Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names [. . .]
(Philippians 2:9)
I will exalt you, LORD, for you rescued me.You refused to let my enemies triumph over me.O LORD my God, I cried to you for help,and you restored my health.You brought me up from the grave, O LORD.You kept me from falling into the pit of death.Sing to the LORD, all you godly ones!Praise his holy name.For his anger lasts only a moment,but his favor lasts a lifetime!Weeping may last through the night,but joy comes with the morning.When I was prosperous, I said,“Nothing can stop me now!”[. . .]You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing.You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy,that I might sing praises to you and not be silent.O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever! (Psalm 30:1–6, 11–12 NLT)
There is a truism that if you put two fans of the same sport in a room together, it is only a matter of time before they start talking about which athlete they consider to be the greatest of all time, also known as the G.O.A.T. Basketball fans will gladly debate for days whether Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, or LeBron James is the best. Likewise, baseball has Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Hank Aaron; soccer – a.k.a., football – has Lionel Messi, Pelé, and Cristiano Ronaldo; and hockey has Wayne Gretzky, with a few honorable mentions like Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe.
We like ranking stuff. It helps us order our often chaotic world, helping us to more easily keep track of the important things in life. With so many things attempting to grab our attention, these kinds of lists can help us decide what to pay closer attention to and what we should ignore.
The trouble is these rankings will always lean more heavily on opinion rather than fact. Liking John Williams as a composer is fine, but saying he is better than everyone else says more about your preferences than it does about his skill. The same is true of Jordan, Messi, and pretty much any other person on this Earth; there is no truly verifiable way to determine who is the “best.”
Except when it comes to Jesus. While there’s no telling how good a ballplayer he is or how well he could compose a theme for the next masterpiece of cinema, we know, with absolute certainty, that as a person – his character, attitude, actions, personality, and everything else that forms who he is – Jesus is the best there is and best there ever will be. He is the absolute G.O.A.T.
As Philippians 2:9 tells us, God has “elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names.” Because of his servant heart, sacrifice on the cross, and defeat of death, Jesus is exalted above all others.
Because of the chaos of the world, it can be hard to remember to focus on the important things, even the big things, so when David writes in Psalm 30, “I will exalt you, LORD, for you rescued me,” it is a grounding wire securing us to the truth that Jesus is our savior. He cares for us, protects us, and turns our “mourning into joyful dancing” (Psalm 30:11).
Write your own psalm of praise to God today. Celebrate who he is to you specifically, how he has rescued you and helped you. Don’t worry about being as poetic as David; God doesn’t care about your skill with words as much as he does the honesty of your heart.
Michael Benson is the communications director for the North American Baptist Conference.