Scripture

Psalm 40 ESV

I waited patiently for the Lord;
    he inclined to me and heard my cry.
He drew me up from the pit of destruction,
    out of the miry bog,
and set my feet upon a rock,
    making my steps secure.
He put a new song in my mouth,
    a song of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear,
    and put their trust in the Lord.

Blessed is the man who makes
    the Lord his trust,
who does not turn to the proud,
    to those who go astray after a lie!
You have multiplied, O Lord my God,
    your wondrous deeds and your thoughts toward us;
    none can compare with you!
I will proclaim and tell of them,
    yet they are more than can be told.

In sacrifice and offering you have not delighted,
    but you have given me an open ear.Burnt offering and sin offering
    you have not required.
Then I said, "Behold, I have come;
    in the scroll of the book it is written of me:
I delight to do your will, O my God;
    your law is within my heart."

I have told the glad news of deliverance
    in the great congregation;
behold, I have not restrained my lips,
    as you know, O Lord.
I have not hidden your deliverance within my heart;
    I have spoken of your faithfulness and your salvation;
I have not concealed your steadfast love and your faithfulness
    from the great congregation.

As for you, O Lord, you will not restrain
    your mercy from me;
your steadfast love and your faithfulness will
    ever preserve me!
For evils have encompassed me
    beyond number;
my iniquities have overtaken me,
    and I cannot see;
they are more than the hairs of my head;
    my heart fails me.

Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!
    O Lord, make haste to help me!
Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether
    who seek to snatch away my life;
let those be turned back and brought to dishonor
    who delight in my hurt!
Let those be appalled because of their shame
    who say to me, "Aha, Aha!"

But may all who seek you
    rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who love your salvation
    say continually, "Great is the Lord!"
As for me, I am poor and needy,
    but the Lord takes thought for me.
You are my help and my deliverer;
    do not delay, O my God!

Psalm 149:1-4

Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people.  Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King.  Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp.  For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. 

God's Humility Allows for Our Salvation 

by Rev. Cory Bradford-Watts

Read the message below. Video premieres today at 8 pm EDT, click here to watch on YouTube with live text chat

What do you think of when you think humility? Perhaps of those that give their life in the service of others? Or those who act with a humble spirit, seemingly without ego or the need for praise? It's an interesting question because when I turn to scripture the person most cited as emphasizing our need to glorify him/her is also the Divine Person that is painted as the humblest entity imaginable: God(dess). Could that be true?

In a way we see it in the world around us - despite the Lord's all pervasiveness with us and in all goodness, truth, usefulness and structure, God doesn't seek to dominate and control. Instead, we're told, God empowers our "freedom" to do what she wouldn't do even with all the gifts that she provides, just so that we and the rest of the universe might exist and enjoy the limited autonomy that makes us "us."

How amazing.

In fact, in our reading from Psalm 40 today, we see one of many instances throughout the Jewish (Hebrew) scriptures where we're told that God really doesn't care about all those rituals for him, compared to his care for uplifting us out of "the pit of destruction" and the "miry bog."

It's funny, because sometimes in religion we get the sense that God is here to put us in the pit of destruction. But actually, scripture tends to make it clear that we're truly the masters of our own hell or heaven, although we can be uplifted toward heaven by Divinity when we allow him to. Indeed, we're told that God is even with us in our pit of destruction, upholding our spirit where he can even there, and as Psalm 40 relates: striving to draw us out of that bog onto a secure rock with a song in our mouth. God gets his hands dirty and isn't afraid to sit and care for us even in our worse moments.

This is an active reality for each of us. We each probably have aspects of our spirit that is bogged down. Bogged down by the reality of our situation or by the reality of our spiritual habits and orientations, and the Lord is there with us in the mud, hands under our arms, making sure as much as he can that we don't dig ourselves deeper, ready to lift us out of our pit once we allow him to. God is a selfless, humble friend, willing to do what it takes to enliven us.

A Higher Power with so much power we wouldn't expect to humble herself as much as she does, would we? Not only is she patiently working with each of us, pulling us toward higher life, but she also puts up with slander, disbelief, and judgment, so that we may live. And as we know in his bodily life, God, Jesus the Christ, accepted our abuse even to bodily torture and demise. We're blessed with such a humble savior.

There's a reason why Biblical scripture and others emphasize the need for our humility for our salvations' sake. It's a Godly attribute, and Godliness is heavenliness: receiving finite portions of God's heavenly characteristics brings us peace and joy. More obviously, humility is what allows us to empower others without getting bogged down in egotism and selfish regard. Humility is literally the state of putting yourself last. As Jesus said in the Gospels, "To be first you must become last."

It reminds me of sayings throughout an even more ancient text, the Tao Te Ching, which states, "Why is the Master ahead? Because she allows herself to be behind." There's something Divine about servanthood, something holy and empowering about giving up our power to dominate and control.

We see it in our civil servants and say, "What a Godly woman." When someone with power acts with humble altruism we reflect, "How Divine." How true!

The Lord shines through all of our good deeds, especially when we do good for the sake of others and goodness itself. That's humility in act, because the desires of a truly humble spirit always reflect the needs and desires of those around him. In a sense, that's why God allows for our own tendencies toward selfishness and destruction. A selfish, controlling God could only allow for himself to exist.

In my life, sometimes I forget that God is always right here, waiting patiently, humbly, to uplift me. I can get mired by my "iniquities" and "evils," my selfish leanings and ultimately hurtful desires, and become blinded to that spiritual reality, as Psalm 40 describes. But the beauty of that Psalm is that although its author is spiritually oppressed, they express confidence in the Lord's ability to save as they humble their spirit in the truth of their reality and lament it.

When you're in the pit you can get used to it. Our world offers us prescriptions and distractions that don't often address the mire that we're in, but instead help us to feel deadened towards it, to be blind to it. And unfortunately, such an approach leads to much addiction and can promote apathy toward changing the fundamental reasons for our depression, oppression, and pain. We often do this ourselves starting at a young age, as we just try to get by. (That being said, often prescriptions can help greatly, but we should be aware that our doctors are often highly incentivized to write prescriptions and not spend time on the root of our issues).

That's ok. We don't have to carry shame for our youthful choices, but for ourselves and for our world we should feel that call toward transformation. We should accept God's humble offering of peace, love, and humility, having confidence that these heavenly attributes are at the root of heaven's joy and gladness, that (as the scripture say) these are at the root of life, the universe, and spirit itself. We should note that the most powerful being in the universe is the humblest, so who are we to bask in vanity, arrogance, selfishness, and vengeance?

As the Psalm describes, God does not restrain his mercy from us, nor his faithfulness and steadfast love, even in the face of the evils that encompass us "without number." Like a Divine Mother Teresa, God is there in our poorest states, holding and feeding, offering mercy and love for our broken spirits. As we heal, we're called to emulate that humble faithfulness toward God (whatever we call her) and others. We're called to each in our own way embody the Divine Servant at the root of all things, centering ourselves on the peace of humility and allowing ourselves to be behind.

Blessings,

Rev. Cory