Magnify God

 

Do you know what a magnifying glass is? It’s a piece of glass or lens that makes something look bigger. The lens of the magnifying glass is thicker than plain glass and makes objects appear larger than they really are.

If you look at the words on this piece of paper, they appear normal. Now, if you place this magnifying glass between the paper and your eye and look at it again, the words appear bigger.

I show this to you because in our Psalm today (34:1-8), we hear the words “magnify the Lord with me.” … Doesn’t that sound strange to you? How can we magnify the Lord? Can we look at God through a magnifying glass?

The Psalmist didn’t mean that we make God larger than He is like we make the words on this page larger than they are. But if I make something larger, then do I become smaller?

How about this for an example. In my sermon last Sunday, I mentioned Sydney McLaughlin. She’s the young woman who won the Gold Medal at the Olympics in the 400-meter hurdles. After she won, she gave all the praise to God. She is now a big star, but she also knows that God made her fast, and so she praised God after she won. She magnified the Lord, and humbled herself. She made God greater and herself smaller.

You can be an Olympic star and be humble when you praise or magnify God, but you don’t have to win an Olympic medal to start. Right now, you can praise God for your good looks or good grades, your athletic ability or musical talent. If I don’t have any of those, I can praise God for creating me and loving me.

With that, let us pray. Heavenly Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and earth is named: Bless these and all children, and give their parents the spirit of wisdom and love, so that the homes in which they grow up may be to them an image of Your Kingdom, and the care of their parents a likeness of Your love. We pray in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.