Psalm 147:4-5, “He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. He determines the number of the stars; and gives to all of them their names.”
The hands that fashioned the heavens are the same that heal the broken-hearted….
How heart-calming is it to consider that the same God who placed the stars in the sky is the one who stoops to bind up our broken hearts? This dynamic—of exaltation and humiliation, of transcendence and immanence, of being high and exalted and yet with the lowly—this dynamic is true of YHWH all throughout the Bible, and by it His unique glory is declared. As we see in Psalm 138:5-6, “Great is the glory of YHWH. For, though YHWH is high, He regards the lowly…” The excellence, the beauty, the unique identity of the One True God is especially seen in this “conjunction of diverse excellencies” (as Edwards would say): He is highly exalted in transcendent splendor and also draws near in immanent ministry.
And this conjunction of excellencies is no where more clear than in the incarnation—and climactically the crucifixion—of God the Son. However, what we see in Jesus is something truly marvelous. Jesus teaches us that it is not DESPITE God’s exalted glory that He becomes the intimate helper (as if we could say, even though He is God, He still cares for the broken). Rather, Jesus teaches us the it is PRECISELY BECAUSE He is God exalted in glory that He becomes the intimate helper of the broken. To lower Himself, to give Himself, to “exhaust” Himself for the empty is not an alien activity that God nevertheless takes to Himself, it is the expression of His glory toward His creatures. His majesty, His beauty, His excellence is communicated not despite of the fact that He empties Himself to become a servant, but in the fact that He empties Himself and becomes a servant. This is why Christ’s self-giving obedience of love even to death on the cross (Philippians 2:6-8) is the ground for His exaltation to the throne of God and the universal recognition that He is YHWH incarnate (2:9-11).
Much more could be said! However, perhaps I can end with this….if the glory of our God is to give Himself for the undeserving (John 12:28, 17:29, etc), and if it is by recognizing and receiving this glory in Christ that we have been regenerated (2 Corinthians 4:6, etc.), how can we not also be transformed into the same image (2 Corinthians 3:18)?
