#171: God's Unlikely Choice

 

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! Psalm 8:1

We can all agree that God is the greatest force in all of creation. He is matchless. Throughout history, God has consistently put His glory on display for all to see. It is His great pleasure to be glorified. He is a jealous God and does not share His glory with any man (Isaiah 42:8). However, as mighty as He is, the astonishing thing is His choice on how He wants His majesty displayed. Today, we will take a brief study on Psalm 8 and extrapolate a bit on other instances to show His consistency in making unlikely choices. May God grant us insight in Jesus' name. Amen.

First of all, let us explore just how majestic God is:

You have set Your glory above the heavens. (vs 1)

When I look at your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars which You have set in place. (vs 3)

Like we have established earlier, God's glory is on display for all to see. Since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made (Rom 1:20). In other words, when you observe all of creation, they are all pointers to God's majesty. Even though God is invisible, the trees, the skies, the land, the seas all tell of His glory. The psalmist puts it this way:

The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmaments show His handiwork. (Psalm 19:1)

I will meditate on the glorious splendour of Your majesty;

and on Your wondrous works. (Psalm 145:5)

If we want to relate to God's glory, we need not look too far. The heavens declare His glory all day and all night long. Indeed, how majestic is the LORD our Lord in all the earth.

As we move further down the Psalm, we notice a plot twist:

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, 

You have established strength because of Your foes,

to still the enemy and the avenger. (vs 2)

What? Babies and infants? What an unlikely choice!!! Of everything to show forth His strength, why would it be the most helpless of mankind in the form of babies and infants when there are mountains, there are tornadoes, there are volcanoes, there are lightning and storms? This is just ridiculous. To silence His enemies He uses babies? Can any victory be wrought from the mouth of babies and infants?

When I look at Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,

the moon and the stars which You have set in place,

what is man that You are mindful of him,

and the son of man that You care for him?

Yet You have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honour,

You have given him dominion over the works of Your hands;

You have put all things under his feet. (vs 3-6)

Of all things in creation, why would God decide to crown man (made from dust) with glory and honour when there are galaxies of stars shining brilliantly all night long? This is mind-blowing and difficult to comprehend. But these seemingly unlikely choices are how God has decided to show His majesty. Man is not as elegant as the angels, yet God has decided to put all creation under man. When you consider these, you end up concluding just as the psalmist did this psalm:

O LORD. our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! (vs 9)

By using the weak things to establish strength, He has silenced His foes. There is no better way to show how sovereign He is. It is like playing a video game with another opponent to show off how good you are, and you decide to use the weakest team to beat him when he uses the strongest team. Such an opponent is silenced forever.

And the bible is a collection of Spirit-inspired literature of weak men of old who God used to show His majesty:

Moses the stammerer;

Gideon the timid one, whom God called a mighty man of valour;

David the shepherd boy who became a giant slayer;

Jeremiah who was only a youth;

Isaiah, who had unclean lips;

Abraham and Sarah, the childless couple;

Mary, the virgin;

Uneducated fishermen who became pillars of the church;

You and I, who are by all standards unqualified for what God has called us into.

But let us be reminded, brothers and sisters, even though we consider ourselves as unlikely choices, God has been in the business of making seemingly unlikely choices to the praise of His name. If you think God is mistaken, that He could never have picked you if He knew who you are, consider this story:

Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward Him, and said to him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"

Nathanael said to Him, "How do You know me?"

Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you; when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." John 1:47&48

If you are asking the same question that Nathanael was asking Jesus because Jesus calls you a man of valour, though you consider yourself not, the solemn reply is "I know you; I saw you!" (Psalm 139:13-16) and that is why He is calling you and commissioning you.

Thought: God's unlikely choice is actually not random and careless, but it is so that the glory belongs to Him alone! That is why He uses the foolish things to put to shame the wise, the weak things to put to shame the mighty and the base and despised and things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are - that no flesh should glory in HIs presence. So let he who glories, glory in the LORD (I Cor 1:26-31). God's unlikely choices are in both the people He uses and His methodology of working.

O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!!!

If God grants us grace, we will explore this theme further in the life of Jesus where God profoundly showed His majesty by conquering death and sin through a shameful cross - a very unlikely choice.