Advent – December 17th, 2018

…in the scroll of the book it is written of me.

I was doing a spin class lately, and the instructor was a great cheerleader. It was just a canned video to motivate me, but it worked. One of the funny turns of phrase she kept saying, as my legs were cramping and my lungs were wheezing, was “you’re a boss, you’ve got this.” Funny how words work, even when it’s just a video script for an exercise class. It did the job. I don’t even know who the woman is who’s leading the spin class, but I was encouraged and driven to get up that next hill. Time will tell if this will keep motivating me to get the body my wife wishes I had.

No words work like the words “in the scroll of the book” of scripture – which is what David is talking about. His Bible would have basically been the first six books in the Old Testament, Genesis through Joshua, maybe Judges. Maybe Job too, because of how old it is. Where in that truncated Bible did it ever talk about David? Somehow he owns it. He sees words about himself! How does he see it? There’s a trust here, a simple reliance and dependence which is beautiful. He’s owning every promise of God’s word as personal, as specifically for him. And it isn’t narcissism, because it isn’t really about David. It’s about God’s glory andwork in David, and that’s how David claims it. A few lines before he says to God, “You gave me an open ear.”

This opens it all up to us. Think about it. David can see and hear the words are about him because God let him hear it. It is God’s work! This is the Spirit’s power. Advent becomes real to us personally, in our hearts and lives and experience, as God opens us to His own power. It always comes back to this – our rescue is all Christ. We come again and again and ask Him to be the Sovereign God – the King – and to make us His choice. And we’re asking His choice to be this: that our ears hear Him, our eyes see Him, and our feet follow Him. Then the Bible opens to us. We see ourselves in the stories and promises of our Father. We begin to claim ancient promises with fresh joy, and the thrill of His life becomes vivid personal words of love. Then we will startle people by saying odd things too, things like “I was reading in Numbers the other day, and I found one of God’s little love notes to me!” Spirit, open our ears! Amen.