by Ester yusufu | 23 June 2022 08:46 pm06
Key Passage
“Your faithfulness continues through all generations; you established the earth, and it endures. Your laws endure to this day, for all things serve you.”
— Psalm 119:90–91
Psalm 119:91 declares that “all things serve” God. This truth reflects the doctrine of God’s providence, which teaches that God governs all creation with wisdom, power, and purpose. Everything in nature and history ultimately serves God’s will (Romans 8:28).
Examples:
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
— Psalm 19:1
These things serve God passively, not by choice or will, but by being what God created them to be. They point us to God’s greatness and help accomplish His purposes in creation, judgment, or blessing (Job 37:12–13).
Some today use water, salt, oil, soil, or other materials in prayer, believing these items carry divine power. Others reference biblical stories where such things were used miraculously:
These moments were divine interventions, not spiritual formulas. God used ordinary objects in extraordinary ways for specific moments. But nowhere in Scripture are these objects turned into repeated rituals for healing or blessings.
“Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?”
— Lamentations 3:37
To turn a divine moment into a human method is to fall into ritualism and superstition, which the Bible warns against (Colossians 2:20–23).
Israel made this mistake. God once used a bronze serpent to bring healing (Numbers 21), but centuries later, the people began worshiping it. King Hezekiah had to destroy it:
“He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it.”
— 2 Kings 18:4
What began as a God-ordained tool had become an idol. This pattern still repeats when people use “anointed items” as if they have inherent power apart from God’s will.
Worship that replaces God’s ordained way with created things is idolatry (Romans 1:25). This grieves God and opens doors to deception.
God has given us one mediator and one name through which we receive salvation, healing, deliverance, and blessing:
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
— Acts 4:12
“For there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus.”
— 1 Timothy 2:5
It is not oil, water, salt, or cloth that saves or heals—it is Jesus Christ alone. To trust in anything else is to shift our faith from God to objects.
“And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”
— Colossians 3:17
We are called to approach God through faith in Jesus, with dependence on His name, not with symbolic objects or rituals. Everything we do spiritually—prayer, worship, service—should be Christ-centered, not object-centered.
Psalm 119:91 does not mean we are to use physical elements as channels for divine power or access to God. Yes, all things are God’s servants—but their role is to glorify God by their existence, not to become tools of spiritual mediation.
Let us:
“Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.”
— 1 John 5:21
May the Lord deliver us from all forms of idolatry—visible or subtle—and anchor our faith solely in Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).
Shalom.
Source URL: https://wingulamashahidi.org/en/2022/06/23/for-all-things-are-your-servants-psalm-11991/
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