Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty—he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:10, NIV)
How many golf balls can you hold in your hands? I ask this because you’ve probably found yourself trying to hold just one more, only to discover that round objects don’t stack so well. And they sure do scatter when they slip from your fingers.
I was reminded of this funny scenario from my days as a junior golfer moving balls from here to there around a practice chipping green because of the prophet Isaiah’s considerations of the glory of God. We’ll consider those in a moment.
As a doctrinal concept, the glory of God is about as slippery as they come. God’s glory is not so much definable as an entity unto itself; rather, it cuts across all of who God is and all of what he does. God himself is glorious, and all he touches is glorious.
Now, let’s turn to Isaiah, for however limited his words might have been by human language and human concepts, he made an effort to quantify the glory of God. Look:
Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand,
or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket,
or weighed the mountains on the scales
and the hills in a balance? (Isaiah 40:12)
You and I can hold only a small bit of water in our palms before it all starts to leak out—in the same way those golf balls go slipping and tumbling and bouncing. But God, Isaiah was saying, can measure the waters—all of them—in the hollow of his hand.
Wherever you find God’s glory, be reminded of how much greater he is even than that.We are right to recognize that Isaiah’s words in this passage and elsewhere in chapter 40 are poetic, maybe hyperbolic. But they lead to the Isaiah’s conclusion all the same:
To whom, then, will you compare God?
What image will you compare him to? (Isaiah 40:18)
Because his glory extends infinitely, God is incomparable. And what is wonderful is that we are set apart to recognize it. The pastor and author Paul Tripp says we are “hardwired for glory.” We are not satisfied quickly like animals, but we seek colors in the sunset, sparkles in snowflakes, vibrancy in flowers; we notice the blending in a composer’s notes and the subtleties in a master musician’s playing of those notes; we marvel at both the strength of hurricanes and the placidness of a mountain pond. All of these provide earthly pictures of our heavenly King.
You may see the glory of God in places you visit today. It may show up on a face he has given to encourage you. Wherever you find it, be reminded of how much greater he is even than that. And be reminded to thank him for his glory.
—
Jeff Hopper
March 17, 2020
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.