Funny, Famous, and the Family of God

Those who fear you shall see me and rejoice, because I have hoped in your word.
Let those who fear you turn to me, that they may know your testimonies.
Psalm 119:74, 79

In my 28 years of belonging to the family of God, I have wrestled with an inordinate desire to please people. I want to be loved and liked by people, especially the people of God. That desire has sometimes led me to be motivated to live by people-pleasing performance more than by God-pleasing faith. Two traps I have fallen into on a number of occasions (and still get caught in) are the desires to be funny and to be famous. Somehow my flesh figures that if I’m funny, folks will be fond of me, and if I’m famous, folks will follow me. How evil can you get? Both of these desires lead me to manipulate others for my own glory.

These verses in Psalm 119 serve as a corrective as to how I should relate to the people of God and how I should desire that they relate to me. I should want God’s people to relate to me in at least two ways. First, I should want them to “see me and rejoice” (vs. 74). Second, I should want them to “turn to me” (vs. 79). At first glance it may seem that I should continue to pursue being funny and famous. The psalmist wanted God’s people to experience joy because of him, and he wanted God’s people to turn to him, to come to him. That’s all I want, right? Not exactly. Let’s look at why the psalmist wants God’s people to rejoice and turn to him.

The psalmist wants God’s people to look at his life and rejoice because they see a man who hopes in God’s Word. When I use humor to get people to look at me and like me, I am not hoping in God’s Word, but in my own. I’m counting on my own witty words so that people rejoice in me. The psalmist wants the people of God to rejoice in God, and in order to do that they need His Word not mine! Am I leading God’s people to hope in God’s Word and thereby find their joy in Him? Do they see in me someone who’s finding His joy in God as he depends on God’s Word (Romans 10:17)?

The psalmist wants God’s people to turn to him so that they would follow God, not him. The psalmist wants people to follow him only if it leads them to know the testimonies of God resulting in obedience to God’s commands to love Him and to love others. Just as Paul encouraged his disciples to “be imitators of me, even as I am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1; Phillipians 3:17), so I am to live a cruciform life that serves as a “flannel graph in the flesh” or a living example of what it means to know and live the testimonies of God (2 Timothy 1:13).

Only the gospel can change a self-absorbed heart like mine into one that lives for the glory of God and the good of others. Lord have mercy...

Answering the Enemy

Let your steadfast love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise;
then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in your word.
Psalm 119:41-42

With what weapon shall I fight the enemy who taunts me? How shall I fight the accuser of my soul who barrages me with reminders of my sin and unrighteousness? How will I survive the onslaught of self-condemnation my flesh pours out? How can I resist idolizing the world’s good gifts which promise my soul’s satisfaction? The world, the flesh, and the devil collaborate to convince me that the love of God for “such a worm as I” is incredulous.

The psalmist suggests that I mount a cruciform counterattack. Fight back with the cross. The steadfast love of God comes to me as I trust His promise of salvation (vs. 41). Yes, I sin and fall short of the righteous requirement of His royal Law. Yes, such sin and rebellion deserve the wrath of God much less the condemnation I inflict upon myself. Yes, I am too quick to make gods out of God’s good gifts. But, knowing all of that about me, my gracious God promised that He would wash away all my unrighteousness, put His own Spirit in me, and cause me to delight to love Him and others. He promised to save me from His wrath and from myself. He promised that I would enjoy an unfailing relationship of love with Him (Ezekiel 36:25-28).

This promise, called the New Covenant, finds its fulfillment in the gospel, the “word of the cross” (1 Corinthians 1:18). We celebrate and remember this promise every time we drink from the cup of “the New Covenant in [His] blood” (1 Corinthians 11:25; Luke 22:20). Remembering that promise, trusting that word from God, arms me with an answer for the enemy who taunts me (vs. 42). The gospel is my weapon against the world, the flesh, and the devil. The psalmist would agree with Robert Murray M’Cheynne who said that “for every look at self, take ten looks at the cross.” Touché! Take that, taunter!