Saturday, March 18, 2006

O Magnify the Lord

I was recently reading through Psalm 34 and for some reason kept coming back to verse 3 which says, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exaly His name together." I couldn't believe it, How in the world can I magnify the Lord? Webster himself says the meaning of the word is to "make greater" or "to have the power of increasing the apparent size of an object..." Me a grasshopper with the ability to "make greater" the greatest phenomenon the world has ever known, the one and only King of Glory? What? The One about whom Isaiah says, "has measured the waters (of the world) in the hollow of His hand, And marked off the heavens by the span (the width of a stretched out hand) and calculated the dust of the earth by the measure, and weighed the mountains in a balance, and the hills in a pair of scales." O.K just to put this in perspective if we were to view the globe we would be astonished by the extent of it. I just went out side and held up my hand to the sky, and thought of the Lord measuring the heavens as the distance between his thumb and little finger, and then I thought of the Lord scooping up all of the earths water in the palm of his hand. Then he measured out the dust of the earth by the measure, or what He could pick up with His thumb and two fingers. He weighed the mountains and hills in perfect balance and put them exactly where they needed to be. This same God Isaiah says, "leads forth the starry host by number and calls them each by name; because of the greatness of His might and the streength of His power not one of them is missing." He also, "..sits high above the round ball of the earth. The people look like mere ants. He stretches out the skies like a canvas--yes like a tent canvas to live under(MSG)"(various verses Isaiah 40). Need I go on? He is HUGE and we are not!! How then can we magnify Him? How can we "make greater" our God? I have to recall now a childhood memory, this particular incident happened at Grandma and Grandpa Mile's house in Darlington, SC (the pearl of the Pee Dee). I borrowed my grandmother's magnifying glass and proceeded to start a fire with a small pile of leaves that I had gathered. Fact, If you hold a magnifying glass a just the right angle toward the sun, you can generate a very small beam of light that gets really hot really fast, and can start leaves on fire. That was a lot of fun, and I don't really know why I told you that. But the purpose of a magnifying glass is to make things clearer, to bring things closer to our view, so we can see them more clearly. If you remove the magnifying glass the object is still the same size. For me that is what exalting the name of Christ in worship does. There is no way that any of us can make Him greater, but we can make Him a little clearer, bring Him a little closer to our faces, and our eyes, so that we may worship Him in the "beauty of Holiness". That is what worship does for me, I can remove the magnifying glass, and I have made the Lord no greater or bigger than He already is, but for that moment my eyes see Him in a more clear fashion. That is what our lives of worship should be to the world; a magnifying glass of His beauty, a platform for His glory. "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together."

2 comments:

Beck's Bulletin said...

What an awesome reminder of what our lives are to do!! and great food for thought! You definitely have a way with words Darin!
MaB

Days in the Making said...

You know what. Thank God for your gift of teaching and communicating. He is (and will continue) using you in great ways! Thanks for being "usable". :) Great lesson.
Josh and Katie