Glory through the Granular
From Psalm 57 – 1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me!
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by.
2 I will cry out to God Most High,
To God who performs all things for me.
3 He shall send from heaven and save me;
He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.
4 My soul is among lions;
I lie among the sons of men
Who are set on fire,
Whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
Back in November of 2017, the New Yorker featured a traveling Oval Office set which makes its way to fairs and allows participants to envision themselves in the seat of power. Its purveyor observed that the pieces don't look that impressive individually, but that they have a collective impact.
We can get the same sense from the opening of Psalm 57. David has particular issues, particular vulnerabilities, particular enemies. Praise be to God that he lifts them up candidly without trying to render them into vague theological principles. He has needs, and he says so. Even more, praise be to God that He has preserved these specific pleas as a model for us. We might learn to ask for our daily bread and for the mercy to avoid being delivered into the hands of our enemies even yet.
But I like Psalm 57:5 most of all. After four verses of unapologetically partisan pleading on his own behalf, David puts the Oval Office set together. He connects for us the bigger picture of God's glory, His reputation going public. In David's mind, as perhaps should be more true in ours, the daily proof in one person's opposition and weaknesses is connected to the observation of God's glory above all the earth.
He is proven, insists David, in a thousand little battles as His Name is lifted up in prayer and specifically consequent praise. The cumulative impact, as Kevin Roose observes as an outsider at Liberty University in Unlikely Disciple, is that if these prayers were visible, they could be seen from space.
God has done this before. He has made this graceful pivot from immediacy to transcendence before. Observes Major Ian Thomas in his sermon "The Recovery of Jesus Christ," the book of Acts is "the record of divine activity clothed with redeemed humanity." As continuity from the granular to the grand is woven into His character, He will advance His reputation through the ages and in the skies in the pitch battles in which you and I are engaged today. His glory will be revealed above the earth lit by one friction spark at a time.
.
.
For my soul trusts in You;
And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge,
Until these calamities have passed by.
2 I will cry out to God Most High,
To God who performs all things for me.
3 He shall send from heaven and save me;
He reproaches the one who would swallow me up. Selah
God shall send forth His mercy and His truth.
4 My soul is among lions;
I lie among the sons of men
Who are set on fire,
Whose teeth are spears and arrows,
And their tongue a sharp sword.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;
Let Your glory be above all the earth.
Back in November of 2017, the New Yorker featured a traveling Oval Office set which makes its way to fairs and allows participants to envision themselves in the seat of power. Its purveyor observed that the pieces don't look that impressive individually, but that they have a collective impact.
We can get the same sense from the opening of Psalm 57. David has particular issues, particular vulnerabilities, particular enemies. Praise be to God that he lifts them up candidly without trying to render them into vague theological principles. He has needs, and he says so. Even more, praise be to God that He has preserved these specific pleas as a model for us. We might learn to ask for our daily bread and for the mercy to avoid being delivered into the hands of our enemies even yet.
But I like Psalm 57:5 most of all. After four verses of unapologetically partisan pleading on his own behalf, David puts the Oval Office set together. He connects for us the bigger picture of God's glory, His reputation going public. In David's mind, as perhaps should be more true in ours, the daily proof in one person's opposition and weaknesses is connected to the observation of God's glory above all the earth.
He is proven, insists David, in a thousand little battles as His Name is lifted up in prayer and specifically consequent praise. The cumulative impact, as Kevin Roose observes as an outsider at Liberty University in Unlikely Disciple, is that if these prayers were visible, they could be seen from space.
God has done this before. He has made this graceful pivot from immediacy to transcendence before. Observes Major Ian Thomas in his sermon "The Recovery of Jesus Christ," the book of Acts is "the record of divine activity clothed with redeemed humanity." As continuity from the granular to the grand is woven into His character, He will advance His reputation through the ages and in the skies in the pitch battles in which you and I are engaged today. His glory will be revealed above the earth lit by one friction spark at a time.
.
.
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