Lovingkindness

I am thinking about love this morning. Lovingkindness. I got to watch it this last weekend. I saw it. I experienced it. I like to think I gave it also.

This next psalm gives a good picture of people who experienced love and those who have not.

"To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David the servant of the LORD. An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes, When he finds out his iniquity and when he hates. The words of his mouth are wickedness and deceit; He has ceased to be wise and to do good. He devises wickedness on his bed; He sets himself in a way that is not good; He does not abhor evil.

Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the great mountains; Your judgments are a great deep; O LORD, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. They are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house, And You give them drink from the river of Your pleasures. For with You is the fountain of life; In Your light we see light. Oh, continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, And Your righteousness to the upright in heart.

Let not the foot of pride come against me, And let not the hand of the wicked drive me away. There the workers of iniquity have fallen; They have been cast down and are not able to rise." - Psalm 36:1-12 NKJV

The Psalmist is basically contrasted the unloved with the loved. The 'wicked' person does what an unloved person would do. Perhaps they have rejected love but perhaps they just have never experienced it.

A person who has experienced God's love is able to rise. Jesus rose from the lowest place. He rose out of death. He was never cut off from His Father's love. He lived His whole life aware of and basking in divine love. He was separated once for us and as us on the cross but His foundation was firm. He Is our Rock. Death couldn't hold Him.

Lovingkindness. It makes people healthy and secure.

"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love." - 1 John 4:7-8 ESV

Beloved. That is you and i. We are loved.

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