You Stoop Down to Make Me Great

“It is God Who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand on the Heights. He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You give me Your shield of victory, and Your right hand sustains me; You stoop down to make me great.”

- Psalm 18:32-35

“You stoop down to make me great.”

No matter how many times I read that phrase, my heart does something at the implications. As I read that passage, I felt a burning in my chest that I hadn’t felt in far too long.

Here, David is giving credit where credit is due. Psalm 18 was written about his preservation from the hand of Saul and all of his other enemies; David is clearly and completely giving credit to God for enabling him to do everything He needed to do. (See, God not only protects us and cares for us, He also gives us strength to do things ourselves – which is another topic for another post.) It was God Who strengthened him and gave him victory.

But then he says something that’s so beautiful, it’s nearly incomprehensible.

“You stoop down to make me great.”

I’m not even sure where to begin. For God to stoop down is one thing – Creator of all, Sustainer of life and existence, Perfection and Beauty and Splendor and Majesty. God Himself stooped down in humility, and His reason was to make one of His human creations great.

God is the great one. I mean, we sing just that so often in church: “How great is our God!” That song will never lose the power of that simplicity and truth, because God will never stop being the greatest Being in all of existence. But that same God, the great God, humbles Himself to make His beloved children great.

That is the source of salvation.

There is no greater example of this than Jesus of Nazareth. The Lord Almighty humbled Himself and took on the flesh of His creation so that one day, we might be exalted with Him. The love and the sacrifice are staggering.

No matter what happens in your day or your week, you can turn to the God Who humbled Himself to make you great and ask for strength. He has already proved that it is His great delight to help you; all you have to do is ask and let Him work.