Clay for the Potter Humility Not Condemnation

Psalm 40: 1-3 I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. He has put a new song in my mouth--Praise to our God; Many will see it and fear, And will trust in the LORD. (NKJV)

The walk of a Christian can be an arduous one. We have never been promised that everything would be calm in the world; in fact Christ warned us there would be tribulation. Yet often it seems as our walk wears on we can lose focus on exactly how miraculous it was that God Almighty; the Maker of Heaven and Earth would choose to consider us, let alone save us. Psalm 40 begins with just such a reminder that we all should read and remember regularly as we continue on the journey God has called us to.

Verse one shows a beautiful picture of how much God loves us. When the Psalm opens up with us waiting patiently, we need to understand that the Hebrew word actually means, anxiously. And we were anxious when we sought God. When we were still in our sin we cried out to God and marvels of marvels, God heard us. More than that, verse one says that God inclined to us. One definition of inclined is:

·          D isposed; of a mind (usually followed. by to): He was inclined to stay.

God actually made Himself disposed toward us. He inclined to us. Can you picture this level of love? Realizing that we were so buried in our sin that we could not ever be with our creator, this is how much God loved us:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:16-17

Verse 16 of course is the one that is so well known, but it is verse 17 that provides some excellent context for this discussion. It seems in modern western Christianity that it has become trendy to deal in the very condemnation that God Himself did not send Jesus Christ into the world to perform. Christ was sent into the world so that the world could be saved through Him; not to condemn the world. Unfortunately, as Christianity in America has become more involved in the political landscape of the country, we have seen virtually the opposite behavior from Christians, who are meant to be ambassadors for Christ. We see daily the condemnation of the world from Christians who seek to spread the morality of Christ instead of the love of Christ. This leads to the appearance of a sense of moral superiority from Christians towards the world; forgetting that we are all just sinners saved by grace. We speak in terms that can often divide. What is righteous and what is not righteous. Forgetting that our righteousness comes solely from the blood of Jesus Christ. The Prophet Isaiah reminds us of our own righteousness:

But we are all like an unclean thing,  And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6 (NKJV)

Under our own power, our righteousness is but filthy rags. Sometimes we can forget how far down God had to go to save us. David reminds us however, in verse two of Psalm 40. God had to pluck us out of a horrible pit. Most can relate to what that pit was like. Living in darkness and separated from the love of God. Maybe there was abuse and suffering. Maybe addiction and pain. Maybe bitterness and resentment. Depression and callousness. The pit was horrible beloved but God inclined to us and brought us out. He brought us out of the miry clay; which is an interesting choice of words we may sometimes overlook. The word miry is defined as:

·          Covered or bespattered with mire.

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.