From His Own Lips

“Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.” (Ps 91:14 AV)

The last three verses of Psalm ninety-one are words spoken by God regarding the psalmist.  The psalmist seeks deliverance and goes to the only one who can help.  The LORD sees his heart and because the writer desires only the LORD and His help, He honors that heart.  A note of interest is the past tense action of the writer.  He has set his love on God.  He has known his name.  These are past tense actions.  That does not suggest these things were a onetime action that no longer exists.  Rather, there was a time when the writer turned from whatever it was he loved and identified with unto the God of Israel.  He may not have been consistent in his love and identification.  He may not have always loved the LORD as he should have.  He still struggled with sin, as we all do.  Yet, because he chose to love the LORD and identify with Him, the LORD delivered him time and again.

That first phrase is a humbling one because, by and large, we don’t feel like we truly have set our love upon the LORD.  Our old man is a problem.  He is dying a slow and agonizing death.  We struggle with the flesh.  We fight the world.  The devil and his minions are at our side, harassing us every chance we get.  We fail.  We confess.  We forsake.  We reconcile.  This patter continues our entire life.  So, to say the only way to love the LORD is to live perfectly sinless would mean the LORD could never say the above phrase about any of His saints.  That is why that first phrase is so encouraging to me.  Sometimes, we beat ourselves up far more than the LORD does.  He may chasten us.  We certainly need it and deserve it.  Many times, though, we are harder on ourselves than God is.  It is nice to be reminded of successes.  For the LORD to say that we have set our love upon Him is flattering, humbling, and a good check against the persecution of the devil.

When I think of the above phrase, I am reminded of children.  Especially our own.  I have three sons.  They are all grown now.  They have children of their own.  They did not always obey me.  In fact, there were times they rebelled more than they obeyed.  They didn’t always trust me.  There were times they had to figure it out on their own.  However, with all the challenges to my leadership, authority, and love, I never once doubted they set their love upon me.  They never sought to change their last name.  They always remembered who they were and what that meant.  As a dad, I never required perfection.  Why would I?  That is an impossible standard.  I never required complete and total compliance before I was willing to parent them.  Because they set their love upon me and were willing to identify with me as their father, no matter how successful or unsuccessful they were at the moment, they had my parental love and protection.  I cannot help by be very grateful this morning at the reminder from the LORD’s own mouth that I love Him!  To know that He is pleased with me even if I fail Him encourages me to try even harder.  Praise the LORD for His wonderful grace!