Tithes and Offerings
To You, O LORD, I lift up my soul. Psalm 25:1
Lift Up – Some things are required. Some things are voluntary. I am obligated to acknowledge God’s sovereignty with my tithe. After all, I owe Him everything, including life itself. That He only requires a tenth is a demonstration of His grace. And, by the way, all men and women are required to acknowledge God in this way, regardless of their status as believers.
But some things are voluntary. David comes before the Lord, bending his knee, lifting himself up as a voluntary offering before the King of glory. He presents himself as ready to be placed on the altar of sacrifice to His God. He volunteers all that he is to God’s service and purposes.
Nasa’ is used more than 600 times in Scripture. It has three distinct ranges of meaning. Here, it is used figuratively to express elevating presentation. Just as I would literally lift my hand to swear allegiance to the king, so I figuratively lift my soul (and we shall see just what this means) as an act of fidelity to God. We would know exactly what this entails if we were fortunate enough to live under the reign and rule of a monarch. In the absence of a real king, just think about all those movies where the knights or the vassals dropped to the floor before the ruler and proclaimed obedience to the crown.
If you’re like David, you might feel as though you are an unworthy offering to God. After all, you’re a sinner. You’re tainted goods. You might not be a murder, an adulterer, a conspirator or filled with pride, but I am quite sure that there are some things buried in your soul that certainly disqualify you as an offering without spot or blemish. You don’t come as “first fruits,” the best that you have. You come just like David – as you are. That’s why your opening words must be, “To You, O Lord, I lift up.” That is really all that I can do. I can only lift up what I have – but I must be sure that I lift up all that I have. God is quite willing to accept my voluntary offering as it is, as long as it is all that is. Even Cain could have found favor with God if he had only offered what God asked him to give.
Did you notice that David make no assumption of acceptability? He offers. That’s all he can do. If God should accept the offer, David will be bound to his Suzerain (you might want to look this one up in a dictionary). But acceptance is not up to David. That is up to God. Fortunately, David knows (and so do we) that God does not refuse such an offer. In fact, He is delighted to see us lift up who we are as an offering to Him.
I wonder if we don’t need a new form of outward conversion declaration. Do you think that the act of submission would be enhanced, would take deeper root, if we had to walk into the throne room and fall to our knees, holding up with outstretched arms, a symbol of our very lives? Do you think that we might understand more clearly what is involved in pledging fidelity to the King of glory? I wonder.
