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January 03, 2005

Boasting for the Sake of the Humble

A meditation on Psalm 34:1-2

1 I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.
2 My soul makes its boast in the Lord;
let the humble hear and be glad.
(Psalm 34:1-2)

Yesterday, two personal encounters confirmed to me the importance of the opening lines to my favorite psalm (Psalm 34). I remember having a conversation in early 2003 with Janeé (Critchfield) Pederson regarding this passage. Something stood out to me as we read verse two that perplexed me initially but began making sense as I meditated on it.

The first verse reveals the inescapable result of a heart set on Christ: it overflows in speech. The second verse shows an effect of such speech to others. Before I develop these two ideas, let me explain yesterday’s situations.

First, I had a conversation with someone in my Sunday school class of whom it seems obvious to me has a heart set on God. When this person has spoken in class, it has always been about God’s supremacy and our position before Him. This person has boasted in the Lord, and as we talked I was reminded about why this was so refreshing to me.

Second, I spent the night staying late closing at Super Target (where I work as a cashier), and I was able to, at length, have a discussion with one of my coworkers about the Lord and how He affects our lives. To my joy, I have found a brother who is also seeking to know the Lord more and is desirous of true communion with another in Christ. This is the first connection with anyone at work on a spiritual level and I am astounded at how I neglected the obvious for so long at work: boast in the Lord, and do it verbally.

Blessing the Lord at All Times

Verse one is the overflow of a heart set on Christ: it speaks well of the Lord continually. A soul satisfied in Christ is not content to be silent before others. According to Jesus’ words in Matthew 12:34, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Whatever is filling our hearts is what our mouth will surely speak of. If what is filling our hearts is the the next big movie, we will speak of it. If it is a new lover, we will speak of her or him. If it is the latest excellent restaurant experience, we will speak of it. The things we delight in we cannot help but speak of. A heart filled up with pleasure overflows in speech about that pleasure.

So, when I read that David says that he will bless the Lord at all times and that His praise will continually be in his mouth, I see a soul that is filled with Christ, the image of God, that cannot help but speak of Him continually.

And this is what we, as Christians, should be doing. I do not mean that we should speak of what we do not possess. Woe to us if we speak of Him when we are not feeding on Him! As Richard Baxter said:

Oh what aggravated misery is this, to perish in the midst of plenty! — to famish with the bread of life in our hands, while we offer it to others, and urge it on them…! If such a wretched man would take my counsel, he would make a stand, and call his heart and life to an account, and fall a preaching a while to himself, before he preach any more to others.

Richard Baxter, The Reformed Pastor (emphasis mine)

To perish from starvation when we are passing out the Bread of Life (John 6:35) would indeed be a tragedy. We must partake of Him ourselves. We must, as David says later in Psalm 34:8, “taste and see that the Lord is good.”

The second part of Baxter’s quote also applies very well to the verses we have been considering. Verse one is the result of preaching the gospel of the glory of Christ to ourselves, and verse two is the preaching of that same gospel to others.

The Rejoicing of the Humble

In verse two, this praise that the psalmist says is continually in his mouth has an effect: when the humble hear it, they are glad. I wondered when I first read it, “Why does he speak of the humble? How have they become humble? Why is it that being humble results in being glad?”

The best answer I have to offer is that when a person who has been humbled by God through the power of the gospel hears another person boasting in the Lord (as opposed to themselves, which is pride), the humble person’s heart agrees, loves to see God exalted in that way, and rejoices in His exaltation. The true saint loves to see God exalted and man abased. He loves to see God glorified and man as dependent on Him.

So, when two people who have been humbled by the Lord come into proximity with one another and one boasts in Him, the other will hear it and be glad. Why? Because the humble love it when God is exalted, whether by their own lips or the lips of others.

Boasting in Real Life

When my friend in Sunday school was boasting in the Lord, I rejoiced. We connected on a spiritual level rapidly and found true fellowship nearly instantaneously. This is, on a side note, the true basis for any relationship among believers, from friendship to marriage. This is fellowship, when two people have in common their participation in the love that is shared between the Father and the Son (1 John 1:3-4). There is nothing sweeter than that communion.

So it was at work that I decided to boast in the Lord before my coworker by exalting His work on the cross on my behalf and His majesty in creation. We had been talking of secular things for a little while, but I felt no shame in explaining that I believed at that moment that Jesus’ work on the cross was the most amazing thing in the world to me. I didn’t know how he would take it, but I did not want to speak of mere trivial things. My soul desired to boast in the Lord, and it did. He heard it and was drawn to it. After we were done over three hours later, he told me that it was the best closing experience he had ever had and that the time we had spent went by quickly. I had to agree with him that I felt the same way.

Why are we sometimes (or oftentimes) afraid to boast in the Lord? For me, it is owing to the fact that I feel that I must intellectually defend Him and don’t feel prepared to do so. I do not really think that He can authenticate Himself to those who would hear my boast without my being a great orator or defender of the truth. But you know, it is becoming more my experience that my relationship with Christ is so much deeper and richer than what anyone has encountered, and to speak of Him in such terms as boasting of my dependency on Him is something they do not know how to deal with. If I say, “Jesus was a real person who lived 2,000 years ago,” that is a fact they can dispute. While there is great benefit to researching the historical reliability of the Bible, most people are not going to initially do that before coming to faith in Him. I am agreeing more and more with John Piper in his epilogue to his beautiful book, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ [1]. In it, he says:

Stated most simply, the common path to sure knowledge of the real Jesus is this: Jesus, as he is revealed in the Bible, has a glory — an excellence, a spiritual beauty — that can be seen as self-evidently true. It is like seeing the sun and knowing that it is light and not dark, or like tasting honey and knowing that it is sweet and not sour. There is no long chain of reasoning from premises to conclusions. There is a direct apprehension that this person is true and his glory is the glory of God. (119-120)

The place where this is seen is in the Bible. But I believe that our presentation of Him to the world also intends a similar effect when our boasting is based on the truth in the Bible. As we boast in Him, as verse one indicates, it will be used to awaken others to His glory, as verse two alludes to. Yes, we ought to be sure of the things we have learned (which is why Luke wrote his gospel, as he states at the onset in Luke 1:1-4). But what is going to impact those around us is if we speak of the truth with joy. There must be a hope within us that others see and hear (1 Peter 3:15).

The result of my friend’s boasting in Sunday school and my boasting at work was verse three.

Oh, magnify the Lord with me,
and let us exalt his name together!

And that is one of the most important verses to me in the entire Bible. My joy is doubled when my rejoicing is doubled in another person. Like the Apostle John, I boast in voice and in writing in order that others may have fellowship with me and so complete my joy.

3 That which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete. (1 John 1:3-4)

End Notes

[1] John Piper, Seeing and Savoring Jesus Christ. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2004.

Posted by rob at January 3, 2005 09:14 AM

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