What is glory? What does glorified mean? To glorify God is to honor Him through our sanctification, our transformation to become perfect in His image. Imagine that glory is a mirror we hold up. We glorify God by reflecting His image to the world and back to Him. It is a pleasing worship for us to praise Him through our lives as we respond with godliness, with the fruit of the Spirit. To glorify God is to act with Love because God is Love. (1 John 4:8). It is to speak and act with Truth because Jesus is the Truth. (John 14:6). It is to walk in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, because that is the nature of The Holy Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-23).
How is The Lord glorified? Is He glorified when we suffer and moan? Or is it when we suffer and sing His Praises that He is glorified? Is He glorified when our enemies hate us and we curse them? Or is He glorified when our enemies try and trample us and we bless them and pray for them?
In this Miktam titled Let Your Glory Be over All the Earth, David expressed his anguish over his enemies to The Lord. But through his distress, he glorified the Lord. Verses 1-4 read,
“Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
till the storms of destruction pass by.
2 I cry out to God Most High,
to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me;
he will put to shame him who tramples on me. Selah
God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness!
4 My soul is in the midst of lions;
I lie down amid fiery beasts--
the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows,
whose tongues are sharp swords.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!
6 They set a net for my steps;
my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my way,
but they have fallen into it themselves. Selah”
David praised God for His mercy. Mercy is God’s loving kindness, his compassion in knowing we are fallible, yet showing us favor regardless. God shows us His mercy in many ways in this verse, God showed David His mercy by letting David take refuge in Him, by being a shield from the furor of his enemies’ attacks and the evil they tried to inflict upon him. God is our refuge through everything. No matter what our enemies do to us, we know our future, we know that God is with us and that nothing the enemy does to us can succeed. (Isaiah 54:17).
David, a man after God’s own heart showed mercy to Saul. He could have killed him when Saul came entered the cave where David was hiding. But instead he bowed down to King Saul and declared he wouldn’t kill him even though he could have. (1 Samuel 24).
David was hiding in a cave from Saul who was desperate to kill him. God surrounded and protected David like the mountain. David was even able to sleep knowing Almighty God was His refuge and that God had anointed Him to be the next king of Israel. He trusted God to sustain him and keep him alive so that he could be the king God called him to be. Believer, you have been anointed to a royal and magnificent calling, a great purpose, and an eternal hope. God is your shield in order to fulfill your purpose for His glory.
David glorified the Lord by showing mercy to Saul, by trusting God to be His refuge, and praising God and giving Him the credit for his safety instead of taking that acclaim for himself. David didn’t keep God’s great work to himself. He told people, wrote a song, sang and danced, and he praised The Lord. Verses 7-11 read,
“My heart is steadfast, O God,
my heart is steadfast!
I will sing and make melody!
8 Awake, my glory!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn!
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the clouds.
11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!
Let your glory be over all the earth!”
David didn’t only praise the Lord when things were going well for him. He didn’t only pray when things were going poorly. He praised and prayed constantly. His faith in God didn’t waver. He wasn’t tossed around like a buoy on a tumultuous sea. God is steadfast. His love is steadfast. His commitment to us is steadfast. We glorify God with that same steadfast faith in Him.
When we manifest God’s character toward Him and to the world we glorify Him. The world can’t help but take notice. It isn’t the Christianese t-shirt or bumper sticker that says we are followers of Christ. It is our love. It is not a patronizing pretentious piety that says we are royal heirs with Jesus. It is our active and intentional love. It is walking in the Spirit and so demonstrating His love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control which glorifies God. John 13:31-35 in The Message says it this way,
“When he had left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is seen for who he is, and God seen for who he is in him. The moment God is seen in him, God’s glory will be on display. In glorifying him, he himself is glorified—glory all around!
33 “Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I’m telling you: ‘Where I go, you are not able to come.’
34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”