Psalm 53, Our Purpose: To Glorify God (5)

We have studied together what it means for a believer, and thus an assembly of believers, to glorify God.  Our primary emphasis was on several, what we might call, synonymous phrases.  These phrases tell us what it means to glorify God.  They did not, so much, tell us “how” to glorify God because each of them was the fulfillment of a “hina” clause, a purpose statement.  To be sure we are clear I want to briefly repeat these statements.

·       Jesus came down from heaven in order to do the will of His Father (John 6:38).  Doing the Father’s will is to glorify the Father; the way He did this was to “come down from heaven.”

·       Jesus obeyed the Father so that the world knew He loved the Father (Jn. 14:31).

·       The determination was made that the older shall serve the younger “so that” God’s purpose would stand in election (Rom. 9:11-12).

·       Paul ministered the gospel of God so that the Gentiles would be an acceptable offering to God (Rom. 15:16).  The acceptable offering is equivalent to glorifying God; the ministering of the gospel is how it was done.

·       Giving thanks to God is to glorify God; the cause of greater thanksgiving in 2 Cor. 1:11 was by the believers joining in prayer for Paul and his ministry.

·       In Gal. 2:19 glorifying God is living to God; this requires dying to the law.

·       We discussed Eph. 3:19 and 1 Thess. 4:1 at length.  Being filled with God’s fullness is to glorify God; we do it by our experiential acquaintance with the love of Christ in all its dimensions.  Pleasing God is to glorify God; Paul’s exhortations were intended to help the believers abound in this.

We also noted that there were various ways in which we could display the attributes of God.  We also shared four contrasts or areas of battle that have to do with the glory of God.  For example, we glorify God by doing His will, not our will.  Those who do not know God will see this as a petty God who always has to have His way.  Do not fall for that mockery!  It is a simple statement of what it means to treat God as God.  The One and only God, the Creator, by definition must be obeyed.  To disobey Him is to fail to treat Him as God.

We also noted how God Himself was consistent, that He acts in a way to bring glory to Himself.  If anyone else thought like that, if I think like that, it would be a gross sin.  But that is exactly the point.  It is appropriate for God to think like this because He is God.  If I do that then I am not glorifying Him as God nor being thankful; rather I have become empty in my thoughts and my foolish heart is growing dark; though I claim to be wise, if I fail to glorify God as God I have become a fool (Rom. 1:21-22).

The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God’ (Ps. 53:1).