SOME SONGS BY
CERTAIN VICTORY:

"Who You Are"

by Paul Lytle

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O LORD, You know it all. You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.

Psalm 139:1-6

Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.

Proverbs 3:5

When I step so far, You know
You've pushed me the way
I cannot remain
When You wish me to go

When I impressed myself, You know
You shake it out of me
You force me to see
The awe that You can show

Yes, every thought that I can form
Just turns to dust

And I have come so far
In learning who You are
And I deserve all the pain
I deserve all the shame

And You, You went so far
To show me who You are
And You take on all the blame
You wash away the stain

When I make my move, You know
You've made it beforehand
According to Your plan
And nothing is unknown

When I see the light, You know
You've shone for all time
And only now I find
That light continues to grow

No, nothing I can make or say
Deserves more than dust

And I have come so far
In learning who You are
And I deserve all the pain
I deserve all the shame

And You, You went so far
To show me who You are
And You take on all the blame
You wash away the stain

*          *          *

Heavenly Father, break me of my habit to lean upon my own knowledge and wisdom. Destroy my false pride and help me to truth in You for all things. You are the beginning of Wisdom and Light, and by You I may understand. Amen.

I know that I am not alone in this, but when I was a child I believed that I knew everything. My parents were fools who did not understand my brilliance, and my teachers would sometimes get the way of my pursuit of real intelligence. Now, most teenagers would not say such in as many words, but we can hear it in their exasperated grunts and see it in the rolling of their eyes. They believe themselves smarter than the rest of us, and we simply do not understand.

There is no reasoning with such people. The only cure for that condition is more understanding. As we grow up a bit, perhaps go to college, we look back on those teenagers and laugh (or perhaps cry) at their foolishness. "Was I even that dull?" we may ask of ourselves. Well, yes, we were.

In college I thought that I knew everything, and even a little after college. And each year I would laugh at who I was the year before. What a fool I had been, but I never suspected that I was still a fool.

What a cure it was to me to catch a glimpse of the wisdom of the Lord! What an awesome sight to behold, and how small it made me feel. No, it did not hurt to see my own limitations, but it was freeing. Instead of being at the limit of my own understanding, I had come to the beginning of God’s! It is as though an ant, thinking that it had eaten all that there was to eat, had come upon the edge of a potluck picnic.

The lyrics to this song seek to minimize Man, but in doing so it makes us greater than we could have been before. In Christ, we can rise above the wisdom and pleasure of the world and enter the wisdom and pleasure of Christ. In our own perspective we must shrink, but in the reality, we have only just begun to grow.

The feast begins with Christ, and it never ends.

-Paul

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