Magnifying the Lord

Throughout the Scripture, particularly in Psalms, there is an attitude of praise presented in terms such as these: my soul magnifies/glorifies the Lord.  God is the focus of Christian life but how Christians handle that focal point is worth addressing.  The concept of soul magnification and God glorification is to be the content of this dialogue.

Magnification is an ocular term.  It refers to looking at something through a lens and making it more visible through magnification.  Physically, this happens through the use of lenses placed at particular angels and distances in order to reflect and refract light so that objects appear larger and with more definition that they would otherwise.  Think about binoculars.  The objects that we aim binoculars at become more visible and accessible images due to the effectiveness of the lenses within the binoculars.

In a spiritual sense, Christians are binoculars to the Lord.  We are meant to magnify the Lord and glorify His name.  Like ocular magnification, this happens through properly placed lenses.  The lenses of spiritual magnification are the Word and the Holy Spirit.  When we are in the Word and the Holy Spirit is working in us, we will magnify the Lord.  The Word and the Holy Spirit sanctify believers.  To continue the metaphor, sanctification is like replacing and cleaning the lenses of believers so that they work properly.

So, who do we magnify the Lord for, or, who is looking through the binoculars of our lives?  Simply put, the world.  We glorify and magnify the Lord because it is right and joyous to do so; however, the purpose is to draw the world to who He is.  A part of this is denying the natural tendencies to glorify and magnify ourselves.  In truth, we are only able to magnify one thing at a time; you can only aim the binoculars at one thing at a time to the denial of looking at other things.

Ultimately, we are commanded to worship Him at the denial of self.  This is beautiful.  We are conduits of His glory, meant to serve as walking magnifiers of who He is.  What a wonderful gift, that God would use such as us for His glory and purposes!