by Tasha Calvert
If we had been given even a 15-second glimpse last year of what we’re experiencing now – walking through a grocery store, boarding a flight, or even attending a church service – it’s hard to imagine what we would have thought. There’s no doubt 2020 has brought about epic amounts of change. And, regardless of where your political or scientific inclinations lie, we have all felt a disruption to our way of life. Many of us didn’t recognize we worshipped idols of comfort, health and material security until the last few months when they began to be stripped away.
Idolatry has been around for ages, and the psalmist doesn’t shy away from his rebuke, beginning in verse 4:
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.
Chills crawl up the back of my neck when I read verse 8. “Those who make them (idols) become like them; so do all who trust in them.” Having grown up in church, the word idol instantly conjures images of the Israelites’ golden calf. Of all the people who should have known better, wouldn’t you have thought it was God’s chosen people, the Israelites? If you’re familiar with their story, you know God delivered them out of slavery in the land of Egypt. Before too long, though, they began to complain about their deliverance – missing the foods of Egypt, the amenities, and the “knowns” of slavery. God had something so much greater in store for them – a land of plenty, a land of victory, a land to call their own – but they had become like their idols: powerless, ineffective, unfulfilled.
We are created to worship … God. But, many of us get lost in the “…” and find counterfeit avenues to entrust our worship. We make idols out of our blessings, our abilities, our jobs, our health, our comfort, our money, and all sorts of empty, earthly experiences. Idols able to be felled by one small, invisible virus in a few short months.
Christian, there is hope for us. Verse 8 doesn’t have to be our story. Look at verses 11–15:
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord! He is their help and their shield. The Lord has remembered us; he will bless us; he will bless the house of Israel; he will bless the house of Aaron; he will bless those who fear the Lord, both the small and the great. May the Lord give you increase, you and your children!May you be blessed by the Lord, who made heaven and earth!
Here is my personal psalm (song) to the Lord in response to Psalm 115:
May this current, pandemic-sized disruption in our lives
birth an unwavering dependence on the One who is truly worthy
of our praise, our trust, and hope.
May we commit each day to abandon the idolatrous worship
Of fleeting earthly comforts
And replace them with genuine praise and devotion to Almighty God
who has offered us a living, eternal hope through His son, Jesus.
I pray we are found faithful. Press on!
Tasha Calvert is Director of Women’s Ministry at Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas.
This article first appeared on exhalewomen.org.