For many of us living in the modern world, the very idea of idolatry may sound a bit quaint; who, for example, has a little statue of a fertility goddess sitting in their living room? But every culture in every age has its own form of idolatry. In Psalm 135, we may not be able to relate to the psalmist’s description of handmade statues of silver and gold, but we should pay attention to the warning that follows: “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them” (vs. 8). Here, we’ll explore in practical terms what idolatry might mean in our high-tech Information Age.

How patient of a person would you say you are? More specifically, when we pray to God for help, how patiently do you wait for a response? And what does it mean to be “patient,” anyway? Psalm 40 opens with the declaration, “I waited patiently for the LORD” (vs. 1). Those words can make it sound like the psalmist is walking through life with calm and confidence, unperturbed by the troubles that press in from every side. But as we’ve already seen throughout our study of the Psalms, the biblical picture is more complicated than that.

Telling family stories can be what some have called a “performance of identity”: no matter how many times the stories have been told, retelling them reminds of who we are as a family. Something similar might be said about Psalms 135 and 136. Some parts of the history recited there may be unfamiliar to us, such as the references to kings named Sihon and Og. But the stories would have been familiar to the people assembled to worship, giving them yet one more reason to say, “His love endures forever.”