Knowing Self

While we look at ourselves every day at least once, or twice, and perhaps, even more, it still remains a hard task for most of us to see ourselves as we really are.  Like the mirror in the Snow White tale, we only want it to tell us what we want to see.  Of course, we do not need a mirror to see the images of self that we carry around with us.  We do not need a mirror to see the person who has it all together, or the person who is self-reliant, or the person who is ambitious, or lazy, or brilliant.  Ah, yes, we see ourselves in all sorts of ways.  Some of them tell the lie of the mirror and some of them are brutally honest.

 

In the 21st Psalm we are enabled to see how David sees himself.  In some ways it is a surprising self image for a King.  According to the Psalm, who David sees is not so much about himself as it is about God.  In the words of the Psalm we read such phrases as, "You have given his heart's desire...You meet him with rich blessings...You set a crown of fine gold on his head...You gave life...His glory is great through Your help...You make him glad with the joy of Your presence..."  Instead of looking at his wealth or his status or his power among men, David looks to God and understands that all his life is dependent not on these things, but on the Almighty God who blesses him.

 

How much better life is lived when we are able to acknowledge that we are nothing without the blessings of the Father God.  How much better life is lived when we realize that life is not about what we have achieved, how much we have accumulated, or how many people look in awe at us, but about the blessings and the mercy of God.   We live too much as if our next breath is something we can guarantee when, in fact, God is the One who grants the blessing of breath.  How we see ourselves is certainly different when we live as one who knows it is all about God and not about self.