As I approached the Word this morning, a strange thought crossed my mind. I remembered back to my early days of faith in Christ and thought about how so often I would read Scripture and discover something so new and fresh that it would demand an immediate change to my thinking and my life. I felt bad that I hadn't experienced that in a long time and realized I surely could not have exhausted the rich depths of the Word with my feeble mind and short life. For the past few weeks, I have been closing my time in the Word by reading a psalm each day. Today was Psalm 25. I began reading and was stopped in my tracks when I got to verse 11: "For the sake of Your name, O Lord, forgive my iniquity, though it is great." One word in that verse suddenly jumped out at me: 'Your'. Often I think of salvation and forgiveness as being all about me. Sure it comes from God alone, but it ultimately benefits me, right? Wrong! David asks for forgiveness not for the sake of his own name, but for the sake of God's name. In other words, as God forgives us, the ultimate reason He does this is not to save us or not to cleanse us or not so that we can be with Him forever - though all of these are so true. He forgives us ultimately for the sake of His name, for His glory. I wondered if this was an isolated verse, one that I might have taken out of context in arriving at this meaning. But my Bible cross-referenced it to Psalm 31.3: "Since You are my Rock and my Fortress, for the sake of Your name lead and guide me." In this psalm, David is in trouble again. He needs rescuing and knows that God can do it. So He asks for the Lord's leadership and guidance in his life for the sake of His name. Not David's, so he can be spared and rescued from trouble. God will act in David's life for the sake of His own name. It also cross-referenced to Psalm 79.9, where the same idea comes up again: "Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of Your name;
deliver us and forgive us our sins for Your name's sake." This time, Asaph (and not David) is crying out for God's mercy on His people who have sinned against Him. He asks that God help them and save them and deliver them and forgive them for the glory of His name. Not to make Asaph or Israel look good, although that will happen. But ultimately, it is all for the glory of God. Jeremiah even touches on this idea briefly in 14.7. After a few minutes' investigation, God led me to four different verses written by three different men who all spoke of God working in their lives ultimately for His own name and for His own glory. He proved His Word to be a rich haven of priceless treasure once again. So the next time I think of myself more highly than I ought, I trust that the Holy Spirit will bring these verses to my mind and help me remember that even the greatest things that have happened and will happen in my life are not really about me. They're all about Him, His name, and His glory!
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