Not to Us

Psalm 115:1  Not to us, O LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.

We should seek to bring glory to God, and not to ourselves.

Psalm 115 is a psalm about God. It's purpose is to bring Him glory. Too often in our lives we seek to bring glory, or at least recognition, to ourselves. We are often like little children who go around saying, "Look what I did!" This is a practice, an attitude, that needs to go away.

It feels good to get recognition for the things that we do and say. I'm not going to deny that. However, why do we need that recognition in order to feel good? The Bible is full of people who did not seek recognition for themselves. John the Baptist, that fiery preacher who no doubt drew large crowds, said that he must decrease so that Christ would increase. The apostle Paul, another man who garnered a lot of attention, respect, and sometimes even fear called himself the chief of sinners,  the lowest of the low because of his encounter with Christ. Of course, there is also Jesus Himself who when someone called Him "Good Teacher" stated that there is no one good save God in Heaven. 

We, as Christians, need to be very conscious of our need to be humble and bring glory to God. We need to do this in action and in attitude. We need not only to act humble, we also need to be humble. The reason given in this psalm that God should be the true recipient of glory is because of His love and faithfulness. His love and faithfulness have never wavered. How many times have our love and faithfulness wavered, not only to our God but also for our fellow human beings?

To consistently, constantly bring glory only to God is not something that happens over night. It is the product of a continual surrender to His will. By surrendering to Him, we lose sight of ourselves, and bringing Him glory becomes as natural as breathing.