10.10.24
This week we are looking at the majesty of God - at his great power. And what we’ve seen is that there is a power that belongs to God alone. He is the supreme Ruler who merely speaks, intends, wills, and it comes to pass. But there’s also a power that belongs to mankind. As stewards of his kingdom, God has given us the power to rule over his creation. And embedded within that calling, is the image of God that gives us the need to rule - the longing to be in charge.
And what we’ve seen is that the heart of sin is that we want the one aspect of power that God has that he didn’t give us: that same ability to see our desires and longings fulfilled whenever we want. We want to be rulers who have no disparity between our plans and seeing them come to pass. But God gave us that one tree to show us - that he is the supreme Ruler, and we are stewards who rule underneath his authority.
The Psalmist talks about how this path to power - trying to be God - is what leads us to find confidence in the size of our army - the level of our resources - how protected from harm we are by the buffers we build around us. And yet we’re told here, that this path to power cannot save us. Everything in this life can - and will - be taken from us. And we can’t build our lives on such things.
Instead, we are called to ascribe to God the ultimate majesty, by submitting to his superior rule. But ironically, when we do that, we gain a power that all our strivings could never achieve. Because it gives us the power of courage and vision. This is how God describes our secondary power. Operating under his authority, we can have the confidence of knowing the ultimate and inevitable outcome of history - of values - of priorities. We know that truth will win. Mercy will win. Justice will win. And so we work with confidence to see God’s kingdom values applied to every aspect of our world around us.
But this also applies to us personally. When we panic from overwhelming circumstances, when we’re angry that our plans have been thwarted, when we feel self-defeated and worthless because of how powerless we actually are, we are failing to believe in the ultimate power of our God. We are still engaged in the same fight that Adam and Eve had with him: we’re upset because we don’t have to power to fix and control things. And so part of being a rebellious steward is to repent when our longings for power exceed our calling as underlings.
The ultimate expression of God’s power at work within us is seen when we are joyful in the midst of hard times (because we know the end of the story)…when we are confident in the midst of overwhelming circumstances (because God is good and is working all things for that good in us)…when feelings of powerlessness drive us to Jesus instead of to ourselves (because we were never meant to be that powerful on our own). It’s what allows the Psalmist to end his song with these words: “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.”