How Do I Glorify God?

How do you live for God’s glory in the face of harsh realities in the world? Seek his mercy. But also trust his salvation.

Trust His Salvation

Psalm 57:3-7

David isn’t pretending that his life is free of trouble. He’s not denying reality. But neither is he nurturing despair. Notice his trust in God. He speaks of God as the one who “fulfills his purpose for me” (v. 2), and he considers God’s power and grace to “reach down from heaven and save” (v. 3).

Is this a guarantee that everything that opposes us will lose? That Christians always come out on top? On top of our temptations? On top of those who oppose us? On top, when the Supreme Court is battling over something that directly relates to biblical truth? No. Psalm 57 isn’t a one-way ticket into a life of triumph and unending bliss. However, we can have this confidence: God is good, and God is sovereign. God is big, and God is wise. He loves you. And from the moment you turn and trust in Jesus for salvation, you’ll never live another day alone.

So, what does it mean for us to put this truth on? To “trust his salvation”? It means praying even though it seems like you’re just talking to the walls. It means if God says this book is profitable for teaching, rebuke, correction, instruction, and training in righteousness, then we will read it. It means if God tells us that by the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the flesh, we should fight as if we believe that’s true. And if my feelings are telling me that God has forsaken me, my feelings are lying.

Paul uses this phrase: “Let God be true, even though everyone is a liar” (Rom 3:4). And that’s a useful statement in the fight of faith. The fight of faith is contending to believe that whatever contradicts God’s Word is a liar. God is true; and every man, every humanistic philosophy, every cheap thrill, every nude image, every rival god, is a liar.

We have it on the authority of Scripture that this is the narrative sweep of our lives: God will send from heaven and save all who have trusted in Christ. If you have trusted in Christ, that’s your life story. Christians are convinced of this: at the end of the day, every false refuge will cave in, and Christ will be seen as the one, true hope of the world.

Rebellion against him will not go overlooked or unaddressed. God will judge human sin. The reality of judgment against sin is one of the central claims of Christian faith. However, another central claim of Christian faith is this: God has provided a Savior. Jesus came and lived a perfect life. He died on the cross to pay for our sins against a holy God. He rose from the dead, and full forgiveness and new life are given to all who trust in what Jesus Christ has done! This is the message the Bible calls “the gospel.” The psalmist speaks of a God of salvation who “reaches down from heaven and saves”—a God who “sends his faithful love and truth” (v. 3). The New Testament gives this Savior a name—Jesus. God reached down, through Christ, to save his people from sins. Jesus came “full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). God did in fact send his faithful love and truth in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. Every passage in Scripture whispers this grand story and points to this great hero (Luke 24:27,44; John 5:39-40)!

Another feature that points to the psalmist’s trust in God’s salvation is a literary device called epizeuxis that involves repetition. You see the first one in verse 1. Why is this here? Because I need to remember daily to ask for every grace God would give. I need to pray for forgiveness. I need daily bread. I need protection from temptation.

The second epizeuxis is in verse 3. The ESV draws it out: “He will send . . . God will send.” We need this truth on repeat mode. Why? Because I need to believe that God answers when I call, that no prayer for mercy goes unheeded. It needs to be said that God may give a different mercy than I asked for, but that would only be because there’s a better mercy than the one I asked for.

The third repeated phrase occurs in verse 7. What a timely reminder to us about the vital place of confident perseverance. The Christian life is not one epic “seeking of mercy” and one epic “trusting his salvation.” It’s a daily seeking and a daily trusting.

Some of my favorite moments in family worship over the years have been our prayer times—to watch our children grow up and learn how to speak to God. It’s an awesome thing! Several years ago we started something that would become a tradition. We took missionary photos off the refrigerator and passed them out. We took turns and prayed through the names of our friends who were serving Christ among the nations. That first night, our son, Hunter, mentioned the names of some friends and said, “God, I pray that you would help them to cling to Christ.” I didn’t hear a word after that because I was so deeply affected. As soon as the prayer was over, I raved about it in front of the whole family. I told him he was onto something huge. I told him I needed him to pray that regularly for me and that he should pray that for our family and for himself—that we would all “cling to Christ.”

Where are we leaning, Christian friend? Is our confidence in ourselves, or are we boasting in him alone, confident that he who has begun a good work in us will complete it (Phil 1:6), just as he promised? This phrase has become a daily prayer I have for myself, for family, and for friends: God, help me cling to Christ today, for life, for righteousness, for joy, for purpose. In other words, help me trust your Word implicitly. Help me be able to say, “My heart is confident, God, my heart is confident.”

According to the Bible, these things are the essence of what it means to live all of life for the glory of God: “The righteous will live by faith” (Rom 1:17).

This passage has one more thing for us. We are called to seek his mercy. We are called to trust his salvation. And we are called, friends—every Christ follower—we are called to wake up and make him known.

Wake Up and Make Him Known

Psalm 57:8-11

The central refrain and concern of this psalm is the proclamation of God’s glory. You see the refrain in the middle and at the end (vv. 5,11). This shouldn’t surprise us. Many of us are familiar with the first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism—“What is the chief end of man?”—to which the answer is given, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.”

We know from Scripture that to see God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ is to live: “This is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and the one you have sent—Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). This is the only life that lasts forever. To miss knowing God through Jesus, whatever else we might have gained in this life, is to die empty. To die unfulfilled. It is to miss out on the purpose for which we were created. That’s why Paul said, “For me, to live is Christ” (Phil 1:21). Paul counted everything else as garbage compared to knowing Christ. And Paul stated his ambition in Romans 15: he wanted to know Christ and make Christ known!

Remember those literary devices where words are repeated? The final epizeuxis is in verse 8: “Wake up! Wake up!” In verse 9 off he runs to praise the Lord among the nations, to the end that God’s glory will be “over the whole earth” (v. 11). There’s a note of joy.

If you follow NFL sports, you know the New Orleans Saints (the city where I was born) went through a rough patch for about, well, forty years. They stunk. Then something changed. The 2009–10 season was a winning season. The Saints went all the way to the Superbowl that year. The city halted while that game was played. As you came to the closing minutes, we were behind. The Colts, led by Peyton Manning, had possession. Manning was driving toward victory, and the Saints were one touchdown behind. Then, with three minutes and twenty-four seconds left on the clock, our own Tracy Porter intercepted the ball and ran back seventy-four yards for a touchdown.

Our family and a bunch of college students were in our house. As soon as the game was over, without any advanced planning, everyone in our living room ran out of our front door, yelling and screaming for joy. And when we got to the front yard, guess what we found? Our neighbors had done the same thing! Music was blaring. Mr. Dan, the safety engineer from across the street, was doing the robot in his front yard. This was a side of Dan I had never seen. Our college-student friends were dancing with our kids in the driveway. You could hear the blaring as people just sat on their horns throughout the city.

It was an unscripted, citywide response. It was an eruption of joy. But, on reflection, what was fascinating was that the joy had to be shared. Practically no one stayed inside. The joy of the city spilled out into the streets. And that’s the picture in this psalm. The psalmist reaches for the harp and lute—instruments of joy and praise—and he sings God’s praise among the nations (v. 9). He wants God’s glory to cover the earth (v. 11).

As we strive to live for the glory of God, to fulfill our primary purpose, I hope you hear God inviting you to seek daily mercies from him, to trust him and cling to Jesus, and to spread the good news of what he has done to the ends of the earth!

Reflect and Discuss