Confounding Gods
“The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare his righteousness,
and all the peoples see his glory.
Confounded be all who worship carved images and delight in false gods!
Bow down before him, all you gods.”
Psalm 97:5-7
These verses, from Psalm 97 (BCP), sound a familiar theme to any reader of the Bible. Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one! Worship no other gods but God, the only Lord of heaven and earth. Confounded be all who worship carved images and delight in false gods!
If we hear texts like this and think to ourselves, “Well, thank God I don’t have any statues of Baal in my foyer, I’ve got this one down!” — we should think again. We may not worship a literal statue of Mammon, but we may well have made money and prosperity into an idol. We may not offer a pinch of incense to the gods on Mount Olympus, but we may well worship success and keeping up appearances. When we read the Bible’s warnings against the worship of idols, we should never think of it as to do with people long ago and far away. These passages are just as important for us here and now. Perhaps more so, precisely because our idols are less visible and so can gain control over our hearts without us being aware of it.
“Confounded be all who worship carved images!” Confounded is a telling word here. To be confounded is to be confused, frustrated, consumed, brought to ruin and waste. That is what the worship of idols does to us, by the very nature of the act.
We become confused when we transfer the deepest allegiance of our heart from the only true God to something smaller that puffs itself up to great proportions, like a puffer fish. False gods want us to think they are the true God, but they are not and so inevitably they are liars. The more we invest in them, the looser our grasp on the truth becomes and the more willing we are to lie on their behalf. Our connection to reality becomes unmoored. In a word, we become confused.
We become frustrated when the false gods we follow fail to deliver, as they always will. Perhaps we become angry and bitter, casting about for someone else to blame for our frustrations. And in our confusion, frustration and bitterness, we become consumed, used up, brought to ruin. That is where the worship of idols always brings us, sooner or later.
“Little children, keep yourselves from idols!” said St. John (1 John 5:21). Those words are for us. May we worship God, and God alone, the only true source of life everlasting.
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