Psalm 135:17

Psalm 135 is a hymn of praise, most likely sung in the worship of the temple. It opens with a call to praise the name of the LORD, who chose Israel as his own treasure (Psalm 135:1–4). It goes on to tell of his greatness over all creation, where he makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth, and of what he did for his people when he struck the firstborn of Egypt and gave Israel the land of the Canaanite kings (Psalm 135:5–12). Then come these verses about the gods of the nations, and after them the psalm ends with a call for all Israel to bless the LORD (Psalm 135:19–21).

The psalmist has just sung of a God who chooses, rules, strikes and gives, and he now sets beside him gods who are silent and still. The comparison makes the LORD’s greatness stand out all the more. The psalm weaves in words from earlier Scripture, and these verses follow Psalm 115:4–8 very closely, which suggests that Israel sang this truth about idols often in its worship.

The word for idols here is ʻâtsâb, an idolatrous image. It comes from a root, spelled the same way, that means to fashion and also to grieve. So the name itself points to a thing shaped by a workman, and it may carry a hint of the sorrow and disappointment that such gods bring to those who serve them. In the plural, ‘atsabim, it names the gods of the goyim, the nations outside Israel, whom the KJV calls “the heathen”.

Silver and gold were the costliest materials a craftsman could use, and a great deal of wealth and skill went into such images. The psalmist names the metals to show how little that cost achieves. An idol of gold is worth what gold is worth, and it is still metal. Isaiah asks, “To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?” and goes on to describe the workman who melts an image and the goldsmith who spreads it over with gold (Isaiah 40:18–20).

The phrase “the work of men’s hands” settles where these gods come from. Maʻăseh means a deed, a work or a product, a thing that has been made. Yâd, the hand, often stands in Scripture for the power or agency by which something is done, and here the hands are human hands. The idol owes its shape and its very existence to the people who bow to it, while the LORD is the uncreated Creator of all things.

The idol has the features of a living person, and each one is named along with the single thing it was made for. The mouth, peh, is the organ of speech, and dâbar is the ordinary verb for speaking, telling and declaring. An idol’s mouth stays shut on every command, promise and answer its worshippers hope for. The LORD “spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast” (Psalm 33:9). He gives his word to Jacob and his statutes and judgments to Israel (Psalm 147:19), and the word that goes out of his mouth accomplishes what he sends it to do (Isaiah 55:11).

The eye, ʻayin, is the organ of sight, and the same word can name a spring of water, the eye of the landscape. The idol’s eyes are carved or cast, and they take in as little as the metal around them. The LORD looks from heaven and beholds all the sons of men (Psalm 33:13). His eyes are in every place (Proverbs 15:3) and upon the righteous (Psalm 34:15), and he saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth (Genesis 6:5).

The ear, ʼôzen, takes its name from the broad shape of the ear. The verb for hearing in this verse, ʼâzan, is formed from that noun and means to broaden out the ear, that is, to give ear or listen. The verse sets the noun and its own verb side by side, and the idol has the one while failing at the other. Prayer offered to it goes unheard. The LORD is addressed as “thou that hearest prayer” (Psalm 65:2), and when the righteous cry he hears and delivers them out of all their troubles (Psalm 34:17).

Scripture returns to these failures of the idols so often for two reasons. They answer the belief that a god lived in the statue and that a ritual could wake it. They also show by contrast who the LORD is: the God who is alive, who speaks through his word and his prophets, who sees all things and who hears his people.

Those who make idols and those who trust in them come to share the idol’s condition: they grow dull toward God, with eyes, ears and hearts that fail to take in his truth. To make is ʻâsâh, the broadest Hebrew verb for doing and making, and here it covers the craftsman at his work. To trust is bâṭach, which at root means to hasten for refuge, and so to be confident and feel secure. The verse moves from the few who make the image to “every one” who leans on it, and it says the same of both, so that maker and worshipper stand under one verdict. Psalm 115 closes its own description of the idols with this same sentence.

The likeness is a spiritual one. The body stays what it was, while the heart takes the shape of what it relies on. Isaiah says of the idol-makers, “They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand” (Isaiah 44:18). There is a sad irony in this. People made in the image of the living God shape a lifeless thing, and then grow like the thing they shaped. God’s call to his people runs the other way: “Ye shall be holy: for I the LORD your God am holy” (Leviticus 19:2).

People ask whether someone who trusts in money will literally become like money. The psalm is speaking of the inner life. A person whose security rests in wealth becomes poor toward God, sees little beyond gain, grows deaf to spiritual truth, and finds that security as fleeting and lifeless as the money itself. Jesus said, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24). What we worship shapes who we become.

Everything the idols lack is found in Jesus Christ. An idol is an image made by men, and he is “the image of the invisible God”, by whom all things were created and in whom all things hold together (Colossians 1:15–17). He is the eternal Son, the Creator and never a created thing.

The idol’s mouth is silent, and Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:14). God, who spoke in time past by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son (Hebrews 1:1–3). Jesus says of his own words, “they are spirit, and they are life” (John 6:63). He taught as one having authority (Matthew 7:29), and even the unclean spirits obeyed him (Mark 1:27). To see him is to see the Father (John 14:9).

The idol’s eyes are blind, and Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12). He “knew what was in man” (John 2:25), and he came “that they which see not might see” (John 9:39). The idol’s ears are deaf, and Jesus heard the leper who knelt before him, was moved with compassion, and cleansed him at once (Mark 1:40–42). He promises to do what his people ask in his name (John 14:13–14).

The idol is empty of breath, and Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Risen from the dead, he breathed on his disciples and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (John 20:22). He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29) and the one mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2:5), and whoever believes in him has everlasting life (John 3:16). An idol of the costliest gold can save none of its worshippers, and Christ saves all who come to him.

So the warning of verse 18 has a glad counterpart. Those who trust in idols become like them, and those who behold the glory of the Lord “are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Few of us are tempted to bow to a statue of silver, yet the heart still makes gods of the things human hands produce. Wealth, career, comfort, reputation, technology, political causes, the approval of others and our own achievements can each take the place of ultimate trust that belongs to God. The psalm’s test applies to all of them. They are silent when we are afraid, blind to what we need, deaf when we cry, and empty of the life we hoped they would give. John closes his first letter with the plea, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21).

What these verses give us above all is a clear sight of the LORD. He speaks, and his word stands. He sees every one of us, and he hears prayer. He gives breath to all that lives and new life by his Spirit. A heart that rests in him is resting in the one who is truly alive, and by his grace it grows to be like him.