Bronze statues

I have noticed there are two ways to read the Psalms: (1) My, they sure were great saints in those days; or (2) These words are normal Christianity. My spiritual breakthrough has been in moving from #1 to #2.

Consider for instance: "I…go around your altar, proclaiming thanksgiving aloud, and telling all your wondrous deeds" (26:6,7).

Did I really used to go around telling people of God's deliverances and wondrous deeds in my life? Did I really thank Him out loud in public? Never crossed my mind. If you had put me to the wall about these verses, I would have said we moderns fulfill them in a "cultic" sense --- that is, by showing up on Sunday morning and singing the hymns.

Even some of the best Christians I know are deficient in this area. My friend B. is reverent, quiet, submissive, modest, gentle, loving, praying, Bible-reading, and of unimpeachable character; I thought she had no faults. But for years when she and I got together to fellowship, our conversation was somehow always….defeated. It was pious defeat, to be sure: we moaned and whined about how we have no power in our lives. But it was not honoring to God. He wants praise and thanksgiving with joy.

We are both changing our tune. We have come to see that when God said "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9), he meant the "mouth" part every bit as much as the "heart" part.

We shouldn't make bronze statues of the saints of old.