Three awesome causes

"Gird your sword upon your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness" (Psalm 45:4).

That verse strikes me a little funny. One word of it, I mean-the word "meekness." Here is this amazing Psalm among the Psalms, depicting Jesus in His transfigured state as the handsome rider on the war horse, all decked out in finery and enthroned on the praises and admiration of His beautiful courtiers and subjects. He rides out for conquest, for causes we all can get excited about: truth and righteousness . . . and meekness?

I remember a Three Stooges episode from my childhood. At one point the ne're-do-well friends hit the jackpot, and they are in a huddle, greedily counting out a stack of hundred dollar bills. The bossy one, Moe, is counting out loud: "One hundred, two hundred, three hundred. . . ." Then he comes to a different bill that seems oddly out of place, and pauses a second in his puzzlement, and says, "Hmm. A fifty. How'd that get in there?" And he crumples it, tosses it over his shoulder, and resumes his task, his partners once again in rapt attention.

We would expect Nobility and Majesty to ride out to champion Truth and Righteousness. But I found Meekness strange company with these causes. (Even felt funny to capitalize it here.) You mean to tell me that of all the infinite possible number of causes that could have been chosen for the middle spot-for that 33 percent of Christ's causes-the Lord picked "meekness"?

Well, then, if meekness keeps such company with "truth" and "righteousness," it must be more important than I had thought, more highly prized than a third-tier or runner-up cause. If I am to be careful about "truth" and "righteousness" in my life, it seems that I am to be equally careful about "meekness." I may not be haughty toward you. I may not even catch haughtiness in my heart.

After all, the beautiful rider in Psalm 45 had to ride a lowly donkey through a sweaty street before he got His steed.

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