Word of Encouragement (10/16/2024)
Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength! 29 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering and come before him! Worship the LORD in the splendor of holiness; 30 tremble before him, all the earth; yes, the world is established; it shall never be moved. (1 Chron. 16:28-30)
David calls on families of the peoples to ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name. As you know, “the LORD” here is YHWH in Hebrew—the name of God, which means “I AM that I AM.” What a name! According to Geerhardus Vos, this is “a covenant name and signified: (a) self-existence; and (b) God’s immutability and faithfulness.”
Our minds cannot comprehend what self-existence is like. It means that God was not created by anything or anyone. Can our finite minds grasp that idea—something existing without being given birth to or made by something else? A self-existing being must have been there before this world came into being, which is made up of finite, created things. Not did God will Himself into existence: one must exist to will; there is no act of willing without the prior existence of an intelligent being; to will oneself into existence, he must exist first. To be self-existent is to be eternal.
How powerful or full of life must one be to be self-existent, to be eternally “I AM”? God, who is I AM, cannot be fully comprehended by the minds of finite beings. Because God has revealed Himself to us (and because He gave us the minds to understand), we can know Him in a meaningful way, but we cannot know Him as He is in His self-existent, divine Self. We must strive to know Him through His revelation, but in the end, He is an object of our worship, not merely our knowledge. At the end of our theological endeavor, we must bow down and confess, “LORD, you are God. You are so much greater than we can ever know. In awe and humility, we bow down and worship you. We ascribe to You the glory due Your name!”
Along with the call to ascribe glory to God, David also calls on us to “bring an offering...!” We can say what we mean, but we can say what we don’t mean. Words can be cheap because saying things doesn’t require much effort. We can ascribe glory to someone merely with words of acclamation and exclamation. There are times when that’s all we can do. But when we are sincere, we feel compelled to express the depth of our respect and appreciation by giving what we treasure. How sincerely we want to ascribe glory to God is measured by what we are willing to present to God as our offering. Let us meditate on the glory of God—not only of the glory and strength of His name but also of His glorious grace toward us. As we do so, may the Lord open our hearts wide to Him and loosen our grips on things so we can ascribe to Him the glory that He deserves from His people!