day no. 14,613: the mighty, magnanimous God

Psalm 138
I love the pregnancy of the sixth verse, "For though the LORD is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he knows from afar."

The Lord is high. He is exalted. We can exalt Him and ascribe worth to Him in our souls and lift His Name up, but it is already up there whether we do or not. His height is not dependent on our thrust. He is high. This is a given. 

So given that, it is astounding that He has regard for the lowly. For Him to look on anyone is for Him to look down, but how far down He looks is magnanimous. He doesn't just look down and see the cream that has risen to the very top by their tiptoes, He sees all the way down to the soul laying prostrate against the dust from which it came and to which it will soon return. He not only has the ability to see that far down, He prefers things that are that far down.

The haughty and high-minded are known by God. He knows which is which and though their hands may be closer to grasping the clouds, they're far from Heaven. He still knows them, but He knows them from a distance. They do not have the closeness they imagine. Because of their lofty self-assessments, they are further from the One who is lofted above all. The high and mighty God will lift up the lowly and strike down the high-minded.