Psalm 147:10-11
He does not delight in the strength of the horse;
He does not take pleasure in the legs of a man.
The LORD favors those who fear Him,
Those who wait for His lovingkindness.
My hairy, scrawny legs could never be conceived of as attractive by anyone, so it is with some relief that I find this passage in scripture.
Less flippant, of course, is the meaning of these verses. Here we have the powerful emphasis that God delights not in the independence, but the dependence of man; God takes pleasure in the way we acknowledge our poverty when we receive from His riches; God favors those who realise the awesome majesty of his power by fearing Him and who trust in His mercy by waiting for his kindness.
These verses are so offensive because they assume that humankind's greatest achievements are unimpressive before God (cf. Isaiah 40), that any attempts at self-glorification on humankind's behalf are idolatrous and that God rightly thwarts them (cf. Genesis 11).
This is the God-centredness of God that demands God-centredness from His creation.
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1 comment:
I think we will never truly understand God's power nor our place before Him. If we did, surely we could never raise our head or stand upright. The only place for us would be lying prostrate before Him.
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