My mouth will tell of your righteous acts, of your deeds of salvation all the day, for their number is past my knowledge (Psalm 71.15)
We like to brag. Parents talk about their kids’ success. Fans talk about their team’s greatness. We also speak of our own conquests with unabashed forthrightness. In each of these examples (and there are more) we brag on things that by their connection to us make us feel or appear great. My kids. My team. My ability. My job. My brain.
What is not so natural is to boast in someone else without somehow padding your own pockets. We have trouble with this because even if others may not put it together we know that when we speak of other’s greatness there is a subtle reminder that we are not. We don’t like this, so we keep it quiet. It’s much safer to keep the Dagon of self upright without the swirling winds of compliments to other gods. Let’s keep it safe.
But there is another level of unnatural boasting here. I am speaking of the boasting in another that explicitly puts you in an unfavorable light. This is very unnatural.
Isn’t this exactly what worship is for the Christian?
Our worship of God through Christ pivots on the fact that we ascribe praise and adoration to God because of what he has done for miserable wretches like us. This is not false humility it is gospel-induced worship. The attributing of worship to God is magnified by the personal understanding of unrighteousness (Rom. 5.1-11).
This is really abnormal.
In the Psalm above the singer is saying that his songs will be forever bumping the stories of God’s triumphant work in the world and in his life. In order to do this, in order to sing back-up for the Psalmist, we have got to understand that we cannot sing of our righteousness. We cannot steal the stage-light. No, it is precisely our unrighteousness that gives such a personal and heartfelt expression to the righteous acts of God. To put it another way: the gospel topples our personal Dagon and gives us God in Christ. This is worth boasting in.
While this is unnatural it is supernatural. And it is good and right.