Day 11
God is Love
Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever.
Psalm 136:1
If you were to go to your local grocery store and ask ten people to define love, you would receive ten different answers. And each answer would be seen through the lens of that person’s own unique relationships and stories. We use the word to broadly describe our feelings about everything from our family to food, music, and our favorite sports teams. And while we all have our own definitions of what love is, shaped by our experiences, love actually has a real, working definition. The dictionary defines love as “a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties.” The people whom we love the most are the people with whom we have the deepest relationships. And if you were to ask those ten people how to describe their love best, most of them would probably reference a song. Songs have a way of putting to words the things we feel in our hearts and minds but cannot say.
The Psalms are often songs the people of God would sing as they gathered in the temple for worship, and Psalm 136 would have been very familiar to them. It has 26 verses, each beginning with an exclamation that the people should give thanks to God and ending with the phrase “for His steadfast love endures forever.” And the phrase “steadfast love” is such a defining characteristic of God that it is used over 200 times in the Bible, with 127 of those coming from just the Psalms.
The Israelites would have known hesed to mean “steadfast love” in Hebrew. To them, hesed was more than love as a feeling; it was born out of the covenantal relationship they had with God. The great Old Testament scholar, Walter Bruggeman, translates hesed as “tenacious solidarity.” And that steadfast love, or hesed, that God had for His people then, is the same love He has for us now. This Psalm reminds us that God’s love for us is more than just an emotion or a feeling; it is a constant demonstration of His presence with His people throughout the generations. And how did God ultimately demonstrate His love to and for us? He sent His son to us to live, to die, and to rise again. Romans 5:8 says that “God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
The good news is that we don’t have to do anything now to make God love us more, and nothing we’ve done in the past makes God love us less. God loves us, and He wants a relationship with us. He loves us because He knows us. His love for us is not temperamental or circumstantial, but it is a steadfast love, a tenacious solidarity with His people. And His love never changes or fades. His love endures forever.
FURTHER REFLECTION:
Do you feel loved today? Our circumstances can often make us feel unloved. Find hope in the fact that Psalm 136 says 26 times that God’s love for us is “steadfast” and unchanging. Think about how much God loves you right now.
The Bible also says in 1 John 4:19 that we love because we were loved. Who in your life needs to feel your love? Who is someone for whom it is hard for you to love right now? Remind yourself that God loves them as much as He loves you.
PRAYER:
Father, thank You for being a God of love today. Thank You for your steadfast love - Your hesed. And thank You for loving me today. Remind me today that I have the love of an unchanging Father and teach me to love because You loved me first. I’m grateful for the words Your people have used to describe the unfailing love with which you have demonstrated to us for generations. Amen.
FOR FURTHER STUDY: Psalm 36, Matthew 22:34-40, 1 John 4:7-21
by: Matt Brashier