What do you think is the most important trait of a disciple of Jesus? My selection of the picture above could give the idea that I think a small group discussion is most important. While I think those kinds of bible studies or accountability groups or discussions are really important, there is another trait that I believe it most important.
I learned about this trait when I did a college missionary internship in the summer between my junior and senior years of college. I spent the summer in Guyana, South America, working with a team of missionary church planters. The leader of the group was a Guyanese man who had studied Bible and ministry in the USA, and then returned to Guyana to plant churches. In time he, along with missionaries and Guyanese ministers, started numerous churches. I’ll never forget a conversation I had with the leader about how he chose the man who would be his #2 leader. He could have mentioned all sorts of qualities or characteristics. What he said stuck out about this Guyanese man, and what led the leader to choose the man as his #2, shocked me. Keep reading to find out.
This week on the blog we have been studying 2 Samuel 22 / Psalm 18, and we have been following David Dorsey’s observation of a parallel structure used to write the psalm. So we have found matching points A and A’. B and B’. What about C and C’?
Look at verses 21-25. “The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I am not guilty of turning from my God. All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his sight.”
Not guilty? Blameless? Cleaness? Wait a minute. David can’t be serious. He committed horrible sins. Adultery, Lying, murder. Either David wrote this before his sin with Bathsheba, or he is having a serious memory or self-awareness problem. Before Bathsheba, this was pretty much true. After that sin, this is not true. So I’m not sure. Even if this was written before his sin, it sounds like he is being super arrogant and boastful. I find this section difficult, and frankly don’t know how anyone could write it seriously. But what is the theme? God rewarded David because of his (David’s) cleanness or righteousness.
Still, there is a lesson to learn from this. We are called to pursue righteousness, to follow the ways of the Lord. To obey God. Jesus would say to his disciples that those who obey are the ones who love him. In other words, we don’t show our love for him by saying, “I love you.” That is a good thing to say. But we show our love for God through our choices.
Let’s see if we can find a matching point C. We are looking for the theme of blamelessness. Look at verses 31 and 32, “As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God?”
Anything about blamelessness in those two verses? Sure is. And in fact the same Hebrew word is used. Look at verse 31, “As for God, his way is perfect.” Perfect, blameless. Same thing, right? This time, David is not describing himself as blameless, but he saying that God is! God is the perfect Rock in whom we can find refuge. David knows all about finding refuge. When he was a fugitive from Saul, running, hiding, he stayed in caves. He called them a stronghold. Now David says God is his perfect stronghold.
We have another match. And that brings us to the unmatched center. All that remains is verses 26–30,
“To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. With your help I can advance against a troop; with my God I can scale a wall.”
David has left us a major clue in these verses to declare loud and clear that he wants his readers to know that this is his central point. Do you see it? Something changes in these verses. Something about God that is different from the sections before and after it, C and C’.
What changes is that David speaks to God directly. Look at the pronouns. You, your, yourself. In the surrounding C and C’ sections of the psalm, David is not speaking directly to God.
Even more importantly, in my opinion, is what David says in verses 26–30. This is David’s central point: God exalts the humble and brings low the proud. Everything comes down to that. It is a grand reversal. Those who are low, God brings high. Those who are high, God brings down low.
I have come to believe that humility is perhaps the most important trait of a disciple of Jesus. It is having a healthy self-awareness that knows we must place our faith in Jesus, and continue to abide in him, depend on him. The greatest sin just might be self-sufficiency.
God saves the humble, David tells us, but he brings the haughty low. Clearly, then, the position we want to be in is the position that God will save, the humble position. But humility so often goes against our human nature. To be humble is to depend on others, to rely on God, to admit we don’t have it all figured out, to have a healthy self-awareness, to ask for help, to ask for prayer.
Humility is when we have people holding us accountable for how we spend our money, how we use our time, how we treat others.
I mentioned the Guyanese church leader who chose his #2 for a shocking reason. The reason is right in line with what David says about humility in 2 Samuel 22 / Psalm 18. He chose the man for his #2 because that man was willing to clean up baby’s vomit in the church nursery. That man was humble. He demonstrated what Jesus taught his disciples when he washed their feet before the last supper (John 13:12–17),
“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord,” and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.'”
Humility looks like Jesus, God who took on human flesh so that he might eventually give his life for us. What can you do to become more humble, more like Jesus?
Photo by Small Group Network on Unsplash
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