Psalm 119:159-168
February 14 Valentine's Day
Today is Valentine's Day and Psalm 119 mentions love more than any other psalm. You may think, "Well of course it does, it is the longest psalm." Even so it mentions a form of love 14 times out of 176 verses, or on average every 13 verses. And this passage at the end of this great psalm mentions a form of love five times in nine verses.Last night at a political debate there was not a lot of love shown, primarily because the candidates, especially one, was attempting to belittle and push down others in order to elevate himself. That type of self love is not love at all and will eventually self-destruct. True, Jesus commanded us to love our neighbor as ourselves, but there is a healthy self-love and the other self love is not love at all but selfishness.
How can we truly experience God's love and a healthy love? "According to Thy lovingkindness" (Ps. 119:159). We can only know truly of God's love first by His word, so in a sense, we can only understand love when we understand "God's word."
Seven times a day, the psalmist would praise God (119:165) out of his love for God and His word. He kept God's commands not for salvation, but because God's love saves us. If you have a hard time loving God's word, remember that as a result of God's love for us, His Word became flesh (John 1:1,14) and lived with us, died for us, and raised before us so that eternal life could be in us. Love God, love others, and love His word. It is His Valentine's Day card to us.
