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Discipleship Focus: Authority
- Authority: Our calling. This comes from God as king. Because He calls us as His representatives, He gives us authority to go and do His will.
Psalm 36
really is about authority. Look at the
contrast that we are given between the first and second halves of the
psalm. In the first half of the psalm,
the psalmist speaks about those who seek their own desires. They plot and plan trouble thinking that they
will never be found out. They relish in
the fact that nobody can truly know the depth of depravity that exists in their
mind. They are their own authority.
On the
other hand, we have the second half of the psalm. Here the psalmist speaks about the life of
those who give authority to God and God’s ways.
God’s love is precious. His ways
are steadfast. He is a fountain of
life. Rather than seeking our own
depravity, God when we give authority to God we find life and love and security
in life. This is why is it good to look
to the Father as the source of our authority.
It’s just not worth trying to be our own authority in this life.
Psalm 37
largely picks up where psalm 37 left of in comparison of the wicked versus the
righteous. There are too many comparisons
to mention here, but I’ll list a few poignant ones. When we are our own authority, we fade like
grass, we look for others of whom we can take advantage, we experience the
emptiness of our abundance, we know the limit of our days, we know greed, and
we don’t know true wisdom. But when God
is our authority we will know justice as the noonday, we delight in relieving
the oppressed, we know the fullness of God, we know that our days are endless
with God, we know the joy of giving, and we have the benefit of genuine wisdom. I don’t know about you, but that is quite an
impressive list. I certainly think the
benefits of submitting to God and letting Him be the authority in our life far
outweighs whatever we might think we are giving up!
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