Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples,
Ascribe to the LORD glory and strength!
Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name;
So, we now shift from singing to ascribing — what is the difference?
Ascribe is defined as, “to credit or assign, as to a cause or source; attribute.” In this Psalm, we are crediting to God that he is the cause/source of people. We are crediting to God and his character glory and strength. We are crediting to God the glory due is name(s).
As a writer, I can’t help but notice “scribe” in the word, the verb “to write.” Singing is hearing; scribing is a visual way to communicate.
Often we are encouraged to journal, to write down our thoughts and feelings. Just the transfer of those internal intangibles into black and white words puts some validity to them. Seeing them in words helps us process them until we understand more clearly the truths they behold. We get in touch with the reality of ourselves.
Recently a friend of mine went through an “unspeakable” horror. I was glad when she was able to write just a few words about it to me. It was an honor to read them, and I cried with her pain. I believe just being able to put it in a few words may have been helpful to her heart.
Ascribing to the Lord what we believe of him is also helpful to our soul. It might be wonderful, glowing things like this Psalm, but for some of us, what we ascribe might be hard experiences we have had with him, things we haven’t dared to say aloud. It’s OK whatever we ascribe to him — he’s big enough to take it! It just helps us to get it out on paper.
And in the process, we may obtain truth.
What would you ascribe to the Lord? I would love to hear about it in the comments…
