophy over
common sense…I’ll have it MY WAY.
Now, don’t get me
wrong…God’s plan was for free will; it’s just that when we take that gift and
the first choice we make is to turn away from the Heavenly Giver of the gift -well,
it just never turns out well! Just ask
Adam and Eve.
In our Western
culture of the 21st century individualism – going it alone (my
choice, my life, my body, my will, step back away from my space) is not much
different than the idolatry of Israel.
We have exchanged idols of carved wood, stone, and molded gold for the
stupidity of worshipping our own minds and bodies.
The problem with
our choice is we are still missing the target of reality as opposed to
counterfeit. We deny the reality that we
are the creation, and Lord, God is the Creator.
We are, as King James would have us remember…beholden, responsible
and accountable…to Him! And He is not an
unspeaking, unhearing or unseeing, non-judging idol who knows nothing of our
sin.
For You Today
A dose of reality
on a Tuesday morning:
It is incredibly
short-sighted to worship a counterfeit. America
must turn to the reality that her idols of economy, pragmatic deal-making,
fence-building, and swaggering bluster from the hilltops of past victories are
as much a counterfeit idol as the heaping-up of social programs that we cannot
possibly sustain. America’s only hope
for the blessing of God is a revival of humility and return to godliness!
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