Improving the Mona Lisa

February 3, 2022 (Thursday)

 

David was a King, but at heart he was a worship leader. One demonstration of this is the many Psalms written to God’s glory. Let’s dig into Psalm 138.

 

“I give thanks to you with all my heart, Lord. I sing your praise before all other gods.” [Psalm 138:1 CEB] Before you get wound up over the “all other gods” bit, perhaps it’s easier to understand if we put “gods” in quotations… like the NIV does. David is not saying there are other gods, he is saying there are false “gods” worship as the one-true God.

 

David details two responses to God. First, “give thanks.” Second “sing your praise.” Neither is done with partial intent or energy. When we give thanks, we acknowledge everything God has done. I urge a bit of caution at this point. Humans are often free with their complaining and stingy with their complementing. We blame God for those things we perceive or feel as “bad” and forget God for things we perceive as “good.”

 

Go back to David’s day when humans touted competing “gods.” To sing God’s praise in the face of competing concepts or versions of “gods” would be very bold. It would be like walking into another religion’s holy city on one of their holy days and declaring “Jesus is Lord!” Doing this would be very bold and extremely dangerous.

 

A key idea in our relationship to God is humility. David declares, “Though the Lord is great, he cares for the humble, but he keeps his distance from the proud.” [Psalm 138:6 NLT] Think about it this way; God, who is the only being worthy of praise is not proud. He identifies with the humble, the meek, and the poor. Jesus announced, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 5:3 ESV] The idea of “poor in spirit” is the realization of our utter, outright, and absolute spiritual poverty.

 

If you believe there is any way to achieve, earn, or merit grace, you are dead wrong. If you believe there is any way to maintain, lose, or botch a favorable state of grace, you are dead wrong. How do I know? David stated, “He keeps his distance from the proud.” James went one step further stating, “And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” [James 4:6 NLT] If God gives us abundant grace (for salvation), how or why do we think we can achieve or add to it through our own work or merit? Remember it was pride that cause

 

Again, a caution, this does not mean we are free from becoming vested in our salvation. God requires certain things, the Bible is full of them, of His people. I like how Paul portrayed this dynamic, “You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you possessed. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.” [Ephesians 2:8 – 10 CEB] The NIV translates, “God has made us what we are.” [Ephesians 2:10a] The word translated “accomplishment” in the CEB is said to be our version of “masterpiece.”

 

Pick a masterpiece of art, let’s say the Mona Lisa. Raphael might have been mocking the image (or the painter) when he painted a similar picture (pose and expression) of a blond holding a unicorn. Now, imagine you do not like the balcony Mona Lisa is sitting on or the lake in the back ground and decide to “improve” it with a badly painted used car lot. If that sounds silly, it pales in comparison to people attempting to earn salvation or merit.