Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the LORD our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. Oh, that you would listen to his voice today! - Psalm 95:6-7
Our world is full of little gods. These gods are not only to be found in temples in the East—they reside in garages in the West, on beaches in the south, and in ski lodges in the north. You can find them hidden in vaults, stored in musty attics, hung on walls, and draped around shoulders. Some of them are tied up alongside a dock, and others wrap their arms around our neck. That doesn’t make sense, you say? Consider this: gods are objects of veneration, articles that demand and receive our unbridled adoration. They are things and people that take our mind off God himself and usurp his place in our life.
What exactly is his place? It is the central place, the superior position, the ultimate throne of authority in the core of our being. Why should he expect the superior place? The answer is, because he is superior to all things. God made all things; he is as superior to all things as a craftsman is superior to his tools. He towers above all things, including the tiny people that have made themselves gods. He created them to be his servants! —not to worship things or people, but to worship him, their Creator! People have the temerity and audacity to accept veneration and the idiocy to worship created things. They should know that the Creator is greater by far.
Our world, which is full of little gods, needs to heed the call, “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker, for he is our God. We are the people he watches over, the sheep under his care. Oh, that you would listen to his voice today!” (95:6-7). But there is a reluctance to do that. Not only will it mean tearing some little gods from the positions they have usurped, but there is also a general feeling abroad that if you become too involved with God you might find him tyrannical and you may become fanatical.
Fortunately those who know God know better. They know him not only as the great King but also as a loving shepherd who “watches over, the sheep under his care” (95:7). Who could possibly care for God’s creation more than God, the Creator? Who can be trusted more than he can? And who is worthy of our adoration and veneration more than he is? So let us be done with the little gods; “Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel before the Lord our maker”—the Creator who cares!
For Further Study: Psalms 95
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Men, Copyright ©2000 by Stuart Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Stuart Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
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