Learning Lordship

"O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. . . "  Psalm 8:1 (NASB)

I must confess that when I have heard the term "lord" used in our society today, it is usually as either a curse word or the beginning of a prayer.  After all, we live in modern times, far removed from the unpleasantness of the middle ages.  We live in a time where equality is prized and inequality is something to we strive to banish.  In such a time there is no place for peasants and serfs.  No place for lords and rulers.  And by all means, there is no place for servants. 

In our culture today we are taught from a very early age that we are to serve no one but ourselves - that we alone decide what we ought to do.  And so the culture of lordship is so very foreign to us.  And yet, it is a concept that we as Christians must figure out, because Christ is presented as Lord so clearly in the Scriptures.  And in Psalm 8 the psalmist willingly takes ownership of the fact that he belongs to the Lord.  The Lord is our Lord.  My Lord.  Your Lord.  Our Lord. 

This means that we must determine what "Lord" means.  And to do so, I think we need to look back to medieval times.  Times when lords and ladies were real things and Lord meant a position of honor and rule.  We must willingly acknowledge that when we call Christ "Lord" we are confessing that He has a place of rule over us.  We are His servants.  Beneath him.  We are not equals with such a Lord, but He has the sole place of rule and authority in our lives.  There is no choice that we have but to serve the needs of the one who rules over our lives and who is our Master. 

What a foreign concept.  We use the word so casually and without meaning.  How often have we started a prayer with the word and then proceeded to tell our Master everything He is supposed to do for us?  We sing the word but only if it is in a song that pleases us.  And in reality we have replaced our Lord with a different kind of ruler-ship in which we find ourselves to be lord.  We want to rule, we want to reign, and we have very little place in our lives for anyone or anything that would challenge the totalitarian rule that we exert over our own lives. 

Which is why serving our Lord is such a critical concept in Scripture and something that we must learn.  You and I do not belong to ourselves.  We are here for the service of our Lord and King.  And the sooner that we realize our place, the sooner we will be able to recognize the glory that God has chosen to give us as he gives us some measure of rule over the world in which we live.  But this rule that we exert is always mediated by our service for Him. 

And so we must learn what it means to be a peasant and in so doing serve the Savior.  "O Lord, my Lord."   - may this truly be our prayer.