July 9 - Only One God
The opening commandment of the Ten Commandments is that the Lord our God is one and there is none other. This is a very important aspect of our faith and we cannot trust God plus someone else. The worship of idols came out of man’s need which cannot be met by idols. When there was no other way, man created his own idols and called to them for help. Satan is pleased to go behind those idols and be worshipped. All idols have one characteristic: each of them can only have one or few functions, depending on the need of the people who worship it. Even when you put all of the idols of the world together, they cannot come up against the one God.
The psalmist praises the Lord for praising God is fitting and good in itself. All of us should be thankful that we only worship one God instead of a multitude of gods. To have one all-sufficient God is much better than to have a host of little gods who are limited in their power, scope and function. The psalmist praises God for building up Jerusalem, gathering the outcasts of Israel, for healing the brokenhearted and binding up their wounds. He even determines the number of the stars and gives to all of them their names. God is a good provider and sustainer, he sends rain on earth and makes the grass grow, He gives to the beasts their food and also to the ravens that cry.
It is useless to seek help apart from the Lord, yet we often go for help elsewhere. Some of us think that God is only in charge of spiritual things and we need to seek help for other practical matters from other sources. When the ship was in trouble waters, the centurion who was in charge of the prisoners listened to the advice of the ship’s captain and the ship’s owner. He sought help from the professionals and those who had a stake in the ship. Later, he made his decision by majority when most of the ship’s passengers agreed on the course to go ahead with that favorable wind. Although Paul was not a sailing professional, not a part owner of the ship, not representing the opinion of the majority, he listened to the one God who could save them. However, many would only entertain God’s advice as an opinion or a suggestion. This is how we sometimes look at God’s will, a suggestion for us to take or not to take.
When you fail to listen to the Lord and entertain the opinions of other qualified or important people, when you think there is an opening for you to go ahead against God’s will, your ending would be similar. Soon, the storm and raging sea will take away the lights of the sun and the stars (which are worshipped by many) and your hope would dwindle and the ending is despair. Are you in such a condition, like the ship going against the headwind and moving very slowly. Go back to the Lord now and confess your sin of trusting in another rather than in Him.
Ps 147:1-11 1 Chron 7:1-8:40 Acts 27:1-20 Prov 18:22