Not To Us

Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory, for the sake of Your steadfast love and Your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, "Where is their God?" Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases. (Psa 115:1-3)

"To Your name give glory." This concept, central in Scripture (and in God's mind), is far from our thinking. Our inborn pride drives us to find glory for ourselves, to show ourselves off, to minimize everyone and everything in order to maximize ourselves. It is the first effect of the sin nature.

Oh, that we would live "Not to us". That would require a singular focus on Him, on His steadfast love, on His faithfulness. It would require a clear vision of His Sovereignty. "Our God is in the heavens; He does all that He pleases." You see, if we were convinced of His steadfast love and faithfulness and confident that He does all that He pleases, we wouldn't be our primary focus. We wouldn't need to be. We wouldn't want to be. Convinced of His mercy and truth, His Sovereignty would be all we would need to rest in Him. We could join the universe in declaring His glory (Psa 19:1) rather than clamoring for our own.

It's like the familiar hymn, Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus (1922), says.

Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace

In a world devoted to self and self-glory, a world cluttered with "stuff", "Not to us, O LORD, not to us, but to Your name give glory" is the message we need to keep ever before us.