Majesty
“Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory in the heavens.” —Psalms 8:1 NIV
When we see the glory of God, nothing else matters. When I stand before God at the end of my life, his holiness and beauty will be so astounding that I’ll be entirely overcome by wonder. He is so real and pure that my whole life will seem like a vapor compared to the worth of just being in his presence. If not for this all-consuming encounter, I’m sure I would be starkly aware that I lived farther from his glory than I needed.
There are some who abide in glory every day. Some have learned the rhythms of grace and walk in God’s presence even through immense suffering. These people are my heroes, sometimes far and few between, that give me an image of the worth of growing in grace and the knowledge of God. It softens the hardest hearts, stills the hottest raging temper, brings wisdom to the foolish, offers healing to the traumatized, and teaches forgiveness to the wrongdoer.
There will always be ups and downs in the journey of faith. None, except maybe children, have an easy time getting to God. This is not because God is hard to get to but because so many distractions pull our attention from God. Some distractions are simple, like social media, politics, or relationships. Others are harder to perceive, like demonic oppression, schemes of the enemy, and the seeds of doubt and discouragement.
It takes intentionality to continue in life under God’s presence. You’ll find that those who maintain a life of glory even into old age have a few things in common. They pursue God daily in his word, not to fulfill a religious duty but to discover yet again the grace of God and the power of his truth. They live obedient lives of service, seeking to honor God and love others well. They faithfully engage with their church community and generously give to those in need. Yet when it comes to matters of glory, it is those who worship that thin the veil to eternity with God.
This is not because worship is necessarily more important than other disciplines. However, worship is unique because it requires us to look toward God and offer praises worthy of his name. This worship is more than songs sung at church or played on the smart TV via YouTube. This is a life of adoration that stirs from the heart. In giving God worship, we go low and lift God high. We posture ourselves for glory.
This is just my heart and imagination about what it might be like to grow to 75, 80, 85, 90, and 95 years of loving and serving God. I want to be dangerously close to the throne of God as I breathe my last breath here on earth, whenever that day would be. I want Psalms 8:1 to resonate more deeply with me on that day than today. I want to have a taste of majesty.
How can we respond to this truth? We are not just welcome to know that God is majestic; we get to receive glory and encounter the majesty of God. Jesus said in John 17:22 NIV, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—.” David could claim that it was true, and we get to witness that it is true.
With faith, we can believe that these promises are for us—that Christ desires his people to live in his glory. Psalms 8 is a beautiful text, but how much greater are these words as we pursue a life of glory? The life of abiding means that in seeking God’s majesty today, we move forward on a journey of increasing knowledge of God so that even the most fundamental realities of who God is never cease to deepen in our hearts.
