Second Samuel chapter 23 starts off with these words: "These are the last words of David: 'The oracle of David son of Jesse, the oracle of the man exalted by the Most High...'" That last phrase might be paraphrased in today's English as "lifted up by the Lofty." It is a very strange combination of words not often found in the Hebrew language. Robert Alter says this: "The two Hebrew words reflected in this translation, huqam 'al, have a gorgeous strangeness as a compacted idiom." This phrase really stuck with me. A gorgeous strangeness. It it strange indeed, that God would look down on us and choose not only to bless us so extravagantly, but to bring us up to His level - so that we would be lifted up by the Lofty.
What a wonderful picture! The first half of 2 Samuel 23 has such beautiful imagery. Here are a few of my favorites excerpts: "when one rules over men in righteousness...he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning;" "[he is like] the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth;" "Has He not made with me an everlasting covenant?" "Will He not bring to fruition my salvation?" David had a great imagination. He spoke of God with descriptions and metaphors that most of us could never even hope to come up with. But we can still benefit from learning from David.
Not only can we read his wonderful depictions of his best friend, the LORD God Almighty, but we also see from his example that it's OK to dream about God. In fact, He wants us to. No matter how awesome, majestic, and sovereign we make Him, we will never be able to make Him bigger than He actually is. So go ahead, dream God up. Make Him big. The beauty of His gorgeous strangeness, the wonder of this thing called life, is that, for some reason He wants us to do just that. He wants us to interact with and get to know Him, so that He can do the same with us. He wants to romance us. I don't know about you, but I want to be romanced. I want a relationship with the LORD like David had; one in which he was not afraid to put every care, worry, and glory onto his Daddy's shoulders. What a gorgeous, gorgeous strangeness is our God.
What a wonderful picture! The first half of 2 Samuel 23 has such beautiful imagery. Here are a few of my favorites excerpts: "when one rules over men in righteousness...he is like the light of morning at sunrise on a cloudless morning;" "[he is like] the brightness after rain that brings the grass from the earth;" "Has He not made with me an everlasting covenant?" "Will He not bring to fruition my salvation?" David had a great imagination. He spoke of God with descriptions and metaphors that most of us could never even hope to come up with. But we can still benefit from learning from David.
Not only can we read his wonderful depictions of his best friend, the LORD God Almighty, but we also see from his example that it's OK to dream about God. In fact, He wants us to. No matter how awesome, majestic, and sovereign we make Him, we will never be able to make Him bigger than He actually is. So go ahead, dream God up. Make Him big. The beauty of His gorgeous strangeness, the wonder of this thing called life, is that, for some reason He wants us to do just that. He wants us to interact with and get to know Him, so that He can do the same with us. He wants to romance us. I don't know about you, but I want to be romanced. I want a relationship with the LORD like David had; one in which he was not afraid to put every care, worry, and glory onto his Daddy's shoulders. What a gorgeous, gorgeous strangeness is our God.
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ReplyDeletevery cool! I'm gonna have to think on that one..."gorgeous strangeness..."
ReplyDeletethanks for the post :-)