O Israel, hope in the LORD! For with the LORD there is steadfast love, and with him is plentiful redemption. Ps. 130:7
What is presented here as the parallel to God’s steadfast love? What is the relationship between God’s love and the word “plentiful”? What does this reveal to us about God that we are often slow to believe?
Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalms 90:14
It is not enough to be informed intellectually about God’s love. We need to know its goodness in our souls—to savour its goodness. What is missed from our lives when we don’t relish and enjoy the goodness of his love? (see verse 14b) According to this verse, how does one become satisfied with God’s love? Note God’s part and our part in this experience.
By day the LORD commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life. Psalms 42:8
This verse is part of two Psalms that go together- Psalms 42 & 43. They express the anguish of a believer who has lost the sense of God’s presence and favour in their life.
What we find here is that “God is omnipresent in a poem that complains of his absence, and ironically, the pain of separation is a way of feeling the presence” John Goldingay, Psalms Vol 2, p.34
Here is a command of God rarely considered. A command FOR his children. Are you aware of specific ways that this love is being shown in your life? What is the effect of this awareness? (see verse 8b)
“His song” is another way of expressing the joy of the Holy Spirit—that faith-sense of God’s delight in his children. Could it be that the absence of joy in our life is not because of a lack of God’s love, but because of a lack of recognition and awareness of his love?
But I, through the abundance of your steadfast love, will enter your house. I will bow down toward your holy temple in the fear of you. Psalms 5:7
Entering God’s presence is not an easy thing. In fact it cannot be done at all unless God opens the door. How is the door opened for us according to Psalms 5:7 (see also Hebrews 10:19). What does an encounter with God’s love produce in us according to the second part of the verse? Does this surprise you? What then does this tell us about the absence of awe and sense of God’s holiness in the church, our family, or in our life?
