You Don’t Need the Legs of a Warrior
His pleasure is not in the strength of the horse,
nor his delight in the legs of the warrior;
the Lord delights in those who fear him,
who put their hope in his unfailing love.
- Psalm 147:10-11
I can’t do this. This phrase has likely cycled in our minds at least once, if not multiple times over, the past year. Tasks that were once simple became nearly unmanageable. My inability to be all things for every circumstance is incredibly frustrating. I don’t know what frustrates me more: the actual pandemic and political hostility that exists, or my inability to maneuver flawlessly amongst this difficult, draining time.
Self-sufficiency feels safe. It feels powerful. Our culture continues to communicate to us that our value is in our production. Our worth is in our ability to display or prove success. However, this widespread cultural goal of “self-sufficiency" and “individualism” eventually leaves us feeling crippled as we soon realize we are completely incapable of living without external help.
Psalm 147 is a psalm of praise. The psalm considers a God who redeems, a God who cares, and a God who commands. The middle of this psalm (verse 10) provides a radical truth: “God’s pleasure is not in the strength of the horse, nor his delight in the legs of the warrior.”
I don’t need the legs of a warrior. God’s pleasure is not in what I can offer or bring to the table. God does not value me for my production. God does not value my ability to be self-sufficient. God delights in our trust. Not our deeds.
In our tradition we baptize infants, because we acknowledge that our contributions are not the reason we are loved and redeemed by God. In her book, Liturgy of the Ordinary, Tish Harrison Warren writes poetically,
“Before you know it, before you doubt it, before you can confess it, before you can sing it yourself, you are beloved by God.”
God finds value in who we are before we are capable of providing anything. We wake each morning marked as His people before our heads even depart the pillow. We are marked as His people not by what we have contributed, nor by what we have created, nor by our might, nor by our intelligence, nor by our success. We are marked by Him simply because of HIS grace.
Let us be a people who see each other in the light of the gospel. Worthy without production. Let us praise Him, for we “can’t do this.” He already has.
“Great is our Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit.”
~ Bethany Keep