PSALM 104:1 – Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, you are very great! You are clothed with splendor and majesty.
THEME OF THE DAY. OUR GREATEST PRIVILEGE. There are no exhortations to obey God’s Word in today’s nugget. There will also be no challenges to contemplate in living the Christian life. One more thing we won’t be reading about is some call to get busy and do something for the Lord in our churches, to our neighbors or brothers and sisters in the Lord. Oh, those are important things in the Christian life, and we won’t neglect their Biblical emphasis for Christian living. But we will today. Today, one emphasis. Just one. It is the one thing we should remind ourselves of daily and throughout the day. If we are Christians, it is the greatest privilege given to us by our God. It knows no rival when it comes to importance in our lives. It is the “spiritual summit of the highest mountain of spiritual truth and experience” having no equal. It appears in today’s scripture and is stated in four words – “O Lord, my God.”
Friends, there is nothing that thrills the soul more; lifts up the downcast heart more; drives the dark clouds of depression away more; energizes hope more, and satisfies the human heart more than to be able to look to heaven with sincerity and reality proclaiming, “O Lord, my God.” Think with me what this says of us. I mean really think what this says of us until it sends our hearts and minds soaring in praise and adoration. The unknown Creator God, unknown to us because of sin and separation, has, through the Gospel of His Son, the Lord Jesus, become our known Creator God whom we may call “O Lord, my God.”
When life feels like a mammoth rock slide of circumstances crushing us; when trials come upon us like flash floods drowning us; and situations seem so overwhelming we want to raise the white flag of surrender and give up, what will protect, strengthen, and encourage us in all of them is the privilege to say, “O Lord my God.” Remember how despondent, even hopeless, Mary Magdalene was after Jesus’ death on the cross and prior to His resurrection. Enter her deep sorrow and then listen how the Lord Jesus made her heart soar – But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (John 20:11-17).
It was not only the resurrection of the Lord Jesus that lifted up Mary Magdalene’s drooping heart, but the granting of life’s greatest privilege – to call God “Her God” and even beyond, “Her Father.” And friends, we are granted the same privilege. Don’t neglect or forget it. It is not only life’s greatest privilege but life’s greatest source of power and hope for living in a hopeless world!
PRAYER: “Father, teach me to never take for granted that I am privileged to call You ‘My God.’”
QUOTE: “Don’t let life, wrong choices and misplaced priorities rob us from enjoying our God.”