I Love The Lord Because.

I LOVE THE LORD BECAUSE.

Psalm 116:1-9.

If I was asked why I love the LORD, I might well answer: because He heard and answered my prayer (Psalm 116:1).

Yet this may, at first glance, appear self-serving: what would I have to say for myself if my prayers had not been answered in the way that I had hoped? Experience teaches us that there will be such times, but our love must rise above that. We should be like Job, who said, ‘Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him’ (Job 13:15).

A testimony may well begin, “I love the Lord because…” (Psalm 116:1), or ‘Truly God is good to Israel’ (Psalm 73:1), but we must also colour in the circumstances which led to that conclusion. “He inclined His ear” (Psalm 116:2).

Have you ever had an experience where you felt as if the life was being crushed out of you, as surely as if a boa constrictor had its coils around you? This could be physical illness, or mental anguish; crushing circumstances, or financial restriction. All you can do at such times, or so it seems, is cry out to God!

For the Psalmist, death itself came knocking at the door, constricting him in its cords: and inflicting such pain as to leave him face to face with the prospect of Sheol. In this experience, there seemed no window of hope: he could see only trouble and sorrow (Psalm 116:3).

It was THEN that he called upon the name of the LORD: “O LORD, I beseech You, deliver my soul” or “O LORD, I pray, save my life” (Psalm 116:4).

I see beyond these words of testimony the experience of Jesus, who made the impassioned plea: ‘O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me’. Yet to this there came no audible answer. He knew within His holy heart what He must do, and conceded: ‘Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done’ (Matthew 26:39).

The LORD our God is “gracious”, “righteous”, and “merciful” (Psalm 116:5). At the centre of these three words is His righteousness. Yet how can a righteous God be merciful towards unjust sinners? Would that not be something of an injustice?

Well, it is “grace” that heads the trio: and by His grace, His undeserved favour, we are ‘made nigh by the blood of Christ’ (Ephesians 2:13). God is found to be both ‘just’, and ‘the justifier’ of those who ‘believe’ (have faith) in Jesus (Romans 3:26). God’s ‘mercy and justice meet together’ in the Cross of Jesus (cf. Psalm 85:10).

“The LORD preserves the simple,” is a general statement of fact (Psalm 116:6). In giving his testimony, the Psalmist admits his own simplicity: yet his was a simple faith. Sometimes we are “brought low” by our own fault: but even then, as always, “He helped me.” Our merciful God will not forsake us.

Sometimes, even as Christians, we temporarily lose our “rest” (Psalm 116:7). Our place of “rest” is in God through Christ and, when we are unsettled from it, it is prayer that enables us to fly back to Him. When we consider His past mercies (Genesis 32:10), and recognise His help hitherto (1 Samuel 7:12), we will soon return to our peace.

JESUS experienced death itself, and felt the pains of Sheol (Psalm 116:3) but - as with the Psalmist - THAT WAS NOT THE END. He later testified that the LORD had “delivered His soul from death” (Psalm 116:8), and therefore that He would “walk before the LORD in the land of the living” (Psalm 116:9). His death was followed by His resurrection.

In conclusion then, “I love the LORD because” He first loved me (1 John 4:19), and gave Himself for me (Galatians 2:20). I asked Him to save me (Psalm 116:4), and He saved me (Psalm 116:8). I must therefore grasp with both hands the salvation thus freely offered.

How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation (Hebrews 2:3)?