Grace that Still Amazes
Friday (December 12)
Grace that Still Amazes
Psalm 110:1
The LORD says to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.”
What thoughts must have swept through David’s mind as he penned these prophetic words about Christ? How did he picture this soon-coming heir from heaven? What regal images flooded in as he considered the magisterial descendant who would one day reign on the throne of earth and heaven as King over all kings and Lord over all lords? Ponder that with me, friend. Did David, even for a second, even in his wildest imaginings, ever imagine that this coming King would resemble him in so many ways? Did he know that Christ would be born into poverty, not in a palace surrounded by hundreds of worshiping dignitaries, but in a manger in the hillsides of a backwater town, surrounded by only a few shepherds? Did he foresee that Christ would be overlooked by his friends and family members despite being anointed by the great prophet, John the Baptizer, and that even his own brothers would reject him until later in life? Did he ever realize during those eight years on the run from a crazed Saul, as he hid out in the dark caverns of the earth, with only a few men by his side, that Almighty God would one day incarnate into the shadows of that same suffering and be tormented by devils and attacked by wicked Scribes and Pharisees and hounded at every turn by wicked forces? Did David ever look through the dim mirror of his own suffering, his own poverty, his own isolation, his own mockery from brothers, his own agonized cries of “Father, why have You forsaken me?”, his own attacks from surrounding devils, and see through them a reflection of the face of Jesus Christ to come?
David could not have grasped the mystery of so profound and humiliating a divine Incarnation when looking ahead, but neither can we comprehend so great a mystery when looking backward. I love how Paul writes it in 1 Timothy 3:16: “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.” Friend, marvel today at the mystery of Christ’s Incarnation, and then crown Him King of kings and LORD of lords over your own ambitions and affections.