You Are What You Make
Those who make them will become like them, everyone who trusts in them. Psalm 115:8
Like Them – There is an inexorable law of God’s universe found in every creative act. It applies to everyone. There are no exceptions. Put simply, it is “You are what you make.” The Psalmist summarizes a long description of the creation of idols with this law. He talks about statues of silver and gold, things that have mouths but cannot speak, ears but cannot hear and eyes but cannot see. Don’t dismiss the imagery. It’s worth seriously considering in our cultural manifestations.
What do you make? If you’re saturated with the culture of the Western world, you make money. You make a reputation. You make a legacy. You make success. You make empires, technology, houses and castles, families, art, music, achievements. The list is long. It is closely associated with that hideous identity question, “What do you do?” There are some things on the list that we don’t brag about – pleasure and power, for example. But we might also add, “I make poverty,” when I choose to ignore the plight of others in protection of myself. The Bible is very clear. We are never to bow down or serve anything that we make.
The Hebrew puts “like them” (kemohim) first in the sentence. The emphasis is on the powerlessness and futility of our idols. None can rescue. None can provide. None can guide. Everyone who trusts in these creations of our own hands will be just as powerless, just as dumb, deaf and blind. And yet we go right on bowing down and serving, don’t we?
Watchman Nee speaks an incredible truth when he says, “All work to be effective must depend for its continuance upon the power of God alone.” But that is not what we do. We use our own resources, ingenuity, creativity and effort to bring about our version of God’s purposes. We create an idol in the midst of the sanctuary because it is made by human hands, even if we call it the work of God. We worship our own worship, our spiritual achievement and religious zeal. We sing the opening words of this Psalm (“Not to us, but to You, be the glory”) and then proceed to push the work with our human effort. What fools we have become! What would happen to our lives if we stopped and waited for God to act before we took another step forward? How much of our lives are really a measure of all that we can do without God? Our solution is doing something to fill the void. God’s requirement is doing nothing until He fills the void.
Are you what you make? Or, are you happy to wait until God makes you what He wants?
