Oh, the joys of those who trust the LORD, who have no confidence in the proud or in those who worship idols.
We live in a world full of idol worshippers. They may not worship idols of wood and stone, but, like those who do, they worship something of their own making. They have rejected the Lord God of heaven and earth, they have suppressed the truth of His reality, and they have set up mere creatures in His place. They worship mere creatures rather than the Creator (Romans 1).
The Bible says “The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength,” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). The Lord our God, in other words, must come first in our lives. Whenever we place something other than God in first place, we have created an idol.
An idol is something that we decide to live for, it is a creaturely reality that we decide to serve. Since we have decided that it should come first, we will do what we think it requires before we do anything else—skipping worship to devote time to sports, forsaking family time to travel for the big job, compromising morals for worldly fame.
Those who worship idols are proud. Instead of humbly submitting to the Lord, instead of acknowledging Him as first in their lives, they ignore Him. They know He exists, but they refuse to acknowledge Him and serve Him. They think they know better what will bring satisfaction, choosing temporary pleasures over eternal treasures.
Since the proud have rejected the true God, they have forfeited all “the joys of those who trust the LORD,” all the benefits and blessings that come from serving Him. There are no joys for those who trust something or someone else. That’s why the prophet Isaiah ridiculed idol-makers. He said of them, “Who but a fool would make his own god— an idol that cannot help him one bit?” (Isaiah 44:10).
What are the joys of those who trust the Lord? David in Psalm 40 goes on to say that they are “too numerous to list.” Indeed, he says, “If I tried to recite all your wonderful deeds, I would never come to the end of them.”
By John Huisman, Friend of Bible League International
