And it says in verse 5, Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens.
Let thy glory be above all the earth.
And what I want to point out here is that even at a time when he's laying there, he's
suffering, he's surrounded by enemies, he's being physically assaulted, he's being verbally
assaulted, his priority is still that God's glory be exalted above the heavens.
You know, at the end of the day, what we need to realize, even when we're going through
a bad time, is that the world doesn't revolve around us.
Life is just not about how successful we can be and how much we can achieve and how we
can come through it and be on top.
That's not what our life is about.
We're servants of the Lord.
It's really about him.
And John the Baptist said, he must increase, I must decrease.
So we need to understand that we are not the star here.
We are not the most important character in this story of our lives.
But rather, all of our lives are to be given glory to God.
At the end of the day, let's say we go through life and on paper we're a total failure, but
God's name is glorified and the gospel is preached and people are saved and great things
happen for the kingdom of God, then you know what, that's okay.
Because at the end of the day, it's not about how good we can end up looking or how good
our situation can be.
At the end of the day, it's did the kingdom of God go forward?
Were people saved?
Were achievements made for the Lord and his glory?
Because anything that we achieve for ourselves is just vain anyway.
You know, are we really that important as individuals that we just need to be lifted
up and exalted?
No, it's God that needs to be lifted up and exalted.
And if you stop and think about it, in the long run, you know, we're going to go to heaven
and we're going to be rewarded for everything that we did for Christ, for all the things
that we did that were of eternal value.
Those are going to be the gold, silver, and precious stones for which we're rewarded.
And then the things that we did for ourselves or the things that we did that didn't have
eternal value are going to be the wood, hay, and stubble that matter now, they matter today,
but some days are not going to matter because they don't have eternal value.
And so we need to understand what has eternal value and what doesn't.
And that let's say everyone attacks us, hates us, we lose everything, but Christ is glorified.
That's a successful life.
I mean, look at people who died for Christ.
Talk about losing everything, they even died.
They're even killed, maybe even young in their life, like Stephen, for example.
You know, was he a failure?
No, he's a big success and God used him greatly and he's got all kinds of rewards up in heaven
and I'm sure he doesn't regret a single thing.
And so at the end of the day, you know, there's going to be the millennial reign of Christ
and then after the millennium, there's going to be the new heaven and the new earth.
The former things are going to be passed away and a lot of the things that we care so much
about right now are going to be totally forgotten and the only stuff that's going to remain
is the stuff that mattered, which was the stuff that's for Christ.
And Christ alone is going to be glorified in that day, you know, it's going to be all
about him.
Whatever laurels we have, whatever crowns we've achieved, we're going to be casting
those at his feet and giving him all the glory and him all the praise because at the end
of the day, he's the main character of the story.
Everything revolves around him.
So we need to realize that even when we're going through a bad time, it's really the
kingdom of God that takes precedence.
That's the number one thing.
That's David's priority.
He's glorifying God.
He said, be thou exalted, O God above the heavens.
Let thy glory be above all the earth.
And then, you know, he jumps right back into talking about what he's going through because
obviously what we're going through matters to us.
But we need to stop and pause, which is what verse five is.
Verse five is just a pause to say, hey, I want God to be glorified.
You know, it's his kingdom that matters the most.
It's his agenda that is number one, not my own personal agenda.
He must increase.
I must decrease.