The steadfast love of the Lord.
Steadfast love: that’s the Old Testament word that best explains God’s loving kindness toward His people.
In the New Testament, we might call it grace.
Here’s the thing…
That just sounds so simple.
Easy.
Oh, I’ll consider it.
Meaning, it has crossed my mind, so now I can say I followed a biblical principle, and therefore, I must be wise…
Now that I’ve considered it, I can dismiss it.
However, to consider isn’t to dismiss…
Yet, I’m guilty of this quite often.
If I am, others are.
So many words in Scripture have become benign.
Stagnant.
A better word is moribund.
Meaning, without force or vitality; not growing or changing; close to death.
Ponder that…
Now….look closer at the verse that stopped me in my tracks this week…
First, the word wise… Did you realize that the wise are the ones who know how to do AWE well?
It’s true.
Job said it was so.
The Psalmist did, too.
However, the sage of the Proverbs, repeated it most often.
The wise are in awe of God’s steadfast love!!!
They consider it.
It’s not just a momentary pondering that keep the wise focused for a few seconds.
It’s more than a little meditation.
To consider is three-fold, including:
1. Understanding – Knowing by Experience
2. Heeding (a better word would be “marking”)
3. Instructing
The entirety of Psalm 107 teaches us how to consider something. There’s a pattern throughout Psalm 107. It looks like this:
The children of the Lord would forget the Lord (mostly they forgot His steadfast love)…
Trouble would come upon them.
They would cry to the Lord in the midst of their trouble.
Their compassionate Father would hear their cries and deliver them from their distress.
The privilege of revisiting and experiencing His steadfast love (His compassion, mercy, care, and grace) would be AWE-some.
At this point, they truly understood & appreciated steadfast love experientially.
The response was automatic: the Lord’s children would thank the Lord for His steadfast love and for His wondrous works…
They would mark his deliverance with sacrifices of thanksgiving
They would tell of His deeds with songs of joy
They would pass on the stories of His wondrous works
They would instruct their children with songs and stories of His marvelous mercy…
And…they would record all of this for generations to come…
(I highly recommend reading Psalm 107)…
This week, the Lord convicted me to consider (in the Biblical sense of UNDERSTANDING, MARKING, and INSTRUCTING in) His steadfast love.
His reminder was not to ponder and dismiss.
His teaching was to bask in and to follow through with my consideration of steadfast love.
I (we all) experience His steadfast love daily – in multiple ways –
He delivers me from myself time and time again.
He offers diamonds of delight.
He opens His mighty right hand with treasures.
It’s November.
Thanksgiving Month. (#Thanksgivingmonth)
What a great time to consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
What a perfect season to not let that action become moribund…but to breathe new life into the word consider.
What a great prelude to Advent…
May each of us take time to truly KNOW HIS EXPERIENTIAL DAILY GRACE…
MARK it on altars of remembrance.
(…and) PASS it on…
Amen.