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Psalm 135:18

Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them.

16They have mouths, but they can’t speak. They have eyes, but they can’t see.
18Those who make them will be like them, yes, everyone who trusts in them.
19House of Israel, praise the LORD! House of Aaron, praise the LORD!
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Psalm 135:19 →
Notice

The words “will be like them” make trust a sobering matter: those who rely on lifeless idols come to share their lifelessness.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What troubles you about the link between trusting an idol and becoming like it?

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Where might you be placing trust in something made by human hands?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 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 115:8Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.Both verses give the same warning: those who make idols and everyone who trusts them will become like them.
Isaiah 44:18–20They don’t know, neither do they consider, for he has shut their eyes, that they can’t see, and their hearts, that they can’t understand.Isaiah describes people unable to see or understand, echoing the psalm’s warning that idol worshipers become like their sightless idols.
2 Corinthians 4:4in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should …Both passages describe blindness connected with false worship, though Paul names the light of Christ that unbelieving minds fail to see.
Jeremiah 10:8But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.Jeremiah’s picture of people instructed by wooden idols shares the psalm’s concern with what idols do to those who trust them.
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 texts warn idol makers about their condition, linking the images they make with futility and lack of sight.
Psalm 96:5For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.Both passages expose idols as unworthy of trust or worship, with Psalm 96 contrasting them with the LORD who made the heavens.
Psalm 97:7Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images, who boast in their idols. Worship him, all you gods!Both passages warn of consequences for people devoted to idols: becoming like them in Psalm 135 and shame in Psalm 97.
Isaiah 40:19A workman has cast an image, and the goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts silver chains for it.Both texts identify images as things people make; Isaiah describes the craft, while the psalm warns about trusting the result.
Isaiah 46:8“Remember this, and show yourselves men. Bring it to mind again, you transgressors.Both confront people with a warning, though Isaiah’s quoted verse does not mention idols or becoming like them.
Where this verse fits

Temptation. sermon or Bible study notes. praise and worship.

What the Bible says about temptation →What the Bible says about worship →
One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read verses 16–20 and mark the turn toward praise

scriptureoncelight
Encouragement

The warning is severe, and the next words turn toward praise of YHWH. The idols have no breath; YHWH deserves his people’s worship.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 135:18. 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 135 · 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).