Creator | His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich

I Wear A Dusty Crown

January 25, 2020 Leave a comment

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I love the way David describes how God treats His children in Psalm 103. David says He “satisfies your desires with good things.”(Psalm 103:5).

Later on in this Psalm, David writes, “He remembers we are but dust.” He writes this in connection with the compassion of God. “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers we are but dust.” (Psalm 103:13-14).

God created human beings out of a common substance, a substance of little worth, just a handful of dirt. Inside this dirt-formed vessel, He placed an image of Himself. When a handful of dirt became a man, something of little value became something of infinite value—a living human being. Every human being born after Adam reflects this God-likeness.

Even though we bear His likeness, we’re still just dirt. He remembers this. He knows our frailties and all our weaknesses. He knows our dirt. He has compassion on our dirt. The Psalmist says, “He crowns you with love and compassion.” (Psalm 103:4).

Even though we’re made of dirt, we have a regal bearing. As God’s children, we wear the crown of His compassion and love.

Perhaps this is why David begins and ends this Psalm with these words. “Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.” (Psalm 103:22).

Categories: Creator, Devotionals, Glorifying God, God's Control, God's Love, God's Presence, God's Word, Personal, Praise, Psalms, Theology, Trust Tags: Adam, Creator, Crowns of Compasssion, God's Compassion, God's Image, Human Beings, Our Dirt, Praise the Lord with singing

Three Useless Things We Do–And A Fourth!

September 30, 2015 Leave a comment

The other day I was standing beside an elevator, having just pushed the Arrow Down button to call the elevator up to the second floor, when an elderly gentleman walked over and pushed the same button again. Then, he turned to me and said, “I know that was useless. The elevator won’t get here any sooner just because two people push it.”

At the grocery store, a little later that day, I tried to sign my name on a credit card scanner. After several attempts to make a semi-legible mark, the clerk waved her hand at me and said, “Oh, honey, forget it. Your signature won’t mean anything on there. That thing is useless.”

My day of useless things ended when I got home and tried to balance my checkbook. No, it wasn’t balancing the checkbook that proved useless. What was useless was pushing the “C” repeatedly on the calculator, clearing out the old amount before adding a new one. Like the gentleman at the elevator, I suddenly realized pressing the “C” a second time was an exercise in futility. The screen always went blank the first time I pushed it.

There’s a fourth useless thing we may be guilty of as well. It’s forgetting to worship our Creator. God reminds us of this in Isaiah 45:7 when He says, “I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.”

Failure to acknowledge the God of the Universe, He who created light and darkness, who directs every aspect of our lives, is useless. In the same chapter in Isaiah, God says,” By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return:‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.” (Isaiah 45:23).