I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! (Deuteronomy 32:3, NIV)
So we’re in the middle of that annual Florida free-for-all known as The Players Championship. And while the winner of any tournament hangs in the balance each weekend, this year’s version of The Players also weighs the worth of four men who would be king. Adam Scott, Henrik Stenson, Bubba Watson, and Matt Kuchar—with a favorable set of finishing positions—each stand to supplant Tiger Woods as the No. 1 player in the world.
“To be No. 1 in the world as anything is amazing,” Kuchar said this week, and surely he would get no argument from the others. Worldwide, we are told, roughly 60 million people play golf. To be the best among them all? Yeah, amazing.
When we step farther back, though, taking in the whole of the world’s population, now past seven billion, we would be hard-pressed to call any one person “greatest.” We would have a hard enough time simply agreeing on the qualifications for the distinction. Jesus, you may recall, flipped the idea of greatness on its head, saying, “The greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves” (Luke 22:26).
But over and above us all is God himself, the one of whom Moses sang for the ears of assembled Israel, “Praise the greatness of our God!” What was his measuring stick? The work of God in the lives of the people:
• They had acted corruptly; God remained faithful
• They were lowly; God provided their home
• They were senseless and weak; God chased their enemies in his strength
• They worshipped other gods and were deserving of judgment; God showed them compassion
This was the God Moses praised. He is the God who endures, touching our lives, still showing us his greatness. We should see this in three times—the past, the present, and the future. We read of God’s past excellence in biblical history and the histories of church and missions. We read of his future excellence in the pages of biblical prophecy. But to see his work in the present, we must look at our own lives—at his faithfulness, his provision, his protection, and his mercy—finding our enduring, powerful God and praising him as proudly as Moses did!
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Jeff Hopper
May 9, 2014
Copyright 2014 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.