They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.
Parallel translations
- WEB Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- BSB Those who make them become like them, as do all who trust in them.
- NKJV Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.
- NASB Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.
- NLT And those who make idols are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Those who make and trust idols become as lifeless as them. It matters because we are shaped into the likeness of whatever we worship.
Overview
The psalm draws a sobering principle: worshipers grow to resemble their objects of trust, so idolaters become spiritually blind, deaf, and dead. This warns that idolatry is self-destructive, not merely mistaken. Conversely, those who behold the Lord are transformed into his image (2 Cor. 3:18), so that beholding Christ brings true life.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 5
- Ps 135:18They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.
- Jer 10:8But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
- Hab 2:18–19What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?
- Jonah 2:8They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- Isa 44:9–20They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 115:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.