Today we are looking at the love of God, in the book of Psalms. The love of God is the only love that is able to meet the vast need for love, you have inside you. Ruth Meyers a missionary, I knew, called it the intensely personal, overflowing, never-ending, perfect love.  The love of God has the amazing power to cure what’s wrong with us, to satisfy our deepest longings, and turn us into joyful people.  

In the Psalms, the love of God is extolled and praised, it is the source of great enjoyment, it is eagerly sought after and prayed for. It produces hearts that sing, hands that are raised, and voices that shout for joy. 

Our English word love does not fully express this love God has for us. The Hebrew word for love is “Khesed”. It’s a loyal love.  The ESV translates it steadfast love, the NIV unfailing love. 

It’s a love that is full of mercy and compassion. The NASB translates it loving-kindness. As in Psalm 86:15 “You, O Lord, are a merciful and gracious God, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness.”

The love of God is so measureless and perfectly suited to the needs of our soul, that it is all we need for a full and satisfied life. Moses prayed in Psalm 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days.”  That prayer was made in the midst of very bleak circumstances, as they traveled through the wilderness. Moses was overcome with the feeling that life was short and filled with suffering, but he knew that God was able to satisfy  us with His love. He knew only God’s love could cause us to sing for joy ALL our days, even in the harshest circumstances of life. 

AW Tozer said, “God is so vastly wonderful, so utterly and completely delightful that He can, without anything other than Himself, meet and overflow the deepest demands of our total nature, mysterious and deep as that nature is.”

In Psalm 63 David compared the love of God to a feast of the very best food!  He said,  “Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.”  And “ I will be fully satisfied as with the richest of foods.” 

Ruth Meyers said, “Over time we come to God with such an assortment of deficiencies and inadequacies and emergencies, time and work pressures, marriage difficulties, rebellious or straying children, loss of a loved one, financial problems, emotional problems, problems with other people, lost jobs, lost friends, lost happiness. But God knows all those vast inner needs, with all their depths, and meets each one with a love that is beyond measure.”  

If the love of God does not flourish in our hearts, then our insecurities and our fears flourish. We don’t feel safe. We become easily hurt and offended because we’re expecting people to meet our craving for love which only God can fully satisfy. ONLY God’s love gives us a deep sense that we are loved and cared for, along with a deep sense of well-being.

*In our culture it is important to say that God’s love does not merely affirm who we are, in our sin and brokenness. Today many people say, “If God wants to change me or requires my obedience then that isn’t love”.

But God’s love is compelling, demanding and transforming! His love calls us out of ungodliness and into radical obedience to the One who loved us. Paul said the love of Christ controls us or compels. It becomes the driving force of our lives, motivating our obedience and our love and service to others. 

John Owen said, “All that we learn of God will only frighten us away from Him if we do not see him as loving and merciful to us. But if your heart is taken up with the Father’s love…it cannot help but choose to be overpowered, conquered and embraced by Him.”  That experience is expressed over and over in the Psalms! 

Psalm 86:12,13 NIV “I will praise you Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever! FOR GREAT is your love toward me.”  When we comprehend His love it produces gratitude, and praise and a passion to live for the glory of God. 

God tells us we are the objects of His love, in His word. But the love of God must also be experienced! Psalm 143:8 says, NKJV -“Cause me to hear your loving kindness in the morning.”  John Gill said,  “We need to hear NOT only externally in the ministry of the word; but internally by the Spirit, so as to feel and perceive, and have some sensible experience of it.”  

When we see the satisfaction, and the shear joy, that people found in God’s love in the Psalms, it forces us to ask ourselves: Do I know this love of God in my own heart? Am I experiencing it to the fullest extent? 

*So how DO we know and experience the love of God?  It begins with God, who tells us of his feelings for us, of his love for us, in His word. Psalm 117:2 “For great is His steadfast love toward us.  And the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.” It’s an unchanging written word. A word that abides forever. It comes from OUTSIDE us. We are to experience His love inside us, but His love is not dependent on our feelings or anything inside of us. It is written! 

Karl Barth said, "The most profound thought I have ever known is the simple truth: Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."

No matter how long you’ve been a Christian, we need to go to God’s OWN word again and again to remind us of his love, and to remove all our distorted ideas about his love.  Ruth Meyers said,  “All of us in some degree have false or incomplete notions about God and his love. And these wrong ideas about him lie at the root of many of our problems.  So we go to the Bible to cut through the tangle of our false notions and find out what God is really like. With increasing spiritual vision we take in the truth about him that sparkle on it’s pages. There we get to know our wonderful God and learn to actually experience his love day by day in our minds and emotions and in our character.”   

Second: We need to understand what it means for us that God loves us.  God’s love is God’s delight AND His intention to do good to you.  Jeremiah 32:41 “I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.” The King James Bible in many places translates khesed as “goodness” or kindness. When you believe God loves you, you believe His heart toward you is good and intends to do you good, forever!  

In Psalm 17:7,8 David equates the steadfast love of God with being the “apple of God’s eye”. He said, “Show me your steadfast love; keep me as the apple of your eye.” That’s an expression that means being cherished above all others. That’s what being loved by God means! God cherishes you.

God’s love for you is measureless, and vast. Psalm 36:5 “Your love, O Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies.” The Psalm writers are stunned by the greatness of God’s steadfast love!

Third:  We must believe the steadfast love of God moves Him to do good things for us.  This is the core message of the Bible! Romans 5:8 “But God SHOWS His love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” God shows His love for us in action.

It is because of His great love that God forgives our sins. Psalm 51:1 “Have mercy on me, O God according to your steadfast love; according to your great compassion blot out my sins.” He blots out our sins because of His steadfast love! It was the atoning sacrifice of Jesus alone that dealt with our sins. But the love of God is WHY He gave His Son for us. 

The writers of the Psalm also experienced God’s love as an ACTIVE love in daily life. Psalm 94:18 When I thought, “My foot slips,” your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.” When you feel you are falling or failing, you can trust the love of God to hold you up.  How many times has he lifted you back up out of some low point in your life?  It’s because He loves you.

*God, in His steadfast love, watches over us, and delivers us from enemies and dangers.  Psalm 31:7,8 “I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and have not delivered me into the hand of the enemy.”  Because He loves you, He sees, He knows your inner distress, and he delivers you!

Because God loves you He will be your personal fortress in times of trouble. Psalm 59:16 “I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning for you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress”.  

Psalm 32:10 “Steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.” Instead of feeling vulnerable or anxious, what if you believed the steadfast love of God surrounded you like a shield or a wall protection.  It would remove fear and apprehension, nervousness, insecurity.

Psalm 89:21 The Lord said this about David: The enemy shall not outwit him; the wicked shall not humble him. Because My faithfulness and my steadfast love shall be with him.” Because of God’s steadfast love for you, you can walk with confidence, security, assurance that God is for you, that you are destined for victory, and nothing can stop that. 

*But most amazing of all, the Psalm writers claimed that God’s love affected their inner person in the most wonderful ways!  Psalm 90:14 “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love that we may be glad and rejoice all our days.” Psalm 63  “Your love is better than the richest of foods.” “Better than life itself.” In Psalm 36:7 they said, “How precious is your steadfast love, O God!” 

Addiction is big in our culture. Drugs, alcohol, sexual sin, even screen time and entertainment! People desperately want to be happy.  The Bible says’ God’s love is the answer to our inner craving for joy.

*The way we begin to experience the love of God, is through believing in Christ! Jesus the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Him.  Jesus is the way to the Father’s love. There is no other way! Romans 5:5 says God’s love is poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit as we believe in Him.

But we can (and should) grow in our experience of that love through prayer, like the writers of the Psalms did! “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love.” That’s a prayer!  You can pray for that too! You can ask God to show you His loving-kindness today. And not just as a one time fleeting request, but as the main thing you ask from God. 

Psalm 143:8 “Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love”. That’s a prayer! David probably felt troubled by something during the night and desired he might have the encouragement of God’s love in the morning.  That is a GREAT prayer before you go to bed, during the night, or when you wake up!    

Psalm 17:7,8 “Wondrously show (us) your steadfast love, O Savior...Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings.”  Prayers like that change your life.

And God will answer you! Psalm 86:5 “You, O Lord, are abounding in steadfast love to “ALL who call upon you.””

*Then Open your eyes to how God has revealed His love. MOST of all look at what God did for you in Christ. 1 John 4:9 “This is how God’s love was revealed among us: God sent His one and only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him.” That’s the MAIN way we know God’s love!  But also open your eyes and see what He’s HAS done for you and what He is doing for you every day.  

He gives you breath and life, food and sleep. Friends, family, fellow believers, all the beauty of creation. 

When I was on my recent trip, one morning I had this thought, “when you know the love of God all creation comes alive!” Everything you see reveals God’s love. The sunrise and sunset, every hill and mountain, blue sky and flowers and wildlife.   

A week ago Tuesday I rode down out of Red Lodge MT, over Beartooth Pass and down through Yellowstone. It was a crystal clear morning. No haze. I felt to blessed and loved by God stunned with the beauty of His creation.  And I said out loud, the only thing that could make this day more perfect would be to see a grizzly bear. Later that day, right beside the road, I saw a large grizzly bear. I think God showed me that bear because he loves me! He does things like that!  

*What is our response to God’s love? Psalm 63 puts it so well! “Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; and in your name I will lift up my hands.”  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips when I remember you on my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night. for you have been my help, and in the shadow your wings I will sing for joy.”  

David’s response to God’s love is blessing the Lord, lips that praise Him, hands lifted high to the Lord, remembering God’s love in the middle of the night, and singing for joy.

All through the Psalms we see this joyful exuberance simply BECAUSE of the love of God! Alone! Psalm 89:1 “I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord, forever!”  Our hearts must respond. Our emotions respond!  Psalm 32:11 “Steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. (SO) Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” 

We don’t live by emotions. But until God’s love touches and changes our general emotional response to life, I’m not sure we’ve known the experience of his love the way He wants us to. And we need to pray out the coldness or lack of response in our hearts.  Young person, teenager, old person, here ask God to awaken you to the amazing, thrilling, love of God, and  to give you a heart that responds to Him. 

*And the most important response to God’s love is we love Him.  Psalm 18 begins, “I love you, O Lord, my strength!”  Psalm 116 I love the Lord, because he hears my voice.” Psalm 31:23 exhorts us, “O love the Lord all you His saints!”.  It is the love of God that brings us into a love relationship with God as our loving heavenly Father. And we are His children who love our Heavenly Father. 

Pray: Lord, How precious is your loving-kindness to us!  We give thanks to you for you are good!  And your steadfast love for us endures forever!  You love reaches to the heavens! Open the heart of everyone of us to this great love of Yours. 

Final blessing:  

“Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and the steadfastness of Christ.”