Saturday - December 2 - Psalm 89:1-4
New Living Translation (NLT)
1 I will sing of the Lord’s unfailing love forever!
Young and old will hear of your faithfulness.
2 Your unfailing love will last forever.
Your faithfulness is as enduring as the heavens.
3 The Lord said, “I have made a covenant with David, my chosen servant.
I have sworn this oath to him:
4 ‘I will establish your descendants as kings forever; they will sit on your throne from now until eternity.’”
“I will sing” – Singing of the Lord’s unfailing love is a decision we make. “I will sing.” We choose to focus on the unfailing love he has shown us. We choose to praise him for that and to share it with others. We sing. It’s not just for the professionals. Everyone can choose to sing of the Lord’s love, and it is in fact a supremely natural reaction to experiencing God’s love.
“The Lord’s unfailing love forever” – This unfailing love is one of the primary themes of the Psalms. The Hebrew word translated “unfailing love” here is transliterated as 'emuwnah. In addition to "unfailing love," it can also be translated faithfulness, firmness, fidelity, steadfastness, steadiness. The love of God never changes or wavers in any way. His love is the most reliable, trustworthy reality we can imagine. Whether we believe it or not, whether we recognize it or not, whether we feel it at any particular moment or not, his love is firmly in place - he is not going anywhere.
This passage is part of our Advent readings because of verses 3 and 4 – we see one of many, many restatements and reminders of the covenant God made with David, that a descendant of David would sit on the throne forever. This covenant is an extension of the covenant with Abraham we talked about in Genesis 15 - that all people on earth would be blessed. We know through hundreds of scriptures throughout the Bible that the way – the only way – this promise can be fulfilled is through Jesus. As the eternally existing God the Son, he fills the throne of David forever. He is the perfect ruler of people – perfect because he is love and he always loves us selflessly with our perfect good in mind. His love is unfailing, faithful, firm, steadfast, unyielding.
Please take a moment to rejoice in the perfect, pure, never failing love of God expressed in the perfect descendant of his chosen servant, David – in Jesus, the one who came to “serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28). Please realize that his love for you is not conditional, it is not capricious, it is always present for you no matter what you have done, what mess your life is in, how you feel about yourself, how other people are treating you. There is One who loves you and treasures you always.
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