Ascribing Unto God

Having been made to think of people ascribing attributes to God, the mind goes directly to David, doesn’t it? We straightway think of the call of Psalmist David to us all, in Psalm 29: 1 – 2. Ascribe to the LORD, you heavenly beings, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due to his name; worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.

We know that God Himself has ascribed or imputed much upon David His servant, whom He has credited as a man after His own heart. After removing Saul, he made David their king. God testified concerning him: I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do. Acts 13: 22.

Moses, who was used by God to deliver His people from bondage in Egypt, is now on his final days as leader of God’s people. Listen to his mind, as he calls a special assembly, his final gathering and speaks to the people, from his heart. For I know that after my death you are sure to become utterly corrupt and to turn from the way I have commanded you. Deuteronomy 31: 29a. It is on this occasion that Moses recites the words from his song, from beginning to end. He publicly ascribes nothing short of greatness to the One God who is their God. For I proclaim the name of the LORD: Ascribe greatness to our God. Deuteronomy 32: 3 NKJV

David, who himself was Israel’s second and great king, encourages all Israel to praise God. He publishes God as not just excellent, but His excellence is over all of His people. His Strength, His Power, His Almightiness, His Supremacy are all beyond human grasp. Ascribe ye strength unto God: his excellency is over Israel, and his strength is in the clouds. Psalm 68: 34 KJV.

Now, here is Paul telling us that Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us. But my mind goes wandering off, as I look at our Jesus, the One sinless, the One innocent. If to impute also means to ascribe, guilt, shame and sin to someone, then was my sin, shame and guilt imputed to Jesus? All I know is that this has come upon me forcibly and for the first time I am made to see what I believe, yet do not really know. How I am brought low to my knees of repentance. O, how I do not want to live in falsity, due to ignorance or otherwise.

Would you believe, at the exact time I am having this penetrating revelation about myself and my relationship with Father, Almighty God, a dear friend and sister in Christ, phones. She is all excited and mesmerized as she tells me all about the miracle which God has just wrought in her, in terms of coming to truth. She had read a devotional which had spoken about hating God. She said that although she knew the Scripture which said that none of us can serve God and money, Scripture which she knew from very young, it never really was as meaningful and clear as now. To serve any other master, is to hate God. What really had her totally spell-bound, was the fact that what she kept in her mind and heart as knowing, she really did not know in spirit and in truth. She was astounded at the way our Father in heaven worked in bringing this light of truth in her.

Whether we want to admit it or not, many of us, believers, people who love the Lord and claim to only want to follow Him, are often living in unadulterated deceit about our relationship with our Heavenly Father. I for one, my dear sister in Christ, and some of you as well, have been brought to stark revelations about ourselves, which are most startling, frightening and repentance drawing. Is this not the work of God, the Holy Spirit? Is this not the work of grace?

As a person thinks, she or he speaks. If I am deceived about my relationship with our Risen Lord, if I am publicising Him as the One and only Lord and Master, yet I am being loyal to myself, am I not being false? If I am ascribing to God the Father, all greatness and might as Sovereign Supreme; yet I am obeying my self-thoughts and self-ways, then I am His true enemy. If I am ascribing to God, the Holy Spirit, truth and all sound and wise teaching, claiming that He is my guide and counsellor, yet my ways are all of self and this earthly life, then I am deceiving myself and others. If I am ascribing to God, the Son, full victory, eternal life and Resurrection power to name a few, yet I am still held bound in graves of lost-ness, emptiness, barrenness, powerlessness and fruitlessness, then I am only making a mockery of our Risen Lord. Believe you me, as we think so are we.