O magnify the Lord with me, And let us exalt His name together. – Psalm 34:3
O magnify the Lord with me. That word “magnify” – when I think of that I think of a magnifying glass. What’s a magnifying glass for? It is to make something look bigger right? How is it we can make God look bigger? I mean, He already is who He is. The same yesterday, today and forever. How can we make God bigger?
Well, I already gave the answer, we’re making Him ‘look’ bigger. That’s what the Christian wants to do. He wants to magnify, he wants to make God look bigger. And that’s the problem in the world today, that’s the problem in humanity is they have too little a view of God and they have too big of a view of themselves.
So the psalmist says, “O magnify the Lord with me.” Right here in these few words we have a statement of the chief end of man; we have a statement of the real purpose of life. That’s what led to my conversion to Christ. I began to wonder ‘Why am I here? What is the real purpose of life? Why is everyone walking around? Why are we here?’ And my brother came down 2 months after he was converted and shared that verse with me. “Whether we eat or drink, or whatever we do, do all to the glory of God.”
And so that is the real purpose of life is to magnify the Lord. Think of the Lord Jesus, isn’t He worthy to be magnified? To be glorified? To be honored? To be loved? For creation’s sake. He created everything right? Out of nothing. Created every molecule; created every man; created every woman every blade of grass; every leaf. He created everything that exists. In Him we live, move, and have our being.
So He’s worthy to be magnified. But also in terms of redemption. Worthy to be magnified because He has sent a Redeemer. God has sent His Son to redeem a fallen human race. The Lord Jesus came down and took upon Himself human flesh just for us. And lived a perfect, blameless, spotless life just for us. And died a substitutionary death and was raised with mighty power. He ascended in glory and is seated at the right hand of God the Father and was given a Name that is above every name. Doesn’t that make Him all the more worthy to be magnified?
And He is coming again to judge the world and all will stand before Him and bow the knee and say He is Lord. And He is going to judge the world in righteousness. Yes, James is saying to Bethany, “O magnify the Lord with me. Come on Bethany, let’s give our lives.” You’ve said it in one way or another, “Let’s give our lives together to serve the Lord of glory. Let’s magnify Him together.” Two is better than one right? Any mountain climber knows that. What a high calling to magnify the Lord together. To spend your life together for Christ. God bless you.
