Psalm 135

After recounting some of the amazing feats of the God of Israel, the psalmist said this: “The idols of the nations are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, nor is there breath in their mouths. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” (vs 15-18)

This is the danger of idolatry: It so violates our reason that, if we persist in it, we end up mute, blind, deaf, and dead. And the greatest tragedy of all—there is no reason for it! For, just as the idols, people who engage in idolatry have mouths, eyes, and ears, but they can no longer use them properly.

God doesn’t want His children to be disabled. Physical disabilities in this life are one thing. Our bodies are degenerating due to sin, and there is often no way to escape the physical handicaps that some of us must deal with. But spiritual handicaps are a different story! This is the kind of disability that we can opt in or out of. We don’t have to be spiritually disabled, and God doesn’t want us to be!

When I read in this psalm today of the disabilities that come from idolatry, I thought about my father. Because of his ALS, before he died, he lost the ability to use his hands, to walk, to eat, to talk, and even to cough properly. The ALS eventually crippled him by making all his muscles weak. Now, just imagine watching someone suffer with a disease like that knowing that they had chosen to have it! I think that would be far worse than watching them endure that kind of suffering involuntarily.

When God’s children choose spiritual disability, it is a voluntary choice. If they persist in it, it will slowly cripple them, and I imagine that has to be one of the hardest things for God to watch. To watch His children lose the spiritual ability to see, to speak, to hear, and finally to live must be devastating—especially knowing that it’s not something that can be foisted upon us. If we want to be totally spiritually disabled, we must choose it.

Jesus often said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Mk 4:9) He who has a mouth to speak, let him speak! He who has eyes to see, let him see! There is no need for us to be disabled. Instead of turning to the idols that cripple us, let us turn to God who “endures forever… through all generations.” (vs 13) He has not been fashioned by human hands, and that’s why He alone can keep our hands from growing spiritually weak.