Posts Tagged: Philippians 3:8-14
“Pursuing God”
“Today, by God’s grace, I am pursuing God with my body, mind, spirit, and soul. I keep pursuing God until God catches me, which he has already done.”
“My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.” (Psalm 63:8, English Standard Version)
The psalmist says that, with his very soul, his very essence, he clings to God. The Hebrew word for “to cling” (davaq) is used for the first time in Genesis 2:24 for the attachment of a man to his lady. It is a rather intense word, to say the least! As Kidner points out, “In the present verse it is strenuous: lit. ‘clings after thee’, as if in hot pursuit. The old translation [i.e., the KJV] remains the best: ‘my soul followeth hard after thee.’”
And yet, the psalmist knows that it isn’t just about his clinging to God. No. In the same breath, he acknowledges that God’s right hand is upholding him. Again, Kidner wisely observes the following: “But it is God himself who makes this possible, and the firmness of his upholding grasp is implied in the allusion to the right hand, the stronger of the two; cf. Isaiah 41:10. There is the same divine-human interplay in Philippians 3:8–14.”[1]
So, is the psalmist in hot pursuit of God, or is God holding the psalmist? The answer is emphatically “Yes!” We are most definitely responsible to pursue God. But we also most definitely need to be aware that God is holding us.
I am reminded of what someone said about human courtship and dating. (I think that I might have heard it first from my mom.) It went something like this: “He chased her and chased her, until finally, she caught him.”
We need to chase God and chase God until God finally catches us. And when God does catch us? What then? Then, we realize that God was holding us all along.
Pursue diligently!
Relax extravagantly! God’s got this. God’s got you and me, too.
[1]Derek Kidner, Psalms 1–72: An Introduction and Commentary, TOTC 15; IVP/Accordance electronic ed. (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1973), 244.
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