4 All the kings of the earth shall praise You, O Lord,
When they hear the words of Your mouth.
5 Yes, they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
For great is the glory of the Lord.
6 Though the Lord is on high,
Yet He regards the lowly;
But the proud He knows from afar.Psalm 138:4-6
I don’t know about you, but it’s more realistic for me to be thinking thinking that I’m the “king” of the world than for me to be praising the Lord as though He were; it is also more likely for me to be believing that I’m “on high” than for me to be touched by the fact that God regards the lowly from where He sits.
Yeah, I am pretty much the proud person that verse 6 ends with; which, according to what it says, would mean I am the one He knows from afar. Can you relate? Does your own power and position consume more of your attention and delight than God’s power and position? Do you look more to increasing your own influence than to being influenced by God?
If so, we’re treading similar territory. Unfortunately, the end of these pursuits doesn’t look too pleasant as spelled out by the 55 italicized words above. Is there any hope for us if we want to know God despite our pride problem? Only if the cross covers it. Only if pride can be included in the sins that Christ put to death on our behalf. Only if we’re willing to count God as our Savior from pride and not pride as our savior from God.
By placing our trust completely in Christ, we will be covered with His blood and pronounced righteous before God. Through power we do not possess, we shall be born of a new spirit that worships God. We shall no more be cast out because of the folly of our own efforts, but be reconciled to God because of the wisdom of Christ’s efforts on our behalf. Though sin continues to be present within us, its penalty has been overruled because Christ accepted it for us and its power is being diminished in us through the Holy Spirit. Now that’s something to make us love and celebrate our King!
Wikipedia: T is the 20th letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet. →
At Home with God 