Mire is mud, dirt, or filth. The word miry refers to being literally covered in filth. That was what we were living in before God brought us out. The filth of the unforgiving world forgiven by our Father. The filth of relentless sin forgiven by our Redeemer. Can you see the word picture God is painting through the Psalmist? God reaching down into our darkness; into our horrible pit and pulling us up out of our sin condition, covered in the filth of the world and providing us the blood of His only son to replace the covering of mire. To cleanse us. To make us clean again before our God. Hallelujah!
And why does God say miry clay? Clay of course is well known for its malleable properties. Clay can be molded and it can be shaped. Clay is willing to be fashioned into something else. That is the condition we were in when God reached down to save us. It was our condition when we cried out to Him and He inclined to us. God is the potter and we are the clay. We were meant to be fashioned into His image. We were meant to be malleable. We were meant to be pliable in His hands. Yet we resist as humans. We resist and make ourselves into something other than God intended until we get to the point that we cry out from our pit. The Prophet Isaiah again warns about being resistant to the potter:
"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?' Does your work say, 'He has no hands'? Isaiah 45: 9
There we were too, quarreling with our maker over what we should be. A potsherd is defined as a broken pottery fragment and what an illustration that is for our condition when God saved us. We were but a broken piece of pottery lying on the ground with other broken fragments. Our lives hopelessly lost in a world that that shuns flexibility; casts out malleability. But God still heard us in our mire. He still answered us in our horrible pit. He saw that we were miry, but we were ready finally to be pliable before Him. Our heart was ready for the Potter to shape us into His image and away from the image of this world.
Continuing in the key verses, what did God do for us in return for simply allowing Him to be God again in our lives? He set our feet upon a rock. He gave us what we had lacked in the world, a sure foundation to stand on. Jesus Christ is the rock we stand on and because we now have our foundation underneath us the next thing God did for us is He established our steps. With Jesus Christ as our foundation, now God is able to provide us with direction. This is reinforced in Proverbs:
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3: 5-6
But note, we must trust in the Lord with all our heart. We must be completely malleable before him. Completely willing to no longer be a potsherd. We must not lean back to what we think we know. If we do these things, then God will make our paths straight, which actually means He will make them clear to us. We will know what direction to go. He will establish our steps.
In verse three of the key verses it also says that God will put a new song in our mouth a song of praise to our God. Gone will be the filth that was in our mouths before God saved us. The lies and deceit of the world. The false promises and empty futures. Instead, we will sing a new song; one of praise to God for all he has done in our lives. God took away our condemnation, picked us up out of the horrible pit we were in. He gave us a sure foundation in His son Jesus Christ and established our steps and he even changed the song in our mouths to praise His holy name.
And what will be the result beloved? What will be the result of this radical transformation that God has done in our lives? Verse three ends with promising us that many will see and fear and will trust in the Lord. Why wouldn't they? They will have seen a miraculous transformation in us. They will have seen someone who was in a horrible pit but now delivered. They will see someone without sure footing in life now standing sure on the foundation of Jesus Christ. They will see the new person walking confidently in the steps that have been established for them. They will see the negativity of the world replaced with a new song, praising the Almighty God! Many will see indeed. Many will put their trust in the Lord. Why?
Because we were malleable before Him. We allowed Him to shape us and direct us. We now enjoy the righteousness granted to us by the blood of Jesus Christ and we know the truth contained in the word of God and that word has set us free. But let us not forget beloved the pit from which we were pulled out of. I know we want to forget it because it is filled with the filth of our past and desperation of our circumstances which brought us to Christ but also in that pit is the driving humility which led us to decide to no longer be a broken piece of pottery lying on the ground. When we regard the world let us remember that Jesus Christ Himself did not come into the world to condemn it but to so that it could be saved through Him; and we are His ambassadors. When we regard the world let us remember that our righteousness is but filthy rags and if not for the blood of Christ, we would be no better off. When we regard the world, let us remember that they too are walking in the same darkness God called us out of. They know no better than we did. They too are in a horrible pit waiting for someone to show them the love of Christ and all He can do in their lives if they would just give in to the potter and not quarrel with their maker. They will see and put their trust in God too; if we can just remember how far down God had to go to save us.
Anthony Wade October 15, 2008.
