Faithful, loyal love

                                   

There have been many saints of God that have left us wonderful instructions on delighting in the Lord. We don't have to wonder about what it means, or how to do it. George Muller was a man of faith who never relied on human help or intervention to secure the needs of his orphanage - instead, he was a warrior on his knees and in the Word. In his writings, Muller emphasized that the FIRST business of every morning should be to secure our happiness in God, by spending time in God's Word and spending time in prayer. He wanted everyone to know that God alone could satisfy our needs and also satisfy our souls.

Corrie ten Boom survived the hell of the holocaust and wrote that she learned "to know the Lord Jesus as a tender, loving Friend, Who never forsakes us or casts us off when we are bad, but rather helps us to gain the mastery over sin."

David stresses that we should delight in God in our psalm for this week, and in the very next psalm, too, as he tells us:

Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart. (Psalm 37:4, NSAB)

The delightfulness of God. Let's dig in to this . . . .

We often use this word today to mean something a bit more shallow than what David had in mind, I think. If I go to my bookshelf (yes, I'm an OCBN, an Official Certified Book Nerd) and choose one of my dictionaries from the 1800's, I see delightful can mean "highly pleasing, affording great satisfaction," and another adds "giving contentment to the mind or senses."

I definitely think that David was pointing to the pleasure, satisfaction, and contentment that can be found in our Father God. He is our source for every blessing.

Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
    your faithfulness to the skies.

Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
    your justice like the great deep.
    You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
    People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
 They feast on the abundance of your house;
    you give them drink from your river of delights.
 For with you is the fountain of life;
    in your light we see light. (Psalm 36:5-9)

David first reminds us of the blessings of God's lovingkindness and His faithfulness. In fact, he mentions God's lovingkindness in three places: first, he says it's huge; then he says it is priceless; and then in verse ten, we will see him praying for the Lord to continue giving it to us.

I just love that word, "lovingkindness." Putting together the words love and kindness is an awesome way to think of the Lord. And the word itself is just an incredible lesson, in itself! The word that is translated "lovingkindness" is "hesed." It's often mentioned in the same phrase with "faithfulness." That's important! The Hebrew word for the bird we know as the stork comes from hesed. Whaaaaat? Yup. The Hebrews observed the tender care and loyalty of the storks. Storks were a familiar sight as they migrated through ancient lands; unlike some other species, male and female white storks remain paired for life, and they even return to the same nests that they have used before - usually high in the evergreen trees to make the nest secure from predators.

There the birds make their nests;
    the stork has its home in the junipers. (Psalm 104:17)

Both male and female birds share in the incubating duties for the eggs, and in the feeding of the young hatchlings, too. They spend so much time on the nest and caring for the babies that sometimes they lose their feathers! There are stories of one parent being killed and the other taking over all the responsibilities and rearing the young. The storks show "loyal love," and "faithfulness" to their babies. (Ever looked at a nest full of birdie babies? Just about all you can see is scrawny bodies and open mouths, squawking for food! Kinda sounds like us humans, don'tcha think? But God shows His love and faithfulness by caring for us and providing for all of our needs. No wonder the Hebrew people used that word for the storks!)

God's faithfulness means that He ALWAYS keeps His promises. He is never changing. Always the same, always consistent. David said that God's lovingkindness and faithfulness extend to the heavens -- he means that these qualities of our Father God are immense.....inexhaustible. 

We can keep coming to Him for more of His love. He never runs out of it!