Lay My Glory in the Dust
Psalm 7 is one of David’s songs from his days when he was being hunted by King Saul. Cush, a Benjamite, had been slandering David to the king. He was being falsely accused and he was indignant. In this Psalm, he brings his complaint before the Lord. He has a clear conscience in the matter. He is so secure in his innocence that he tells God to turn him over to his enemy if he is guilty. He says:
If I have repaid my friend with evil or plundered my enemy without cause, let the enemy pursue my soul and overtake it, and let him trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust.
That line, “lay my glory in the dust,” is striking imagery. So much so that George Matheson incorporated it into his 1882 hymn “Love that Will Not Let Me Go.” Here is the last verse:
O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be
Interestingly, Matheson uses this line from David’s Psalm in a way that is different than the way David meant it in the Psalm itself. David meant it as an exclamation of self-defense. He wasn’t expecting God to do what he said because he was innocent of what he was accused of. Matheson, on the other hand, is volunteering life’s glory to be laid in dust. Matheson is poetically proclaiming his desire to obey Jesus’ call to “take up our cross and follow him.” He is expressing his faith that “he who loses his life shall find it,” is true. And one of the ways he sees himself taking up his cross and losing his life is to “lay in dust life’s glory dead.”
So, one might accuse Matheson of misreading or misinterpreting Psalm 7, and that is certainly possible. But the meaning of Psalm 7:5 is so obvious that it doesn’t seem likely that is what happened. Instead, I think Matheson viewed this Psalm Christologically. What David said of himself as about his innocence, could be amplified a million times over by Jesus Christ. Christ, who was absolutely pure, sinless, and innocent was falsely accused. While David might have been innocent of what he was accused of, he was nevertheless a sinner.
While David proclaims his innocence and puts himself before God to say, “I’m so certain of my innocence I will say that if you think I’m guilty let my enemies trample my life to the ground and lay my glory in the dust,” all while believing God wouldn’t do that because he was innocent. Jesus, in contrast, was completely righteous, without sin, holy, and the one of whom Pilate right said, “I find no fault in this man,” and yet he spoke not a word in self-defense. He went silently to the Cross, like a lamb to the slaughter.
The Father allowed Jesus’ life to be trampled into the ground and his glory to be laid in the dust, and Jesus willingly without objection handed himself over to this unjust abuse. It is this that Matheson is reflecting on in this hymn. He is using David’s language but making a Christological application of them to himself.
What does this mean for us? Are we to follow the example of David and staunchly defend ourselves in the face of false accusations, or are we to do as Jesus did and Matheson sings and allow ourselves to have our glory laid in dust?
I don’t think there is an either-or answer. Paul at times defended himself and used his status as a Roman citizen to its fullest legal extent. At other times he accepted his suffering as the cross he bore for following Christ. It seems that the way he decided which way to go depended on how it would further or hinder the gospel of Christ.
That is a good standard to work from. It requires a lot of prayer and discernment to figure out which way to go in any given situation. Sometimes it is good and right to mount a vigorous defense. Sometimes it's better to let them trample your life to the ground and lay your glory in the dust.
Matheson’s hymn is a good one to learn and sing. Here is a Sandra McKraken version I like: