Love Through Deliverance
Show me the wonders of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes. —Psalms 17:7 (NIV)
In Psalms 17, David cries out to God for deliverance and help from his enemies. Right in his plea for rescue, he calls on God to show him the wonders of his great love. God protected David and his kingdom because he loved his chosen people. His heart moved to defend them in love.
It wasn’t until I became a husband and then a dad that I understood how fierce protection flows from the place of love. I am not at all a violent person. I’ve never physically fought with someone, and I don’t enjoy overly aggressive sports. But I remember laying in bed a few weeks after getting married and realizing that if someone came into my house and tried to hurt my wife, I would have no problem jumping into action. That feeling only intensified when we had our kids. One of the main ways I show my boys that I love them is by providing for them and keeping them safe. My willingness to put myself in danger is far higher for my family than for material possessions. If someone came into my house at night and tried to steal my tv or laptop, I’d probably tell them to take it and leave, but not so with the ones I love.
Modern love is more about aesthetics if you read pop magazines, flip through Snapchat, or listen to music. It is founded on an external ideal—something that gratifies our desires and makes us happy. Of course, behind the noise of pop music, many people from all walks of life love each other selflessly. Even so, it is easy to hear the lullaby of self-centered love and think God’s love should be like that—feeling focused and self-gratifying.
While God certainly moves on the hearts of his people, bringing peace, comfort, joy, and many more glorious feelings, chasing emotions misses the heart of God. Most of all because it makes God a detached entity. If we only want comfort, we might as well eat some ice cream and lay on the couch! If we look to God to be our mood ring, we will miss out on the essence of the kingdom of heaven.
For David, the wonder of God’s love was expressed when God intervened in the conflict around him and brought deliverance. It’s easy to see God as two entities: a loving God or a mighty God. David seems to think that these expressions are intertwined. God loves in his expressions of power and shows his power through expressions of love.
Today is an invitation to put your trust in God beyond a feeling and recognize that God’s love is expressed to you in his deliverance. Could it be that God wants to set you free where you are asking for comfort? Where you are asking for peace, does God seek to provide?
Meditate on the truth that God’s love is expressed in his deliverance and ask God to reveal areas where you seek a feeling over his intervention and breakthrough in your life. You don’t have to expect a big moment, but shifting your perspective can bring you closer to God’s heart and purposes for your life.
Show us the wonders of your great love.
