More and Less

DEVOTION

PSALMS

MORE AND LESS

Ps 108

108:1 A song. A psalm of David.

My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul. 2 Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn. 3 I will praise you, O LORD, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples. 4 For great is your love, higher than the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies. 5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens, and let your glory be over all the earth.

6 Save us and help us with your right hand, that those you love may be delivered. 7 God has spoken from his sanctuary:" In triumph I will parcel out Shechem and measure off the Valley of Succoth. 8 Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine; Ephraim is my helmet, Judah my scepter. 9 Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph."

10 Who will bring me to the fortified city? Who will lead me to Edom? 11 Is it not you, O God, you who have rejected us and no longer go out with our armies? 12 Give us aid against the enemy, for the help of man is worthless. 13 With God we will gain the victory, and he will trample down our enemies.

NIV

This first stanza of this psalm certainly sound familiar for it is the basis for a popular worship song titled “Be exalted O God”. But the missing part of those lyrics is the part of having a steadfast heart and the part about awaken the dawn. The dawn is that first moment in the morning which we spend with our Lord. It is the first thing we do after making our coffee, sitting down and spending time meditating on his word and how that applies to strengthening a steadfast heart within us. This means we need to get up, awakening the dawn, no sleeping in to that last minute before we have to rush to get ready for work. We will sing among the nations, we will sing among the people. This is when we are off to our place of employment when we are with people. This is who we sing about the greatest of the Lord among. This is where we live out our faith, and live it out loud. This is where we exalt you O Lord above the heavens and where we let your glory be over all the earth. The rest of these words of the psalm speak of his glory over all of the land of Israel, but also over all the peoples of the land, and this would extend to us as even from the beginning the Lord has included the whole earth, all the people are his creation. David asks the best questions and of course as inspired, he pens the best answers. God will give us aid against our enemies, which in reality is only but one, Satan. Yet he is not omnipresent, so all those other fallen angels who are now called demons, are plenty and so a horde of enemies are always at the gate trying to bash their way into our heart and mind. One of the biggest attacks is this self-reliant attitude, this "I can do this" thinking. This "I" thing period. Whenever we get into that mode of thinking we can, we lose. With man it is impossible, but everything is possible with God. He is the only help against the forces of evil. Help of man is worthless, which includes our own helping of ourselves. It is worthless, for even the armor of God is not ours, it is his and he only tells us to put it on. This is our choice, we can leave it in the corner, and refuse to wear it, but it is his armor and as we put it on, he is the one who uses it. If we think because we have the breastplate of righteous on, that it makes us righteous, we think wrong, it is his righteousness, his breastplate that protects our heart. David also prayed that God would create in him a pure heart.

Ps 51:10

10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

NIV

This is all about the power of God at work within us, not about our power at work in God. It is not about how much we can do, it is about how little we can do without the power of God at work within us. It is he who created us, it is he who saved us. He is the one who does all things through us. He is the potter, we are the clay. If we try to live by our choices, our will, our desires, our wants, our plans, our understanding, our intelligence, or anything associated with our abilities, we will no doubt fail. Everything is about God, it is his armor we wear. It is his fruit that we bear. It is his gifts that we share. As John the Baptist made that proclamation about him having to decrease and Jesus having to increase, at least in the KJV, but a newer translation says:

John 3:30

30 He must become greater; I must become less.

NIV

This is our life, we must become less and he must become greater. That is how we will have a steadfast heart. He makes our heart steadfast as he becomes greater and we become less. Perhaps we should forgo the pronoun I completely, and only use the pronoun he or we could say we. It is God at work in me, so it is we. Just in reality it is only him. But we do have to decide to become less and allow him to be the greater within us. So in that sense we are partners with God. But it still is all him, if we want to have the victory. So it comes down to more and less. More of him, less of us.