You Are My Glory

YOU O LORD! ARE MY GLORY, AND THE ONE WHO LIFTS UP MY HEAD (NRSV). Psalm 3.3.

What is it you glory in? Or what is it that you boast about? Many people glory in many things. Some don’t even know what they are boasting in or about! I once overheard a conversation among children in the swimming pool in the apartment complex where we once lived. A small kid boasted that his father had two cars. Immediately, his buddy from the same block said, “My father has two apartments!” The list got longer as the two of them kept on boasting to each other. It reminds me of two school children in the States who got into a boasting contest. One was from a Christian family and the other not. Whatever the non-Christian lad boasted about the other could equal effortlessly. Finally, in frustration the non-Christian lad said, “I have three ‘fathers’ who bring home sweets for me and presents to my mother on weekends!” The other boy was put out of the argument for he couldn’t match his friend any more!

Once a fellow Christian in his fifties, a good believer and active in the church, told me he had a desire to own a Mercedes Benz! Of course, I know that he glories in his God. But he wanted to glory in his car too! He asked me “What car do you drive?” When I told him I happen to drive a Benz, he asked, “How did you come to own one?” I said, “It was simple. When I started my private medical practice, a friend of mine, a Mercedes Benz salesman, came to me begging me to buy a car so he could fill up his quota for that month!” Partly to oblige him, I signed up and the next thing I knew, there was a Benz at my doorstep!

I told my Christian friend, “If you glory in the Lord, He will glorify you! You don’t have to go after things, God will send them your way if He wants to give them to you!” Not that He will give everyone a Mercedes or a BMW! The psalmist said, “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Psa 37.4).

A little later, a doctor friend of mine met me in the church foyer. He told me, “You look good! You look younger every time I see you!” I told him genuinely, “The only reason I can give is that it may be because I glory in my God all day!” Then, he said, “Honestly, you look fit and agile, as if you are only fifty-five!”

My godly father, the late Mr. P V George wrote a book at the height of his life and career, entitled, “The Unique Christ”. He had a photo of his in the book and underneath was his favourite verse from the only version of the Bible available then, King James, “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world” (Gal 6.14).

Dear believer, learn to glory only in the LORD. Let nothing else take His place in your life. He will glorify and honour you.

Pray and practise with me: Dear Lord, You are a shield around me, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. Lord, let it be so to the end of my days. Amen!