I go to the gym most mornings to exercise. When I first started, I sat down with a
trainer and she did an assessment to see how fit my physical fitness was. (She didn’t say, “Pathetic!” but she might
have been thinking it.) She asked what
my goals were and I told her that I am trying to lose weight and be in better
general fitness. So she put together a
plan, so I go and I follow that plan.
However, I have one little problem.
When I go to the machine I need to use, I see the setting the last
person left it on or the weight they were lifting. It’s pretty consistently more advanced than
where I’m at, and I think, “Wow! I am
weak! I should be able to do that!”
We often have the feeling that we “should” be able to do
things. I don’t mean just having the
right to do what we want, but the actual ability to perform certain tasks or
accomplish different feats. However,
just because we think we “should” be able to do something, doesn’t mean we
really can. Like me trying to do the
chest press when the last guy lifted 210 lbs., we are just unable to make it
happen.
This psalm speaks in opposition to a bunch of “shoulds”
that many of us carry in our lives. We “should”
be: strong, able to get what we desire, self-made,
lively, splendid, wonderful , greater than our enemies, and capable of taking
care of ourselves.
When it comes to spiritual matters we have a great
capacity for deluding ourselves in regard to our strength. Adam and Eve thought they should be able to
know good and evil, but where did that get us?
No, we are not nearly as magnificent at we’d like to
think we are spiritually. We can see
this lack when we talk about conversion.
All over the place people talk about making a decision to follow Jesus –
and as Christians I think we do decide to some degree in regard to things we do
in our walk with the LORD, but in terms of
conversion … I’m not so sure. In fact I’m
more and more convinced that apart from Jesus we have no strength within us to
do anything that amounts to a hill of beans before God.
I often find myself thinking of Ephesians 2:1 on this topic. It says, “As for you, you
were dead in your transgressions and sins….” (Eph 2:1 NIV) Not the most optimistic place to be;
dead. What do dead people do? Nothing!
And if they could do anything, it would be to ask for life, which would
be their hearts’ desire and the request on lifeless lips.
In this we see the marvel of this psalm. The LORD provides His strength and salvation. He gives blessings, life (eternal life!), and
bestows His glory. It is not our
strength that matters, it is God’s strength, and He gladly gives it. He uses His strength on our behalf and He
overthrows all His enemies.
Even more marvelous is the paradoxical way in
which God displays his strength. The
most important of which is the Cross. It
looked like defeat, but in truth Jesus’ death is victory over our sin. In much the same way, when a Christian dies
we understand that they have received the victory and have gone from our midst
to heavenly glory as they await the resurrection of all people. As we suffer, we remember that, “the
sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is
to be revealed to us.” (Rom 8:18 ESV) We are confident in the face of troubles
because God’s power is at work! His
salvation is at hand! He cannot be
overcome, and He has not forgotten us.
Lord God, You and strong, kind, and generous. I sometimes live as though everything depends
on my strength. Help me to learn to
depend on Your power and blessings. Use
me to display Your glory as You overcome my weakness to display Your salvation
for others to see so they may believe in You.
Amen.
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