Psalms 86:12-13 (ESV Strong's)
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.
Tag: Great, Steadfast Love
The phrase “steadfast love” appears in God’s Word almost 200 times. Of those times over half of them appear in the Psalms. Of those, David wrote a good share. David knew of God’s steadfast love because he needed it. In his sin, David needed to know that God would not stop loving him. Who doesn’t need that? In a world where people give love on the cheap and take love away just as cheaply, it is necessary to have something that is steadfast in love. Parents, too often, stop loving their children because the children don’t live they way they want. Couples stop loving each other. Children quit loving their parents because parents won’t perform the right way. Most of the world loves based upon performance. What David is saving in this Psalm is that God loves, not because we perform, but because of who He is. His love is based upon Him, not us. God can’t stop loving us once He sets His love upon us. His steadfast love is based upon His character, not our performance. That is so reassuring. In Ephesians chapter one we read about God setting His love on us:
Ephesians 1:3-4 (ESV Strong's)
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love.
Our salvation and relationship with God is based upon the steadfastness of His character. He can no more stop loving us than He can stop being God. This is what David is giving thanks for in the above Psalms. He glorifies God because God, in that love, rescued David from certain death. For that we can rejoice and glorify God.
No comments:
Post a Comment