Glorifying the Lord - A Privilege

"Oh, magnify the LORD with me,And let us exalt His name together." Psalms 34:3

A very prominent theme in scripture is the glory of the Lord. Many verses speak of God's glory proclaimed in nature (Psalm 19:1, Psalm 97:6). The Bible declares God's glory to be in His righteousness and holiness. And these attributes cause His name to be glorified above all things. In fact, the Bible speaks of God's glory being so powerful, pure, and awesome, that the mere sight of it would cause sinful men to be killed and cast into eternal punishment. In Exodus 34, the Bible describes Moses's face - a mere dimmed reflection of the glory of God - as so bright and overwhelming that the Children of Israel could not look upon him (Moses).

When Isaiah, in a vision, saw God seated on His throne and His glory, he cried out, "Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts" (Isaiah 6:5).

Many passages throughout Scripture extol and exalt the glory of the Lord. God is able to display His glory to His creation in any manner He chooses. He could shine forth His glory Himself to men, which he did many times, or choose not to use any means to accomplish the displaying of His glory, but he doesn't. He gives us the privilege of glorifying Him. We who have been declared righteous in His sight by Christ's death on the cross, receive the the great honor of lifting up our Savior for His glory.

When Christ redeems us from the curse of the law, we are no longer slaves to the law and unable to glorify the Lord; He establishes us as children of the Lord and co-heirs with Christ. Christ proclaimed many times in Scripture that He sought to glorify the Father. As co-heirs with Christ our striving passion should be to glorify God in everything that we do. This is not in any way a burden, but is an incredible gift from God, that he allows us to accomplish, as well as take great joy in fulfilling.

In my next post, I will discuss how the glory of God is shown in our life, and how it is an utter privilege from the Lord to glorify Him.