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- Psalms 116:8-9
For you, Lord, have delivered me from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
It took me a while to figure out why the psalmist is so miserable – death, tears, and stumbling. Who’ve they been around to be in this state?
Then it hit me - they’ve been keeping company with themselves.
There’s a Hebrew word for glory: kābôd. It can mean honor and respect, but also stems from the root word for a heavy weight. Our psalmist friend is describing a life of striving to bear the weight of glory we weren’t created to carry.
While kābôd isn’t specifically mentioned in this Psalm, a picture of life without its weight is.
God’s deliverance settles the glory issue. To live for our own glory is to bear a weight that brings tears, stumbling, and death. But to give glory to the only One who can carry it - and is worthy of it - is to truly walk through this life.
Vibrant. Joyful. Stumble-free.