"They traded their glorious God for the statue of a grass-eating bull." (Psalm 106:20 NLT)
My friends and family can tell you: I’m into cows. I’ve been known to pull car or scooter over to the side of the road to get a better look. In fact, last year, I was driving to a meeting in North Texas, on the phone with my best friend and I just couldn’t help myself. I literally told her, “Hang on a second, I’ve gotta get a picture of this cow.” She laughed because she completely understood!
That said, I read this scripture this morning and even as an enjoyer of all things cow, I was taken aback.
Cows in fields have made me happy for a long time, but they are not worthy of worship. And certainly not a statue of such a dumb beast: what can a cow do for a soul? Wood or stone, it’s still deaf and mute: unmoving and inanimate. It doesn’t make sense. It’s a lousy deal.
Humans are prone to bad trades:
Eden for an apple.
A birthright for a bowl of soup.
Our glorious God for the statue of a dumb cow.
We tend to read scriptures like this one in psalms and we like to prop ourselves up. Surely we are smarter, savvier than these old Israelites. We’re mistaken. We might not bow before stone bovine but we’ll hang our heads in front of a five inch screen all day long and into the night. No stone-throwing here: we are each capable of trading out our glorious God for a dumb cow.
We need to ask ourselves: where are we bending? Who or what has our attention and adoration? How are we spending our time and resources? Because that is what we are worshiping. Have we, also, made a bad trade? The sooner we see it, the sooner we can address it.
"They forgot God, their Savior who had done such great things in Egypt - such wonderful things in the land of Ham, such awesome deeds at the Red Sea." (Psalm 106:21 NLT)
We can only worship created things when we have lost sight of what God has done in our story. We forget (or remain ignorant of) His salvation from sin’s slavery. We fail to recall His faithful provision and protection in this strange wilderness between exodus and Promised Land. We start to credit our survival with lesser entities like self or wit, and we crowd God out, pouring praise on idols and images instead. We lose our way.
This psalm and the Israelites story serve to remind us: we won’t cross into God’s Country while we are still worshiping other things. Stone cows can’t help us. Wealth and adulation will not save us. Only our glorious God can get the job done. In the meantime we must guard our hears agains all other worship. We can’t afford to trade our God for a grass-eating beast.
"Those who are wise will take all this to heart, they will see in our history the faithful love of the Lord." (Psalm 107:43 NLT)
Lord, forgive us for forgetting. Our worship-prone hearts wander and we find ourselves bowed before dull and dead beasts. Awaken us. Alert us again to Your glorious record of faithfulness to us personally and Your people corporately. Open our eyes to all the way You have rescued, protected and provided along our journey from slavery to sonship. Renew our awe of You, set our hearts aflame with worship again. You alone are worthy. Amen.