BECAUSE YOUR STEADFAST LOVE IS BETTER THAN LIFE

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“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.” Psalm 61:1-2

The heading of Psalm 63 places it in ‘the wilderness of Judah’ — David likely wrote it while fleeing from his son Absalom’s coup (2 Samuel 15–18). He is politically deposed, physically displaced, and separated from the worship life of the temple. The desert setting is not metaphorical; it is literal. And David’s use of the desert as an image for his spiritual state is honest: he is dry. But the thirst is directed: ‘my whole being longs for you.’ Not for his throne back, not for his enemies’ defeat, not for comfort — for God. The Hebrew nephesh (whole being, soul) and basari (my flesh, my body) indicate that this longing is not merely intellectual. It is embodied, physical, total. David’s famous declaration in verse 3 follows: ‘Your love is better than life.’ A man in the desert says that even life itself is less valuable than the steadfast love of God.

My prayer is that my soul will long for God like David. What about you? Biblical prophecy reveals that we are fast approaching the time of Jesus return and persecution of Christians will intensify into great tribulation. God has warned us. We will need to be sold out for Jesus to resist the mark of the Beast. We will need to be like David and be able to say, ” “Because your steadfast love is better than life“.

The purpose of your identity is to ‘declare the praises’ of God. How is your life currently functioning as a witness to the one who called you out of darkness? I am presently on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands with my family at 1 Napili Way, Napili. Today, I attended Harvest Church and was presently surprised at the good attendance with a lot of young families and the worship was sincere. It was a real encouragement for me to see God at work in another country.

MORE ON THANKFULNESS

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What shall we do in giving thanks to our Lord?

Note what David said in these two Psalms, that he would do. We can at least do the same.

  1. Thank Jesus for what He has accomplished for us – our salvation, recognising how costly it was for Jesus and our Heavenly Father.
  2. Devote ourselves and all we have to His service. 
  3. Doing good is sacrifice, with which God is well pleased; and this must accompany giving thanks in His name.
  4. We are not ashamed to be in God’s service and to invite others to join us. Such are true saints of God, in whose lives and deaths He will be glorified.

“What shall I render to the LORD for all his benefits to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD, I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people.” Psalms 116:12-14

“I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call on the name of the LORD. I will pay my vows to the LORD in the presence of all his people, in the courts of the house of the LORD, in your midst, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!” Psalms 116:17-18

“I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and will execute justice for the needy.
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to your name; the upright shall dwell in your presence.” Psalms 140:12-13

What about the ten lepers who were healed by Jesus. Only one returned to give thanks to Jesus, and He was a Samaritan. Not one of the Jews, members of Jesus’ chosen nation, returned to give thanks.

“And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

Do we thank God constantly for His Word as Paul and His fellow believers did? Sadly, His church is not even upholding the inerrancy of God’s Word let alone thanking Him for it.

“And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers.“ 1 Thessalonians 2:13