Notice
The words “will be like them” turn attention from lifeless idols to their makers, raising the unsettling prospect that trusting such things changes the worshiper.
Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.
What troubles you about the warning that idol-makers become like what they make?
Write on thisWhere might you be trusting something made by human hands to provide what God alone can give?
Write on thisConnect
Where else Scripture says this
12 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.
This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Psalm 135:18Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them.Both psalms give the same warning: those who make idols and everyone who trusts them will become like them.
Jeremiah 10:8But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.Both describe the folly that reaches idol worshipers: Jeremiah names foolishness learned from wood, and the psalm names likeness to idols.
Habakkuk 2:18–19“What value does the engraved image have, that its maker has engraved it; the molten image, even the teacher of lies, that he who fashions its form trusts in …Both single out the maker who trusts an idol fashioned by human hands.
Isaiah 41:24Behold, you are nothing, and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.Both condemn dependence on idols, extending their judgment to the people who choose or trust them.
Jonah 2:8Those who regard vain idols forsake their own mercy.Both describe loss for those devoted to idols: becoming like them in the psalm and forsaking mercy in Jonah.
Jeremiah 2:5The LORD says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become …Both connect what people follow or trust with what they become: likeness to idols or worthlessness.
2 Kings 17:15They rejected his statutes and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and …Both describe people becoming like what they follow: the psalm warns of likeness to idols, and Kings recounts becoming vain.
Isaiah 44:9Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be …Both extend the judgment on carved images to their makers, whose work brings them no good.
Judges 9:46When all the men of the tower of Shechem heard of it, they entered into the stronghold of the house of Elberith.The link is limited: Judges names a god’s temple as a refuge, while the psalm warns about trusting idols.
Judges 18:24He said, “You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and have gone away! What more do I have? How can you ask me, ‘What ails you?’”Both portray people depending on gods they have made; Judges records the maker’s distress when those gods are taken.
Isaiah 45:20“Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. Those have no knowledge who carry the wood of their engraved image, …Both expose the folly of dependence on idols: the psalm warns of becoming like them, and Isaiah describes praying to a helpless god.
Isaiah 46:8“Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.Both confront human wrongdoing, though Isaiah’s command to remember does not specify idols in the supplied verse.
Where this verse fits
Temptation. sermon or Bible study notes.
One step
Something small to carry out of this verse
Encouragement
The warning reaches everyone who trusts idols. The next lines name where trust belongs: YHWH, who is his people’s help and shield.
Now put it in your words.
Start an entry on Psalm 115:8. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.
Keep goingPsalm 115 · the whole chapter with its connection mapPsalms · every chapterBuild a reading plan through Psalms
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).