When I was a kid, my dad and I used to play a game called “Long and Short” (I have learned since that some call it “21”). It is a basketball shooting contest in which each shooter takes a long shot (ten feet or further from the basket) and then a short shot (less than ten feet from the basket). If you made your long shot, you scored two points; if you made your short shot, you scored one; if you made both shots, you scored a total of four points and got to keep shooting. The first person to a score of exactly 21 points was the winner.
As I read Psalm 138:6, I am reminded of the name of this game because the proper relationship with Jehovah on high is found in being low. Hence, David writes: “Though the Lord is on high, yet He regards the lowly; but the proud He knows from afar>’
Now, your relationship with God is not a game to be played. It is not like the one my dad and I spent countless hours playing in the waning minutes of an Indiana twilight; rather, it is a sobering responsibility.
Because Jehovah is on high, I ought to live in lowly self-regard—being poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3), clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5), doing nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than myself (Philippians 2:3).
High and low. God and me. That is the long and short of the matter.
