Thankful: Challenged for the Future
Wow…thanks…and Ow…
This morning I encountered this startling statement from Psalm 138:
“I will …praise Your Name for Your love and faithfulness, for You have exalted above all things Your Name and Your word.”
That’s a pretty strong statement about where He has placed the value of His word: exalted above all things! (Hint: It has nothing to do with where your Bible is in the stack of books by your chair!)
It’s right up there with His name which is so important that God chose a city in which it would dwell, which is why the psalms call Mount Zion the joy of the whole earth. The name of Jesus is the Name above every other name that will require submission from every person who ever lived. Scripture is very clear on the priority of Him and His name: the name by which alone we can be saved, the name that breaks the captives’ chains and sends demons packing.
His Name embodies all He is.
But here’s the kicker: In Psalm 138 the Bible is paired with God’s name in causing us to bow in worship and praise that Name!
His word contains His self-revelation. If I do not trust what He says, nor believe it enough to obey it, I am in disagreement with Him over its value. (I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a dangerous place to live!)
A primary responsibility of the Old Testament priests was to read the law to the people, especially during the three holy celebrations each year that they were expected to be in Jerusalem. This was God’s plan to keep His heart in front of His people, so they would come to Him for help (and not human kings or foreign armies), so they wouldn’t forget who He is. It was never His plan for it to be a dull recitation of all the expectations they were failing to meet! Nor was it to be a checklist for self-help in pleasing God, as in 613 Easy Ways to Stay Out of Trouble with the Almighty. It was an opportunity to become reacquainted with Him, if they had grown distant.
Whenever I approach His word as simply information about Him, a text to be learned or a task to be accomplish, I am minimizing it, not giving it its proper place.
It is not without cause that Jesus is referred to as the Word, who was with God and who was God in the beginning. Now there’s a place where we can see God exalting His word and His Name above all things.
How do we know of God’s great love and faithfulness if we are not instructed by His self-declaration? ALL He has declared, decreed and described is true and worthy of honor, trust and obedience!
Wow…thanks…and…ow…
O Lord God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, please let me be instructed about and connected to You through the things You have spoken, especially as I am…
Following Jesus every day in the everyday,
Christi
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