God’s steadfast love is the theme of Psalm 118. It appears 4 times in the first five verses and then again at the end of the Psalm in verse 29 as book ends. In between those great expressions of God’s steadfast love is a list of the great and marvelous reasons for which we should thank God for his steadfast love.
First God’s love gives me confidence. “The Lord is on my side I will not be afraid.” I can face the world without fear. Second, God’s love gives me security. He has promised me victory and I can face the world as a winner not a loser. My tattoo would say, “Born to Win.” Third, God’s love gives me something to sing about. “He is my strength and my song.” Then he says, “Glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous.” Judaism and Christianity are singing religions. Atheism is song-less. It has nothing to sing about. The funeral notices of Robert Ingersoll, the noted agnostic, stated, “There will be no singing.”
The fourth reason is God’s love is the very source of my life. “He has not given me over to death” is the phrase from the believing man or woman who realizes there is more to his or her existence than the consciousness of the here and now. There’s an eternity to look forward to. Fifth, God’s love provides complete acceptance for me along with my weaknesses. Although we have no righteousness of our own, he provides that for us and invites us into his presence. God “opens to me the gates of righteousness that I may enter through them.” Sixth, God’s love gives me great joy. “This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Finally, we should thank God for His steadfast love because his love gives us hope! “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” is the prophetic promise of the messianic savior. He came 1000 years after David promised it, and will come again to set the world right.
No matter what storms my come, we know what awaits us. We can weather any storm. Roger Whittaker wrote, “Though death and darkness gather all around me, and my ship be tossed and torn upon the sea, I will smell again the fragrance of these islands and the loving waves that brought me once to thee…”
Chuck
“This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24)