Read Psalm 86. Today, we are going to look at how God is a placer of greatness. In Psalm 86:13, we read: “You love me so much and You placed Your greatness upon me. You rescued me from the deepest place of darkness, and You have delivered me from a certain death” (TPT). A few days ago, we looked at the greatness of God. Now, we look at how this transfers— we recognize that God has placed His greatness upon us. This is crazy to just imagine. Why would the God of the universe take any of His greatness and share it with us? We certainly in no way deserve it.
Most other translations translate this verse as “God’s lovingkindness towards us is great” or “great is Your steadfast love.” There’s no mention of placing greatness upon us apart from God’s love being great. What we read in other translations is of His faithful love, His loving devotion. This is again one of those situations where the Passion Translation along with another translation provide something a bit different from most other translations. Nonetheless, we read elsewhere of God placing His greatness upon us, so let us dig deeper on this topic today.
We are made in God’s image — we are His image bearers (Genesis 1:27). Yes, we are faulty image bearers. Also, though we are made in the likeness of God, we are not God. We do not have all of His attributes. We are His creation. As an artist puts a piece of himself in his artwork, so God left His fingerprint upon us. We are made in His image.
Paul actually writes in Ephesians that we are God’s masterpiece (2:10). This should not cause us to boast. This word “masterpiece” also is translated as “handiwork” or “workmanship.” The Message translation does well to remind us not to boast: “…we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join Him in the work He does, the good work He has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.” What pops out to me is not only that God creates and save, but also that He asks us to join Him in work He has for us to do— again, it’s all pointing to Him. The Passion Translation says it this way: “We have become His poetry, a re-created people that will fulfill the destiny He has given each of us, for we are joined to Jesus, the Anointed One. Even before we were born, God planned in advance our destiny and the good works we would do to fulfill it!”
The Bible promises that if we believe in Jesus Christ, we are saved because of the blood of Christ, and that we will receive the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God seals us, teaches us, is God in us (see John 14:15-17, Ephesians 1:13, 1 John 2:27). The Holy Spirit takes us — us faulty image bearers— and moves in us so that we fulfill our destiny — what God has created us to accomplish for His glory. Remember, the placing of the greatness is not only a blessing, but for His glory. People may see the beauty of a masterpiece, but the masterpiece always gives us a glimpse of the artist. To Him be the glory. Amen!
Tania Gutekunst 