I Am What I Am

Psalms 115:8

They who make them (idols) are like unto them (idols); so is every one who trusts in them.

I can remember as a young boy getting up early on Saturday morning, before daylight so that I could watch cartoons. That was back before the days of 24 hour TV and I would sit and watch the test pattern until finally the time came for the broadcast to begin. One of my favorite cartoons was Popeye. I remember how that he would cock his corn cob pipe over to one side of his mouth and say, ”I ams what I ams.” Back then, I never really knew what he meant, but I thought it was funny.

Today we have a saying along the same lines, it is that you are what you eat. Meaning that what you put inside you, becomes you and you become it.

This passage in Psalms 115 and the verses before it tell us what happens when a person makes idols of silver or gold. In fact it can be broadened to mean idols of anything. People make idols of other people, of family, work, playthings and hobbies. The list is unlimited. In fact, an idol is anything that takes your affections from God. These verses say that these idols have eyes, mouths, noses, feet, hands and ears, yet they neither see, speak, smell, handle, walk or hear. In other words they can do you no good at all.

That in itself is bad enough yet the sadder part of the whole thing is that it says that those who make them their gods become like them. In other words, these people literally become useless also. They are no good to themselves or anyone else. They are spiritually blind, deaf and dumb. What are you becoming like today?