Psalm 36:5-9 - April 18, 2009

Ps 36:5-9 "Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. 7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. 8 They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. 9 For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light." NIV

The love of God is past finding out! The Love of God is altogether above our understanding. It is all encompassing, powerful in its great strength and yet perfectly balanced with the other attributes of God’s character and nature. God is love, and yet he holds this love in perfect balance with his faithfulness, righteousness and justice. He never violates one aspect of His character for the sake of another. This is what makes God a sure foundation. Age to age for all eternity I can know that the ways of God are sure, that He will not compromise nor fail, and that He will do all things towards me from a heart of love and wisdom.
David has grasped this principle in this portion of Psalm 36. Oh, the love of God “reaches to the heavens.” This revelation is reflected in two of the apostolic prayers of Paul that he prayed over the churches. Phil 1:9 “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight.” Paul understood the power of an abounding love. Where a true comprehension of the love of God exists there is great insight into the knowledge of God and His ways. If we do not understand God’s great love for us then we will misinterpret many of His dealings with us. Every time a circumstance touches us that is difficult or painful we must begin our interpretation of those events with the foundational truth that God is dealing with me from a heart of love. Ro. 8:28 enlarges this understanding by stating that God is working all things together for the good of those who love Him. He is at work even when it hurts. He is not necessarily the cause of your trial but He will work through every trial to produce good fruit in the lives of those who love Him.
The second prayer of Paul found in Eph 3:17-19 develops this principle even more completely. “And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.” Paul’s cry is for the church to be rooted and established in love. When something has roots it is firm and hard to move. Often trials have a way of applying pressure to our convictions and our convictions and beliefs come under a time of testing. This is the reason for Paul’s prayer. God give the church an immovable conviction that they are loved with such faithfulness that we share the conviction of Paul who proclaimed confidently, Rom 8:38 – 39 “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” The person who has this confidence will stand strong in the face of pressure!
The language that David chooses to develop his reflection on the love of God is filled with such passion. “How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.” Everything that David chooses to describe the love of God is the language of experience. David presents a love that appeals to all classes of people, a love that has no end and is beyond placing a value on. Consider with me these phrases for just a moment. Do you know the love of God as “feasting on the abundance of His house?” When you consider your meditations of Him is it, “drinking from the river of His delights?” Is the Lord to you a “fountain of life?” He can be. He wants to be! Experience begins with the faith that something is possible. Reach into God’s heart today until the heavens open and your experience of God is transformed. What I know to be true is that if we will wait, if we will seek, He will come!