I am an ARMY

I’ve been taking time to go through verses individually for an extended amount of time lately to really dig into what it means and see what God speaks to me about each verse. One morning I was reading in scripture in Psalm 16. 

This time I was on verse 3. I’ll put verses 1-3 so that you can see where I was before and get a little more background. 

You Will Not Abandon My Soul

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;

    I have no good apart from you.”

3 As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,

    in whom is all my delight.

Psalm 16:1-3 ESV

Now as I meditated the word “excellent” was being highlighted to me. And, to clarify when I do meditation I try not to use any other sources of definition right away. I see the word and attach the first word that God gives me concerning that word, in this case excellent = highest. 

Then as I kept thinking, the verses in proverbs about “an excellent wife, who can find” etc. came to mind. So, I compiled a list 

Prov 12:4

An excellent wife is the crown of her husband,

    but she who brings shame is like rottenness in his bones.

Prov. 31:10

An excellent wife who can find?

    She is far more precious than jewels.

Daniel 5:12; 5:14 -- Daniel had a spirit of excellence

1 Cor. 12:31

But earnestly desire the higher gifts.

And I will show you a still more excellent way.

Ephesians 5:25-27

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

I used my accordance application on my computer (gifted to me through the generous Theology Department of USF, THANK YOU!!!) to look up all of these verses and the definition of excellent. 

In Psalm 16:3 the word excellent is the same as the word “noble” and then later in Proverbs regarding wives the word “excellent” is used in the same context as “strength, wealth, and army”. As I mentioned on my facebook post, women and wives are like armies to be united with. 

We are so IMPORTANT!!! 

I had a teacher from my high school comment on my status and mention that women were treated as property at the time and had no rights. He is not wrong! We all know that women have had to overcome many mistreatments and many people have wrongly used scripture as an intellectual weapon to keep women from accomplishing God given mandates and callings. Many women have faced ridiculous amounts of sexism and have been kept from even the basics of education and human rights. Yet, when the Bible speaks of a wife, they associate their qualities with strength and wealth. What man used against women was really supposed to be a blessing to both of them! But that’s a whole new blogpost. 

Now, as I processed these things, I thought about the Bridegroom and the Bride mentioned throughout scripture (Song of Songs, and Revelation just to name two). Especially Ephesians 5 which lays out the mystery of marriage and what it represents, mainly husband and wife are to represent Christ and the Church. 

Alright, I am not married. So, let’s just establish that. But, I do believe that God always lays out his heart for seasons that he will take you or others near you through. Revelation about things like this are not just for the already married or nearly married. This is for the whole body because we are all apart of the Bride!

So, I felt in my spirit that what I was learning about is how God sees me. As a bride, or a part of his bride. I am like an army, like strength. Now, I am not this way on my own goodness or righteousness. In fact, I am nowhere near strong or adding any kind of wealth to the house of God until he starts moving in my life. 

This process of sanctification that every Christian is called to is a process of becoming strong in the Lord and bold in his Name. All the while understanding that his first desire for me is to be in communion, or relationship with him. “He is as close as turned attention,” is what worship leader Misty Edwards sings in her song Companion. The scriptures talk about Jesus being closer than a brother. 

I would venture that God is closer than the very breath that I breathe and the skin on my bones. Yet, I don’t even have the capacity to understand how that it possible!! 

Because I know that God is SO focused on relationship and he does absolutely everything out of love for me (and you of course), we can trust that when he calls us his army or his strength it’s not really about us. God calling me his strength is not him calling me his source of strength. God is not relying on me to accomplish things here in the earth. He is not using me as an armed force to accomplish victories that he can’t do. God is powerful and sovereign all by himself. Before the world was even made manifest, he was God and he was sovereign.  

What does this mean for me?  

A small response to this sovereignty looks like taking His name. 

I remember when a friend was getting married and the conversation of taking the man’s last name came up. I remember there was a lot of offense that was just all of the sudden there and I left the conversation feeling like it was stupid to change my last name if I were to ever get married. I didn’t want to be taken advantage of like that. I didn’t want to lose myself in his family or his family name. I wanted to be me. And surely God wouldn't want me to lose myself either. Right?

But, as I meditated this morning on another verse:Psalm 63:8, I realized a number of things. 

My soul clings to you;

    your right hand upholds me.

First, it is important to establish that when I hear the word “name” I think: character, personality, the whole person. Not just the word we use to identify one from another. A name describes the character of to which the name is given. Aka a bicycle is named “bicycle” because it is a cyclical device with two wheels, etc. 

From the scripture, the word “cling” lead me to the word “cleave”. This is a word closely associated with the portion of scripture in Genesis describing how a man should leave his father and mother and “cleave to” his wife (Gen. 2:24). 

Now, if we take this as it is described in Ephesians 5, as a metaphor for Christ and the Church and not just what it is directly talking about we see that Jesus came to the earth to make a way for him and his bride to cleave to one another. 

If every part of marriage is supposed to display some portion of the mystery of the Bridegroom, it follows that a woman taking the name of her husband is not just some old, domineering, sexist tradition. 

It is symbolism of how we as Christians take the name of Christ when we cleave to Jesus as his Body, the Bride. 

When I follow Jesus and enter into relationship with Him, it is right for me to take on his name. It is right for me to take up his character. In fact, that’s the whole point of the relationship — because when I am sanctified I am being continually restored back to who I actually was made to be. 

Now, this is all good and dandy. But if you are reading this and you don’t have a relationship with Jesus where you could say you cling to him, I want you to know that he desires that for you. Not because he needs you or wants to use you for this or that but because He loves you and you were made to know him. You were made to be in relationship and when you are in relationship with Jesus you will be able to the absolute best version of yourself.