Isn't it natural for a person to think of rejection of something he has made as equivalent to rejection of him? Think of the child that brings home the clay mug that he has made at school. If his father responds with, "This is garbage!" how crushed that child would be. Or imagine the woman who has invested the day in Thanksgiving dinner, only to have her husband spit it out and pronounce it swill. Would we not expect her to harbor resentment of such treatment?
Yet, we think that the rejection and despising of the things of God is merely being "modern." How could He hold us guilty for such independent thinking?
In Psalm 138:2, King David demonstrates an opposite attitude: "I bow down toward Your holy temple and give thanks to Your name for Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness, for You have exalted above all things Your name and Your word."
David recognizes the two things that God values most, His reputation and His Word, the Bible. Then, in acknowledgement of God's priorities, David submits to them, and doesn't even put forward his own.
It has been de riguer to treat God as an object of disrespect. Do we not treat Him as Santa Claus, existing to give us baubles? Do we not use His name as a curse? A bunch of curses at that! And is it not scholarly and respectable to express doubts about, and independence from, His word in the Bible?
Yet, David tells us that, in God's priorities, those two things are the most important to Him. And, if our priorities are different from His, what can we expect, except futility, resentment, even judgment?
No comments:
Post a Comment