NO STRANGE GOD

In this psalm, we have already seen God calling for praise from His people. Now He is calling also for their ear, but, sadly, He is doubtful whether they will respond. He reiterates the first of the ten commandments given through Moses: “Thou shalt have no other God before me”, vv. 9, 10; Exod. 20. 3, 4. He must have the first place in our lives. He has the first claim upon us all as our Creator, giving to us life and breath and all things. He had a further claim on Israel in saving them from slavery in Egypt.

Yet they ignored His command to keep clear of “strange” (i.e., foreign) gods. They had only to open their mouths wide like nestlings awaiting eagerly the return of the parent bird, and God would have supplied their need. But they followed the superstitions and immoral practices of the heathen idol worshippers, vv. 10, 11.

The second commandment in Exodus 20. 4 forbids men making any kind of image to represent the Eternal and the Almighty, for He is incomparable. “He is to be feared above all gods. For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the Lord (Jehovah, the Eternal) made the heavens”, Psa. 96. 5. The Hebrew word for idols here means things of nought, nonentities, vanities. In general, the word “idol” refers either to the carved or molten image or to the spirit-being linked with it. The Corinthians were bidden to keep themselves from idols because of the demon-worship involved, 1 Cor. 8. 4.

What is an idol such as referred to by John, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols”?, 1 John 5. 21. An idol is anything that takes the place in our hearts and lives that God alone should have. Man’s heart is too big for any god but the true God. He alone can satisfy the longing soul, and fill the hungry soul with good things. We say that a man makes a god of his garden, or a woman makes a god of her house. We may ask, “What dominates our thoughts in our leisure time?”. Covetousness is called idolatry, Col. 3. 5, for the love of money or other possessions can easily become an obsession. It causes us to break the two great commandments, to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbour as ourselves.

“Wherefore … flee from idolatry”, 1 Cor. 10. 14.