My Glory

Psalm 3 is one of my favorite psalms, and I’ve probably read it hundreds of times, but today, I was thinking about one thing David said.

He said, “God, you are my glory.”

What does that mean: “God is my glory”?

What do we glory in?

Many people glory in their physical beauty. Many others glory in their position or accomplishments. These are the things they boast about. These are the things they feel give them personal worth.

But for David, God was his glory.

Perhaps that truth hit home at the time when he was exiled from Jerusalem, with his own son Absalom trying to kill him.

All his “glory” had been stripped from him: his kingdom, his position as king, all gone. Only one thing remained: God. When everything else was gone, God was his glory.

David no longer boasted in his position or his accomplishments. His self-worth no longer came from these things. His self-worth came from one thing: His relationship with the God who loved him.

And so David said, “God, you are my glory.”

Paul said something similar hundreds of years later.

But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ. (Philippians 3:7-8)

So as God told Jeremiah,

The wise person should not boast in his wisdom;
the strong should not boast in his strength;
the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.

But the one who boasts should boast in this:
that he understands and knows me… (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

What is your glory?