Day 17
Read Psalm 63
This Psalm was used by the early church as the “Morning Psalm” and was used at the beginning of each Sunday service. David again invokes the natural experiences of hunger and thirst as metaphors for his hunger and thirst for God and then in verse 3 he tells us why. He says, “Because Your love is better than life.” There are several words for “love” in Hebrew, but the word that is most often used to describe God’s love for us is the Hebrew word “Hesed.” Hesed is often translated in English as “loving kindness” or “steadfast love.”
Hesed love is God’s covenant love. God made a covenant with Israel way back in Genesis. A covenant is more than a contract, it is a promise. So, we often refer to marriage as the “Covenant of Marriage.” A contract says “I will do X if you do Y” – I will pay you $50 if you weed my garden. A covenant is a promise that transcends performance. The traditional wedding vows say: “I promise before God and these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful husband/wife; in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; as long as we both shall live.” We don’t say, “I promise to be your husband/wife as long as you do such and such for me,” or “as long as things are going well,” we say “in joy and in sorrow, in health and in sickness, in plenty and in want.” That is hesed love. It is a commitment to love someone regardless of their performance.
And that is the love that God has for us. God loved Israel even though they broke their end of the covenant. And God loves us even though we broke our end of the covenant. So, when Jesus shares the last meal with his disciples, he holds up a cup of wine and says “this cup is the new covenant poured out in my blood, for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are God’s fulfillment of His covenant promise. And as David says here in Psalm 63, “God’s love (hesed) is better than life.”
Prayer
Spend some time praying through Psalm 63. Reflect on what it means to know that God loves with a hesed love. Thank Him for it.
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