Psalm 115:4,8-9, “Their idols are…the work of human hands…Those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them. O Israel, trust in YHWH!”
Short Thoughts:
The human soul—from the inside out—will become like that in which it trusts.
Longer Thoughts:
The key thing to see in the text from Psalm 115 is that phrase, “those who make them become like them; so do all who trust in them.” That sentence gives us a universal truth concerning the inner workings of the human soul: We are designed so that we begin to take on the traits of the things in which we trust. We begin to resemble what we revere (as GK Beale has put it); we are transformed into what we treasure (and, therefore, trust).
I used this text and drew this picture today because, I find for myself that when really difficult or frightening things descend on me, there is always the option—and temptation—to trust in something or someone other than YHWH….there is always the invitation to trust in feeling better, or filling the bank account back up, or the reassurance that an authority figure can give, or the comfort of statistics etc. etc. It is not decidedly wrong to derive comfort from these things, but they ought not be our deepest ground, they ought not be the “saviors,” they ought not be the ones who allow us to sigh with relief and rest……No, our Savior and Rest-Giver is YHWH—YHWH as we know Him definitively in Jesus Christ.
For us to obey the Psalmist’s Charge to “trust in YHWH,” looks like believing who God has revealed Himself to be in Jesus, and who He has caused us to be in Jesus. It looks like combating the threats of fear, the phantom pains, the grieving losses, the uncertain futures, the daily tumult of life under the fall—it looks like combating these by fleeing for refuge to the Sovereign, the Savior, and the Satisfier whom we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ…….and as we do this—as we drink afresh and feed afresh on all that God is for us in His Son—we will be “transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to the next” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
