My Life Belongs To God

Meditations on the Psalms

August 12, 2022

My Life Belongs To God

 

Honor the Lord for the glory of his name.

    Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

Psalm 29:2

Psalm 29 is thought to be one of the oldest poems in the Psalms. The number seven in the Bible connotes the perfection of God, and seven times the psalmist refers to the voice of God; thus, the theme of the sovereign rule of God is supported by the form of the poem to affirm God’s rule is complete. The psalm also identifies the neighboring countries of Israel to support his thought that God is sovereign over all creation: nature, humankind, and nation states.

The theme of Psalm 29 is often repeated in the psalms. As an example, consider the opening verses of Psalm 121: “I look up to the mountains— does my help come from there? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth!”  In Psalm 121, the psalmist was contrasting his belief in the LORD to the people who worshipped the god Baal and believed Baal lived in the mountains. This is similar in form to what we saw in Psalm 20: “Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God.”

This is a very hard psalm for American Christians to take seriously. As a pastor, following the teaching Paul in 1 Timothy 2 and Titus 3, I often prayed to “Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient” (Titus 3:1). Because Americans are a rebellious lot and generally do not want to submit to authority, I often had people object to my prayers.

Our God loves us unconditionally. He died for us while were yet sinners. He will never, ever give up on us. Nevertheless, His sovereign rule is absolute and complete. God is at work in our lives, bringing us to the time when we will joyfully pray to God, “My life does not belong to me. My life belongs to God. By creation and redemption my life belongs to God.”

My Takeaway: God is at work transforming our lives to become like Christ. Psalm 29 can help us examine our life. As we pray Psalm 29 as our personal prayer, let’s reflect on how enthusiastically we embrace God’s complete sovereign rule in our life. This may be a good indicator of how far along the path of transformation we have journeyed.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.