As I included in my last post, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:
11Teach me Your way, LORD. I will walk in Your truth. Unite my heart to fear Your name. 12I will praise You, Adonai my God, in the all of my heart. I will honor Your name to ages, 13because Your lovingkindness [is] great toward me and You have delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
As I said last time, as I study these verses, so many thoughts flood my mind. I’ll try to record a few more here:
In verse 11 David prayed, “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” In verse 12 he goes on to say, “I will praise You, Lord, with all my heart.” First he wants his heart united, then he would praise the Lord with all of that heart. All our heart. That is what the Lord desires and certainly what He deserves.
I’m reminded of the Rio Grande River which flows down through the West and into the Gulf of Mexico – except for one problem. It never makes it. All along its path, so many people draw out its water that it never reaches the Gulf. So like our hearts. We would praise God with all our hearts except that after so many other allurements we never quite make it to His throne. Lord, deliver us. May we not squander our hearts gathering straws but rather give them totally to You. Grant us grace to rise above ourselves so that in fact we truly can praise You with all our hearts.
David then adds that he would “honor Your name to the ages.” Back in verse 9, he noted how all the nations (the Gentiles) would honor His name. But David would not be left behind. He too has every intention of joining that happy throng of angels, Israelites, and Gentiles as they honor the Lord’s name together one day. And he intends to start the practice now. In verse 11 he desired the Lord to unite his heart to “fear Your name.” Here he would “honor Your name.” Fearing, honoring, praising – they all coalesce in the wonder of who God is.
Perhaps from a slightly different angle, honoring the name of the Lord is a very immediate and practical affair. We want not only our words but our lives as well to bring Him honor. I want to always be aware that the choices I’m making, the words I’m saying, the way I’m living is all something that can actually honor the Lord’s name. So much of what supposed Christians do actually dishonors God’s name in this world. It’s a wonder that anyone ever comes to the Lord. But I am certainly no different. I am deeply ashamed of what an idiot I have been. Proud, self-righteous, arrogant, cruel legalist. I’ve been way too much of that. Like I said, it’s a wonder anyone ever comes to the Lord when we believers live such dishonorable lives. If we’re the only Jesus they ever see, it is an eternal tragedy they don’t see who He really is.
But God help me (us). I (we) would be different! I want my life to honor Him. God help me as I go to work that love and faithfulness would never leave me. As I interact with my family and friends, may I be a loving, forgiving, encouraging person. Take this feeble twisted wreck of a soul and truly let Jesus live through me.
Then David goes on to explain himself. He has said he would praise the Lord with all his heart and honor His name to the ages. Then he adds “because …” These are always blessed places to pause. David was a man after God’s own heart. He was a genuine believer. As I have related above, I can concur with David in his desire to praise and honor the Lord. Those things I understand. But when one of God’s people says “because…” we are offered the unparalleled treasure of knowing their heart. Why, David? Why exactly are you moved to want to praise and honor God? What in particular moves you? All we have to do is keep reading. When he says, “because…,” he is about to share his heart with us!
So “because” why? Why would you praise and honor God? Read verse 13 again. It is because “great is Your loving kindness to me and You’ve delivered my soul from the deepest Sheol.” Back in verse 3 David said he would lift up his soul to the Lord “because You are good and forgiving and abounding in loving kindness to all who call on You.” Pause and think about this. What David is saying is that love begets love. What we have before us is a real relationship. I suspect that for too much of my life and for too many people, we think we should praise God simply because we should. It’s the right thing to do. Or perhaps in some people’s heart of hearts they see Him as sitting on His throne demanding it. Praise Him or else. But this is something so much better. David had it and we can too. A real relationship with God. A love relationship. A mutual love relationship. I feel like in a lot of ways I’ve just begun to understand this in the last few years.
I know I should trust God. I want to trust Him. But I am more and more convinced that trust should be born of love. On the one hand I can try to “trust” Him because I know the facts – that He is great and all-powerful, that He is omniscient, that He has promised to do me good, etc., etc. But how much better to constantly feed on His great love, His great goodness and forgiveness, the amazing deliverance I’ve already enjoyed in so many ways. When I am seeing His love for me, the way He has already delivered me, why shouldn’t I trust Him?
Perhaps this is part of the united heart, the single-mindedness, the fixed gaze. As discussed above, we need to be looking to Him. But who is the Him we’re looking to? What are we seeing when we’re “looking”? I would think that, when Peter was looking at Jesus, he was seeing Him, that he was seeing the assurance of His great love. As long as he saw that, he could walk on water. To look away and see the wind and waves wasn’t just “looking away” but it was actually losing sight of this great love that would have carried him.
Right now, in my own life, I am under an enormous amount of pressure coming from several different directions at once. Way more than I’ve ever experienced in my life. I am quite sure without God I simply couldn’t handle it. But I want to do more than just “handle” it. I want to enjoy life and enjoy God even as I work my way through all of it. I know the key is to trust Him. But that seems like a very fragile grasp for me. I suspect herein is at least part of the answer – what I need to do is try to constantly feed on His great love. I need to try to keep my mind filled with it. And when I see the wind and the waves, it is this great love I need to look back to and cling to. If I’m seeing this great love, then it isn’t that hard to trust Him.
Lord help me be like David. Help me praise You and lift up my soul to You because You are good and forgiving and great in loving kindness to all who call on You, because I already know You’ve delivered me from the deepest Sheol.
I’m really going to try to keep this focus. The particular pressures I’m under right now are probably going to be here in raging intensity for at least a couple or three months. I know I’m going to fail. Like Peter I will see the wind and waves and lose it. But I pray for the grace to get up again and again and keep trying to focus my mind of this great love. When this is over, may it be true that I trusted Him because I love Him, because He loves me. And may it be true that I learned to trust Him – and to love Him – more than I ever have before!
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