In the Lord I Take Refuge: 31 Days in the PsalmsSample

“Great is the glory of the Lord. For though the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar” (vv. 5–6).

Where is God’s glory seen? In his greatness, to be sure: his omnipotence, infinitude, and eternality. Even more, however, the glory of God is seen in his goodness in light of that greatness. In all his immensity, he delights in showering his wayward creatures with grace upon grace. God is not glorious merely because he is great (although he is!) but because in that great immensity, he is also merciful when he has every reason to turn the shoulder and vaporize us.

Jonathan Edwards wrote in a letter to a woman whose son had died: “Especially are the beams of Christ’s glory infinitely softened and sweetened by his love to men, the love that passeth knowledge. The glory of his person consists, preeminently, in that infinite goodness and grace, of which he made so wonderful a manifestation in his love to us.” The great French reformer John Calvin agreed: “There is no honoring of God unless his mercy be acknowledged, upon which alone it is founded and established.”

Do you want to glorify God? Here is one major way to do it: Let him love you. Receive his grace, and drink it down without adding one drop of your own goodness to it. Your very purpose in life and eternity is to be “to the praise of his glorious grace” (Eph. 1:6).