Be Magnified

Greetings and thanks for visiting. This is my first post in the “Sermon in song” series. Lynn DeShazo wrote a lot of wonderful songs sung in many churches all over the world. One of my all time favourite songs from her is “Be magnified”. I’m sure this song, like all other songs, has a different effect on different people. I have been meaning to write down its effect on me for a long time but am not entirely sure why at this point. Perhaps it is so that I (or indeed someone else) can read it some time later and find something useful. So here goes...

The Merriam-Webster dictionary gives the definition of magnify as

“To cause to be held in greater esteem or respect”

The definition implicitly introduces a view point. Magnification causes someone (the beholder) to hold something in greater esteem. The process acts more on the person doing the viewing than on the object being viewed. The Wikipedia entry for magnification adds:

“Typically magnification is related to scaling up visuals or images to be able to see more detail, increasing resolution … In all cases, the magnification of the image does not change the perspective of the image.”

Simply, the image’s features are made to appear bigger so that they can be seen more clearly but the image itself remains in its original size and state. Many artistic masterpieces (paintings, photographs, plays) contain many small brilliant sections which are better appreciated by close inspection from experienced art viewers and readers. It is very easy for the novice to miss the finer points of masterpieces unless some magnification of them is made by some trained expert for everyone to see. The process of magnification is thus quite critical for comprehensive perception.
Similar conclusions can be drawn for the way we view people. The more time we spend with certain people and get to know them more the more we begin to appreciate and understand them. It certainly happens to me a lot. I have looked at people and disliked them, disrespected them too, because of what they did. As I got closer to those people because of circumstances or chance, I found myself beginning to understand their actions. The more I got close, the more I began to appreciate them. Proximity is thus an essential ingredient for perception.
Now there are three important perceptions a man can have. How he perceives himself, how he wants the world to perceive him and how he perceives God.
How we perceive ourselves often depicts the choices we make when no restrictions are imposed on us. The chair we choose to sit on when we are first in an empty room, the job adverts we choose to respond to in the papers. We make the choice (usually subconsciously) based on what we deem our status to be. We choose a position that we think we belong in and put ourselves there.
How we want the world to perceive us is easily depicted by the clothes we buy and how we wear them. Everything we do that contributes to our outward appearance is a sign of how we want the world to see us. Also, how much we go out of character in the company of others and how much of our character we suppress.

How we perceive God is the object of this writing and the theme of the song “Be magnified”.
The opening words of the song summarize it in a simple yet comprehensive way.

“I have made You too small in my eyes”

The beholder has just realized that their perception of God is too inadequate. The first thing to notice here is that the first line is in itself an admission of guilt (confession). A simple statement of what they have done. “I have made You too small in my eyes”. It’s all happening on the beholder. In their eyes God has been too small.
We soon learn more

“And I have believed in a lie

That You were unable to help me”

The perception has grown into something more serious, belief. This was to be expected really because often belief stems from perception. Indeed there is an age old cliché, “seeing is believing”. Note how this idiom directly contradicts faith:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Hebrews 11:1

How often worldly beliefs contradict God’s word.

As we fail to see the true size of God, the things we see every day, more importantly how we see things every day, has a huge influence on what we believe. We are no longer being guided by faith, but by sight. The beholder has been seeing God but they have been seeing Him as too small to be able to help them. Things are about to change drastically though …

“But now, O Lord, I see my wrong
Heal my heart and show Yourself strong;”

A mistake has been realized and there is a plea for God to show Himself strong. Notice though, how the condition of the heart has been linked to the perception of God’s strength. The heart needs to be healed so that God’s strength can be shown as strong.
Is it possible then that in our darkest moments, when we blame God for not helping us. Isn’t it our hearts which have become so ill that we are not able to see God’s strength? The Bible is full of examples of people not able to see God when His presence was apparent.

The second verse starts with another realization:

“I have leaned on the wisdom of men
O Lord, forgive me;”

This time we learn that the singer has put their trust in the wisdom of men. You only lean on something that you think is strong enough to support you. Unless if you want to fall of course.

“And I have responded to them
Instead of Your light and Your mercy.”

Their actions have been controlled by where they have put their trust. In fact their actions have been direct responses of where they have put their trust! Interesting to note that there is realization that you can respond to God’s light and to God’s mercy. How often we see actions that directly contradict God’s mercy.
Let’s take stock of what has happened. First the perception of God as too small led to belief in a lie that God is not able to help. The belief naturally led to trust in worldly wisdom. Now that misplaced trust has pushed the singer to respond to worldly wisdom.
Again the healing of the heart is identified as the remedy to the problem.

The chorus places emphasis on that there is nothing that God cannot do. This is very difficult to grasp for most people. It is sometimes difficult for me to grasp at certain times in my life too. There is absolutely nothing that God cannot do. Yes, Nothing. Really.

The singer’s eyes are now firmly fixed on God.

“And there is nothing You can't do
O Lord, my eyes are on You”

That’s just the point, isn’t it? We do not appreciate things until we look at them more closely, for a longer time. The problems were created by losing sight of God. We can see how big God is if we can keep our eyes on Him all the time.

“My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.”

 Psalm 57:7

But wait; there is peace of mind too:

“He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord.”

 Psalm 112:7

The more I think about this song the more I get to appreciate the inspiration behind it too!