The Borne Identity

04.30.13

Psalm 68.19 19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. (ESV)

Uzzah (2 Samuel 6.5ff.), wasn't an enemy of God – he just took it upon himself to do something he shouldn't have been done: touch the Ark of the Covenant. Uzzah decided to steady the Ark when the oxen which were pulling the cart upon which it rode, stumbled. The Ark rocked slightly and Uzzah, good citizen he was, reached out to steady it. God struck him dead. (BTW the Ark wasn't ever supposed to be on a cart… see Exodus 25.10-15)

Yes, you heard me right, I said, God struck him dead. Uzzah wasn’t an enemy of God but he was completely unauthorized to do what he did and it was punishable by God’s Law by the penalty of death. (I’m pretty sure the priests weren’t even authorized to ‘touch’ the Ark. I’ll have to look that one up and comment sometime down the road.)

Part of our theology these days is: God won’t do anything to us that might be misconstrued as mean or hurtful; God loves beyond our furthest imaginations would never do anything to make us feel bad. Too bad we think that way. God loves, but He is not stupid, nor does He flex or bend to our wishes or waywardness. Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up…

We are borne up because we fall down. We do stupid things that we aren’t authorized to do. And sometimes our stupid fallen things have consequences that are way more than they should be and we (and others) suffer dearly for them. We need to be borne up. We need to be helped. We need to be saved and that’s why the remainder of this verse says: God is our salvation. If God didn’t bear us up we’d be destroyed because God is serious about our getting it right.

Think of the lengths God has gone to secure our salvation – doesn't that merit a little of our thanksgiving and humility. Think of the things God has saved us from and we know it; and we know if He hadn't we would've and everybody’d be the worse for it. Imagine the things God has saved us from and we don’t know it – I know, they don’t hold as much charm as the things God has saved us from that we do know about.

One of the infinite blessings we have in Christ is simply this: Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation.

I know Uzzah done did a dumb thing and paid dearly, but I don’t think Uzzah was God’s enemy and I don’t think we’ll miss Uzzah in Heaven. Uzzah got caught up in the moment but I don’t think Uzzah wasn't God’s child. Uzzah was borne up by the grace and greatness of God. And you and I are born into God’s family as well where we are borne up by God on a daily basis. God is more for us – infinitely more – than He’ll ever be against us.

We may do some really stupid things and there may be some really serious consequences but thank God that He daily bears us up and is our Salvation. I need some saving – how ‘bout you?