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Who We Are Depends On Whose We Are

Rev. Paul Lawler

To be Lord implies a surrender of rights, but Western culture emphasizes my identity. What ways is God’s Lordship on display in our lives?

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What is Lordship?

Psalm 23 opens with a grand proclamation. "The Lord…" It's not some form of distortion we see; it's a profound assertion, "To the Lord." It implies that if we are under a Lordship, then that involves our surrender or giving up specific rights. 

Now, contrast that with the rise of individuality in Western culture. Identity is associated with my individuality, my rights, my emotions, my perspectives, and my opinions.

However, for the Christian, my primary identity is not rooted in who I am. Instead, it's rooted in whose I am. As a Christian, my primary identity is not only rooted in being in Christ but also in being in a relationship with His body of believers and the church. 

“We have been so soaked in the individualism of modern Western culture that we feel threatened by the idea of our primary identity being that of the family we belong to – especially when the family in question is so large, stretching across space and time. The church isn't simply a collection of isolated individuals, all following their own pathways of spiritual growth without much reference to one another. It may sometimes look like that and even feel like that. And it's gloriously true that each of us is called upon to respond to God's call at a personal level. You can hide in the shadows at the back of the church for a while, but sooner or later, you have to decide whether this is for you or not.” (N.T. Wright, theologian, scholar & bishop)

In light of those two words, "The Lord…," in Psalm 23, we have to ask: "Is He worthy or not of our surrender, as Lord?"

Is God Worthy Of Your Surrender as Lord? 

1) His Lordship is on display through creation

The first place we witness God referred to as the Lord in Scripture is in Genesis: "These are the generations of the heavens in the earth, where they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens." (2:4)

For Earth, the Milky Way is our galaxy; It's our neighborhood. If you could travel at the speed of light and wanted to go from one end of our neighborhood to the other, it would take you more than 100,000 years. Now, if you wanted to visit our nearest galaxy, the Andromeda Galaxy, and travel at the speed of light, it would take more than 2.5 million years. 

Now that's just two galaxies in our universe, so that begs the question, how many galaxies are in our universe? Well, astronomers don't know for sure, but most modern estimates put the number of galaxies in the universe at two trillion.

I'm reminded of what the psalmist said. "The heavens, declare the glory of God." 

Process that with me. He is greater than we have imagined, more majestic than we have fathomed, more powerful than we can comprehend, and more infinite than our ability to comprehend what infinite means. His Lordship is on display through creation. 

2) His Lordship is on display through testimony

Let's clarify how we're utilizing the word "testimony." It means a formal written or spoken statement or somebody bearing witness to the truth of something. So what I want to invite you to contemplate is the truth that's revealed to us about Jesus. 

Colossians 1 tells us that through Him, all things were made. Jesus is the one who is holding all things together. The implication is molecular structure. All subatomic particles on Earth are being held together by the power of God. That's beautifully deep and rich to think about the implications.

But I want to ask you to think about the reality of the testimony of Jesus' actions when He was on Earth. One of my favorite sermons of Jesus is the Sermon on the Mount. He talks about how we are to relate to people, function together, do life with others, and practice forgiveness for one another. 

But have you ever noticed what Jesus did after the Sermon on the Mount? In the following verses, Jesus:  

The question is, what is Jesus demonstrating? He is demonstrating that He is Lord over creation. He is Lord over disease and death. He has the authority to forgive sins. He is Lord. We recognize His Lordship through the testimony of not only who He is but also His Lordship by the testimony of His actions. 

But we also recognize the Lordship of Jesus, the living God, through the testimony of the revelation of Scripture itself. 

"Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Philippians 2:9-11) 

In the first century during the Greco-Roman world, the worship of Caesar was the order of the day. As a result, many accused of being Christian were required to do three things. Failure to comply would result in forfeiture of life.

  • Say that the Emperor Caesar is Lord.

  • Offer sacrifice to the Emperor and other pagan gods. 

  • Curse Christ to prove that their sacrifice was sincere.

The Roman state, with its multiple gods and goddesses, could not understand the big deal. Why are these Christians so obstinate? Check the box and move on. Once you see the Christians of the day, based on Romans 10:9, these were men and women who stood the test, even to death. 

I want to remind you that the core premise of our Christian faith is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. It stands at the very heart and core of Christianity, and His Lordship is displayed through the testimony of who Jesus is and what He did. 

3) His Lordship is on display as our true source 

About 40% of the Psalms, primarily written by David, is euphemistically on the mountaintop and experiencing a time of great victory and joy. About 10% of the Psalms are written in neutrality, not on the mountain or the valley. 

About 40% of the Psalms were written in pain. It's one of the things I love about the Bible. The Bible never sugarcoats the reality of things we experience. You'll find loss, lament, and people crying to God to make sense of things they don't understand.

But when Psalm 23 was written, many scholars believed that David wrote the psalm during a period of great suffering. It's thought that David wrote it when his son, Absalom, mounted a rebellion and was out to kill David, his own father. 

Take a second and put yourself in David's place. Your son has betrayed you. He's raised an army and is pursuing you to death. You're in hiding and on the run. You long to be home and miss the sense of normalcy with your family. 

David wrote this psalm, knowing he had a source to say it would be okay. When David begins the psalm, "The Lord," he does something unusual. He doesn't call the Lord "Elohim," the common name for God.

Instead, he uses the tetragrammaton and calls on the Lord, Yahweh, and Jehovah, which has significance. David is saying so much with so few words right here. He isn't calling on Elohim. He's saying, Jehovah is my shepherd. That's a different deal in the most God-honoring way. 

In the mind of a Hebrew believer, Jehovah is the God who declared, "I am, I don't have a beginning. I don't have an end." So this potential blessing in a Christian's life is this reality that He's not only Jehovah. In addition to Jehovah:  

Jehova-Jireh 
He is the God who is available and who is your source to meet needs. That's who David calls on Jehovah-Jireh; He is the Lord who provides. This emanates from the story of Abraham. God provided the ram in the thicket as he prepared to sacrifice Isaac. 

In Hebrew, the term Jehovah-Jireh not only means that God will provide, but it also means the God who will bring things to completion for His glory. 

Jehovah-Rafa
He is the Lord who heals. David is dealing with deep emotional conflict in this Psalm. His heart is broken for his child. Absalom is not simply seeking to kill the king and take the throne. He wants to kill his father. 

The name Jehovah-Rafa is a name that speaks to our needs today.

Jehovah-Nissi
The Lord is my banner. This story emanates from the Amalekites coming to attack the people of God. They're more powerful, but God instructs Moses to lift his hands in prayer and intercession. As long as Moses is praying, the people of God are victorious. But when prayer and intercession fail, the people of God are defeated. 

With all that in mind, do you see the picture of what David is leaning into with the "Lord Jehovah is my shepherd?" So much is being said with so few words.

Now, please notice what David doesn't do. David is in pain, but he doesn't deal with his problem by binge-watching Netflix, eating a gallon of ice cream, or driving to the liquor store. Instead, David turns to the source in surrender. 

You may ask, where do you get the surrender part? We know David's in surrender because he calls out to God as the Lord. It's a term of surrender, Jehovah. He's waiving the white flag. 

Don't try to be your own source. God reminds us, "I am your source. Let go. I've got it." 

A 360-Degree God

C.S. Lewis once said, "When the Lord is my primary love, all the secondary loves get thrown in. But when my secondary loves become my primary love, I enjoy neither." 

We have what I would call a 360-degree God. He is Jehovah that you can bring the big problems. Bring them to him with a surrendered heart. But He's also the 360-degree God that we can bring broken relationships to Him and need His power and courage to make right. 

He also has the wisdom for that complexity you're dealing with in your workplace. He's a God who does not withhold good things from His children. He cares about the little things, and sometimes we don't bring the little things to Him. We feel that we got this, and we're good. But remember that little things without the wisdom of God can become big things. 

He is Jehovah, and He is available to you. He is your source.

TL;DR

  1. If we are under a Lordship, then that involves our surrender or giving up specific rights. 

  2. In light of those two words, "The Lord…," in Psalm 23, we have to ask: "Is He worthy or not of our surrender, as Lord?"

    1. His Lordship is on display through creation

    2. His Lordship is on display through testimony

    3. His Lordship is on display as our true source 

  3. Don't try to be your own source. God reminds us, "I am your source. Let go. I've got it." 

Related Reading

How Can I Know God by Grant Caldwell

Freedom in Submission by Bro. Chris Carter

How to Read Difficult Scripture by Brad Bogue

About Christ Church Memphis
Christ Church Memphis is church in East Memphis, Tennessee. For more than 65 years, Christ Church has served the Memphis community. Every weekend, there are multiple worship opportunities including traditional, contemporary and blended services