Dannette I have to admit I live blind most days. It takes a lot to drag worship and perspective from these dry bones of mine. It takes a song, a walk thru the yard, and the hearing of many words of truth (like on repeat) to make me come alive. It takes asking and asking and continually seeking the face of God. Some days the words don’t come together, but when they do and this heart of mine is stirred, may God get the glory. He is so worthy.
What I’ve been learning is that when we spend time at the feet of Jesus and grab hold of the edge of the thread that is God — He starts to unravel it for us. We may be seeing just the tip of the thread, but there is an eternity of beauty and living color and contentment that lies beneath the covering of His glory. And it’s in the looking for it, the asking for it, the seeking that we find it. God is right here waiting to show us more of himself. Waiting for us to get past ourselves so He can give us the good stuff.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8
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Worthy is the Lord.
Worthy is the lamb who was slain. To receive the power. The riches. The wisdom. The strength. The honor. The glory. The blessing. The SINGING… (Spontaneous Worship by Klaus)
We forget that. We can barely glimpse the tip of the thread that is the glory and the beauty and WORTHY woven together in God. We don’t see it. This world is full of blinders, not to mention the ones that are our birthright. But still, He is in the shadow of the mighty trees that spread across our world. In every leaf that falls to the ground and blows thru the air we breathe. He’s in the sunset that is splashed in the skies above us at the end of every day. This world whispers His name, and it takes this thing called FAITH to see Him in it.
But those angels and beings at the foot of the throne? They never stop singing. The four living creatures; the ones with 6 wings and eyes all around them? They do not rest, day or night. They sing,
Holy holy holy is the Lord God almighty. Who was, and IS, and is to come. (Revelation 4:8)
Every tribe. Every nation. Every single soul that has every been born or ever will be. They WILL sing.
Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they were saying: “Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them, saying: “To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power, for ever and ever!” (Revelation 5:11-13, emphasis mine)
It is sung now in the heavens we cannot see. It never ceases, songs and words of of praise and glory to our God.
HE IS WORTHY. That is the God I know, and He is on the throne. All we have to do is ask, and the God with angels and creatures singing endlessly over him will give us the longings of our souls.
All praise belongs to him my friends. Let’s throw our attempts at worldly accolades and crowns and acclaim to the side, and let’s give glory to the REAL KING.
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As I contemplate this glorious God this morning, I’m also trying to make sense of what I’ve been studying in 1 Samuel as I rub shoulders with a conundrum of a man like King Saul. He was this ridiculously handsome, oddly tall man chosen by God to be the first King over Israel. The NLT describes him like this,
… Saul was the most handsome man in Israel–head and shoulders taller than anyone else in the land. (1 Samuel 9:2)
We first hear about this guy Saul in chapter 9 of 1 Samuel. He was from a well off family and was clearly a man that did not go unnoticed. He was on his way to find some lost livestock with one of his father’s servants when he meets the prophet Samuel and is told he’s been chosen by God to be king. Saul seems underwhelmed by the news though. I don’t think he was looking to be the leader of the people of God. I’m not even sure he was concerned with the things of God at all. We never hear about him having a heart after God or seeking to know this God of his more. It was even his servant’s idea to seek out the prophet Samuel for help and direction, not his. Saul always seemed more concerned with what people thought about him and worried about his image. I find myself wondering if it’s because that was all he ever heard about. His appearance probably got him a lot of attention. The prophet Samuel even said there was no one like him in all of Israel. He must have really been something, ya know? A real eye full.
These eyes of ours can get us into trouble though. They’re hungry. Hungry for beauty and to be filled, and we need to be careful with what we let these eyes feed on. We can get lost in the seeing and the things of this world. The hungry part of us can end up stuffing the pockets of our souls with nothing but empty things. And over time they can end up twisting their way into our identity. It happened with the Israelites when they laid their eyes upon King Saul, and it happens to us nearly every day as we walk thru stores and watch commercials and movies and look thru magazines. We see the eye candy of the world, the way others look wearing it, and we fall for the lie that having it for ourselves will fill the ache. Make us. Content us. But things never do, and they never will. Because we weren’t made for things. We were made for God. The deep cravings we have cannot be satisfied with anything else.
For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:16-17)
The Israelites had the same hunger we do. They wanted to be like all the other nations, not following an invisible God who answered prayers and led them in miraculous ways like clouds and burning bushes and parting seas. They wanted to be seen as something. They wanted to be like the other nations of the world, even though they were made to be set apart.
They wanted to be seen by men, but they were made to be seen by GOD.
To get you up to speed on the context of this story, a little before Saul showed up, back in 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites asked for a king to rule over them. They had just went thru nearly 400 years of what’s been described as the dark days of the judges. The people of God had entered the promised land under Joshua’s leadership, and there was no centralized leader. They were living in tribes, almost like a loose confederation of states. God would raise up judges to help defend and unify the people when sin and complications arose. During the time of Samuel, the last judge, things were starting to change once more within the hearts of the people. They were idolizing the nations around them, and they wanted a king. It sounds like no big deal — they wanted a king. But it was. They were rejecting God as their leader, and it was considered evil.
They had GOD, but they wanted a man.
Eventually God heard their cries, but He also knew their hearts. And that’s where Saul comes into the story. God gave them their king. A man whose appearance and stature filled their eyes and wowed their sad their souls. Here is how it went down…
Samuel summoned the people of Israel to the Lord at Mizpah and said to them, “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I brought Israel up out of Egypt, and I delivered you from the power of Egypt and all the kingdoms that oppressed you. But you have now rejected your God, who saves you out of all your calamities and distresses. And you have said, ‘No, set a king over us.’ So now present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and clans.” (1 Samuel 10:17-19)
The tribes and clans were narrowed down one by one until Saul’s clan was the last standing. Saul’s name was called, and the man was nowhere to be found. I can almost imagine the intensity that filled the air as the proceedings were carried out. One by one, some might have been disgruntled when they realized it would not be them or the guy they thought worthy was passed over. And then finally… the big announcement came. The name Saul son of Kish rang out, and the chosen king was hiding among the baggage.
As if he could hide from God?
This was the same guy who already knew he was chosen by God to be king. He had met Samuel earlier and had even been anointed privately. He had a prophet kiss his forehead and pour oil over him, ANOINTING him. This was no small or questionable act either. It meant something, especially in that time.
So why the hiding out? This should have been the first clue to the Israelites as to the weakness of Saul’s character. He was found out of course, pulled from the shadows and placed before the people. You would think they’d be shaking their heads. This is the guy? He’s not even standing with his clan. He was hiding like a fool, and God himself called him on it in front of everyone. Saul didn’t say a word. But when he STOOD — tall and impressive and beautiful — the people had no more questions. They saw him, and they knew the Instagram feed of their kingdom would be glorious. They raised their fists, shouted and CLAIMED him.
“Long live the King!”
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Something happened along the way with this earthly king of theirs though. He started off humble; he hid. Maybe he thought himself unworthy. But in his humility, he discredited the power of God. He didn’t believe or rest in the promise and power of God to see Him through. He looked at himself. And all that he saw was a tall, beautiful man. I don’t know what was going through Saul’s mind when he hid. what’s obvious though, is that even in his humility he saw more of himself than his God. And that is something I think we all need to be careful of.
Saul ends up far from humble though. By the end of his rule he is seething with jealousy and pride, making monuments of his likeness, and trying to keep the plunder and the glory for himself. He becomes a man who is SO bent on the approval of others that he leads out of fear, ends up telling half truths to save face, and never fully fesses up to the sin he’s committed. Even his attempts at repentance are only for show. In the end, he loses everything.
Remember the man that was beautiful and a feast for their worldly eyes? Who looked the part and would promote right image?
All the glory he was given and took in because of his appearance whispered ugliness into his soul.
Glorifying self will always produce the same self righteous fruit; don’t be fooled. And this is the part that scares me for our generation. We have apps that help us do this — set ourselves up to receive praise. We must remember the heart of man is tricky. It’s deceitful above all things, just like the Bible says. Saul’s story should set the tone for our social media loving, like craving, following wanting souls. It seems harmless, but the taking in of small pieces of glory for ourselves wears away at our faith and view of God over time. We get busy setting ourselves up and making sure we look a certain way, and as we get bigger, God gets smaller. We can start out with hope and God’s anointing like Saul did, and if we farm ourselves out for our own glory, we end up becoming our own little god.
The irony for me with Saul is that this man was CHOSEN. ANOINTED. And he spent more time gazing into the mirror and trying to make himself look worthy than looking up into the face of the God that loved him, saw him, and gave him INFINITE WORTH.
The very thing he fought so hard for, he already had in God.
The same is true of us. We stuff our souls with little bits of self love because this world is tells us confidence in self is everything, pride is honorable, and that it’s okay to constantly feed the narrative of self adoration. We never hear God speak those words anywhere in the Bible though. He is the ENOUGH. He the GOOD. And we are built-up in confidence because the God of everything sees us and loves us and made us. We need to be careful not to get our theology mixed up with the world’s ideology.
Oddly enough, that’s where the Israelites went wrong too. God was all they needed; he proved it time and again in miraculous ways, and they still looked for fulfillment from everything else. Like them, we stiff-arm this God of ours. He offers us HIMSELF, and instead we grasp at the pageantry of worldly acclaim and beauty and all that fades away.
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Oh Saul. And the Israelites. AND US.
All the glory and honor belong to Jesus. Let’s not take any of it for ourselves.
Not for our FACES. How ever beautiful they may be. Not for our thin frames or curvy shapes or muscles made of mud. Let’s remember who formed them. The glory doesn’t belong to us. Let’s not beg for it like the world tells us to. Let’s look away from ourselves. Get our faces away from the mirror that sees and glorifies self, and instead look for the image of the God we bear.
How about our nice cars and clothes and wonderfully decorated homes and all the things we have and need and WANT? Do they help us live and see this God of ours more? If not, let’s not spend the effort and attention on the things that can never fill our souls. You can have them of course (all those things). We all can. We all do. They’re part of the world we live in. But let’s not clamor and covet to have them. Let’s not believe the lie that they make us something.
Even our knowledge of spiritual things can puff us up and make us think we’re something we’re not. We can do the bible studies and memorize the words and learn ALL THE THINGS, and if they don’t bring us to our knees in humble adoration of this God who is surrounded in forever song, then I fear it all may be wasted. It’s about HIM. Not about us or what we know.
Let’s remember Saul, and the Israelites, and the MESS that follows wanting glory for ourselves. And let’s remember we have a KING, and HE IS WORTHY. I believe when we start turning our faces back to Him and away from our mirrors, we will find we don’t have to try so hard. There is beauty and contentment and worth woven into this God of ours, and his spool never ends.
May His be the glory we want everyone to see.
“Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne, and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: ‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, for you created all beings, and by your will they were created and have their being.’” Revelation 4:9-10
