The days go by and we leave. And the earth remains as a stage for others to live out their uncertainties and passing joys.
How can we make the best of our days? How can I be sure what I do this moment has lasting value?
One answer comes from the Psalmist: "Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name."
How is this the answer?
The Hebrew word for ascribe is also translated as follows:
When God saw the sons of men building the tower of Babel, he said, "Come (ascribe), let us confound their language..."
When Jacob met his end of the bargain, he said to Laban, "Give (ascribe) to me my wife..."
When Moses chose rulers over the people, he said to them, "Take (ascribe) wise men ... among your tribes, and I will make them rulers over you."
When David plotted wickedly against Uriah whose wife he had taken, he said to his underlings: "Set (ascribe) Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle..."
So to ascribe involves intentional acts of the will. You can never ascribe unintentionally -- like "Oops! I ascribed (misplaced) by cell phone today...!
No, ascribing involves making something happen, deciding it, determining it, demanding it. And, as in the case of David, it can be making something happen for ill.
It's up to you. What are your intentions today?
Now, our English word ascribe happens to have SCRIBE in it; that is, to write something.
Not just anything. Scribes in the old days were copyists. They copied the sacred scriptures so that generation after generation had the Word of God.
To truly ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name, it has to be scribed into the days of our lives. And that requires making intentional decisions.
Given what I can do moment to moment, this is what I will do because it is more honoring to God. In this way my life becomes an offering. It is the best I can do, even though it is a widow's pittance.
And so glory is scribed onto the fabric of our lives.
We will not last. But glory does. Perhaps by scribing glory, we become part of the eternal story.
Logos2Go
Psalm 96.7-8 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.
Psalm 45.1 I address my verses to the king; my tongue is like the pen of a ready scribe.
Psalm 90.12 Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
Mark 12.42-44 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, a worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”
Genesis 11.3-4 GO TO (ascribe), let us make bricks ... GO TO, let us build a city. Genesis 11.7 GO TO, let us confound their language... Genesis 29.21 And Jacob said unto Laban , GIVE (ascribe) me my wife... Deuteronomy 1.13 TAKE (ascribe) you wise men , and understanding , and known among your tribes , and I will make them rulers over you ... 2 Samuel 11.15 And he wrote in the letter, saying, SET (ascribe) Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle.
Scribing glory
Posted by
David Wang
Jun 11, 2009
2 comments:
So this is from a "scribe" who proposes (fairly successfully so far, I might say) to blog daily for a couple years? Somehow I see a great irony in "blogging" about "scribing." They seem worlds apart. Except for the Incarnation, which changes everything, including our scribing/blogging! [Just posted to my own, thanks to you, but don't expect ...]
ascribe - come, give, take, and set ...
Boy Dave, you have me thinking again. Words can be a tricky thing especially when looked at through the lens of history. To me today, "ascribe" is more verbal than an intentional action. It is more about our words than our actions. That is how I hear it being used or how I might use the word today. I find it very enlightening to discover the intentional, willful action part of the original Hebrew word used here. Our actions tell us and those around us about our true, deep, willful ascribing.
KJV translates the word as give, which helps bring out the "action" part. From an intellectual, writing, and beauty point of view "ascribe" is better to me, but our modern narrow use of this word somewhat limits our understanding of these verses.
It all does become more clear with the last part of verse 8: "bring an offering" and "come into his courts". These are actions that come out of our ascribing glory to the Lord.
I think much of Christianity over the years has been more about verbal and intellectual ascribing rather than ascribing glory with our personal actions. Perhaps the closest some (we or better I) get in ascribing glory with their (my) actions is pointing out others who's actions don't bring glory. Not all that close.
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