“Now I know that the Lord rescues his anointed king. He will answer him from his holy heaven and rescue him by his great power. Some nations boast of their chariots and horses, but we boast in the name of the Lord our God. Those nations will fall down and collapse, but we will rise up and stand firm. Give victory to our king, O Lord! Answer our cry for help.”
Psalm 20:6-9 NLT
To boast about something is not normally a good thing to do. As the old saying goes, “pride comes before a fall”. We are all aware of the children in the playground trying to outdo each other with stories of their families, toys, prowess at sports and so on, boasts abounding. But in a less obvious way, boasts take place in the workplace or the pub. Fishermen boast about the size of their catch. Gardeners boast about the size of their prize marrows. Boasting is a human trait that spans many generations. And here we have David writing about how he “boasts in the name of the Lord” when other nations “boast of their chariots and horses”.
In the Bible, boasting is considered to be evil, with one exception which we will come to later. James 4:16 is a verse in the context of a man making business plans and arrogantly saying what will happen. James wrote, “As it is, you boast in your arrogant schemes. All such boasting is evil“. Proverbs 27:1-2, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring. Let someone else praise you, and not your own mouth; an outsider, and not your own lips“. On a national level we are familiar with the boasting of nations with their stories of armaments, their modern equivalents of “chariots and horses”. The Psalmist wrote, “How long, O Lord? How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat? How long will they speak with arrogance? How long will these evil people boast?” (Psalm 94:3-4). On the world stage today, we are familiar with the boastings of leaders in all sorts of disciplines, but we know that they rise and fall, much as we read in Isaiah 40, “ … And so it is with people. The grass withers and the flowers fade, … ”.
However, it is acceptable to boast in something that is invincible, indestructible, and all-powerful, as David wrote in our Psalm today. In confidence, and in the face of boasting from others, he could “boast in the name of the Lord our God”. Paul clarified the situation over boasting in 2 Corinthians 10:17, “As the Scriptures say, “If you want to boast, boast only about the Lord.”” Paul also wrote, “As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died” (Galatians 6:14). And that is the important distinction. We can boast about Jesus because there is something eternal and complete to boast about. No other person, nation, or religion can match the claim that God came to this earth as a human being and died on a cross for the sins of mankind. That was an event so significant that it can never be exceeded.
Dear Father God. At every opportunity I will boast about You and Your saving grace. There is nothing like You and never will be. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 