My salvation and my honor depend on God; he is my mighty rock, my refuge.—Psalm 62:7
I was reading Psalm 62 this morning for my quiet time, and this verse popped out to me. Reading it sparked a little “wow” moment somewhere inside me.
Everything about this verse is almost cliche to me. Sure, my salvation depends on God. Sure, he is my mighty rock. Sure, he is my refuge. All those things are “old hat” to someone who has been in the church since he was born.
However, there is that extra little word thrown in there—honor. My honor depends on God.
It just got me thinking. How much time do I waste during my day trying to preserve or earn “honor” for myself? I imagine that 90% of my day is about gaining honor in some way.
When I do my todo list, my motivation is usually to impress someone. I want to impress my wife who really values getting things done in a timely way. I want to impress the people I know in Lafayette, so they will trust me more as their pastor. I want to impress unbelievers so they will listen to my message. Whenever I do anything, on some level, I’m trying to earn honor from others.
But my honor depends on God.
That’s a new thought for me. I have always thought that my honor depends on me and my performance. Sure, people tell me all the time that “It doesn’t matter what you do as much as it matters what kind of person you are,” but when it comes to honor or reputation it really seems to depend on what I do, doesn’t it?
Well, according to King David. Our honor doesn’t depend on what we do before people. Our honor depends on God. My honor—how I am evaluated by others—doesn’t depend on me or on the fickle nature of other people. My honor depends on God.
Now that is a refreshing thought!
Suddenly, I feel more empowered to focus my energies on pleasing God rather than people. If it is true that my honor really depends on God, then he should be my only concern. I should invest myself in pleasing him, and if he so desires to honor me in the eyes of others, that is his prerogative. If my honor really depends on God, then my attempts to please others will always yield lackluster results.
Lord, I just want to thank you for teaching me this lesson today. I want you to please you. I want to concern myself more with how I stand before you than with anything else. And I want to know what means to stand before you robed in Christ. I want to know your grace.
Thank you for showing your grace to me this morning by teaching me something new. Help me to always remember that my honor isn’t about how well I can impress people. My honor depends on you.
Just a quick note to say that I came upon your blog in response to my Google search: “my honor comes from God” for a Ladies Bible Study that I am teaching here in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. Your words ring so true and clear and I thank you for sharing this important insight that God surely wants all of us to embrace.
I, like the person above ^ came across your post from googling in my quiet time, this verse. Like you, I’d never heard it put this way- that my honor depends on God.
In the last few months, I have stepped into the role as Pastor’s assistant at my church among a handful of other things the Lord has called me to personally. With this role, I have come to realize that I aim more nowadays to please my Pastors or leaders and others in the church- more than I aim to please God. I often find myself praying on a Sunday morning “Lord help me to get through today and make things easy for my Pastors” rather than “God how can I give YOU the most glory today?”
All to say. This post was exactly what I needed to hear from the Lord. Aim to please HIM, to walk in righteousness before HIM and if honor in the eyes of others comes- great. But if not, great too. As my honor depends on the Lord.
Thank you.