Psalm 29

Ascribe Glory to God in Your Baptism

This week, our psalm directs itself toward the glory of God. As the principal attribute of this prayer, the pastor will see how the glory of God exists through relationships.

The word “glory” has become what I consider a Grade-A Church Word. Meaning, that many of us only hear “glory” inside a sanctuary. “Glory” is most often a shout. “Glory! Glory!” is often heard from back pews, proclaimed by older folk after offertories. As pastors, we place it on top of our corporate prayers like shredded lettuce on sandwiches to let our congregation know we are almost done. It’s as common as any church word, but what is at risk when words become common?  What does “glory!” mean when it is shouted in our church? Is it the distant reverence we proclaim to an all-powerful but laissez-faire God far from our situation? Is it a word we say when we reach a certain emotional clarity?  I don’t think that is the intent behind those in the church today. In fact, I think they are correct in their shouts. “Glory” proclamations need to find their way into our service. However, when we forego the deep meaning of glory, we are limiting our worship.

“Glory” as Heaviness  

“Glory” is all over the Old Testament. There are several words that we have for glory, so the pastor should note the word this prayer uses. The psalmist uses a word for “glory” that appears no less than two hundred times in the Old Testament and fifty-one times in the book of Psalms, “kabod כָּבוֹד.”[1] This word appears the first time in our Bible in the book of Genesis, recounting a  story of Jacob being noticed by the sons of Laban for accumulating too much wealth from their father. “Kabod” was not used to describe an abstract attribute of the patriarch, but a realization of two people. Jacob is beginning to “get heavy/kabod” from the riches belonging to his father-in-law, and Laban loses his “glory.” The sons’ realizations of this weight exchange serve as witnesses. Laban has lost “weight/glory” and his sons were worried.  I don’t suppose that Laban’s sons were seriously concerned with their father’s BMI or diet, but his proximal weight. The weight of Laban’s glory is centered on the relationship that he has with his family. Perhaps his, and our, glory can best be defined as the place where a person’s value is seen by those the person shares life. We are known by those around us, and “glory” requires a relationship.

Ascribing Glory to God

Therefore, the command we have in Scriptre to ascribe God glory opens us to a unique opportunity. It is to acknowledge that we have a relationship with God, Creator and Sustainer of all of creation. When we are shouting “glory” as all in the temple are, we are saying that, “I have experienced the weight of God in my life.” “Glory!” is not just an interjection or a nod of approval over a song. It is a testimony. David’s testimony of glory is this. “Lebanon leaps like a calf. Sirion like a young wild ox.” Notice how many of glory’s characteristics are embedded in David’s world. The psalmist is not coercing a witness of God’s weight, but a proclamation of God’s glorious involvement in our immediate lives. You cannot remove glory from a relationship when reading this psalm to a congregation. All of the weighty kingdoms of Israel’s day leap like young untrained animals when compared to the weighted glory of God. David has come to know glory through a relationship with the Divine. He has held a relational weight that strips bark off of cedars and fears from the believer’s heart.  “Glory be to God!” is the declaration of those in new life and right relationship, and very well may be the calling voice of God to actively participate in the God story.

Bringing Glory to God on Baptism Sunday

As the Incarnation of God to the World, Christ lives bringing glory to the Father. The glory ascribed to God the Father is the fruit of the perfect relationship between the Father and the Son. How might the sacrament of baptism bring glory to the Father? We are naming the weight/glory of God. Baptism for the forgiveness of sins is a means of grace and a communal testimony. We bring God glory through the denial of the old dead patterns that aim to keep us from the waters. We are claiming that we have felt God’s heaviness enter into our lives and have made the monsters that once controlled us leap like young calves. We take on the life of holiness, ascribing to a weighted glory that will no doubt drown us only to be revived as new creations found in Christ. We join all in His temple who shout, “Glory!”

[1] https://biblehub.com/hebrew/strongs_3519.htm