bragging on God

Tomorrow my daughter leaves on a short-term mission trip to Russia. This will be her second trip there, and to say that I am very proud of her would be understatement. However, I am always mindful that she is the fabulous young lady that she is because of God and the way He has gifted her. Now thereby hangs a tale.

This morning as I sat eating breakfast, she came in and sat down with me. During the course of our conversation she mentioned that she needed to come up with a devotional for the [Russia] team. You see, the team does a devotional together each day during the trip, and each team member leads at least one of those sessions. Predictably, I began thinking of what I might do if the assignment was mine. After a moment, my mind went to Psalm 34:1-3:

I will bless the LORD at all times;
His praise shall continually be in my mouth.

My soul will make its boast in the LORD;
The humble will hear it and rejoice.

O magnify the LORD with me,
And let us exalt His name together.

I talked to her about verse 3 in particular, where in the New American Standard Bible it is rendered "O magnify the Lord with me." (In the New International Version, is says, "Glorify the Lord...") What does it mean to "magnify the Lord?" Make God bigger? When one looks at the moon through a telescope, the moon doesn't get bigger--we see it bigger. And I think that's what the psalmist meant--glorify the Lord, see Him bigger, as big as he truly is. Too often we look at God through the eyes of our own understanding, and so we'll always see him too small. Let me mention a quote here that I've mentioned before:

If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshiped.

—Evelyn Underhill

But verse 2 was the nugget for me this morning; the psalmist said, "My soul will make its boast in the Lord." I'm proud of both of my kids, but they're God's kids first, and they are fine people not because of me but because of the way he made and gifted them. Praise Him!