Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips will praise you. Thus will I bless you while I live: I will lift up my hands in your name. - Psalm 63:3-4
Life has its share of ups and downs. There are days when it is easy to say, “life is good”. Then there are days when it is easier to say, “life is not good”. Occasionally we have moments when life is neither good nor bad. It just is. We seem paused between to polar opposites. We are suspended in some existential neutrality. If we had total control over our lives, I’m confident that we would always opt to have a good life, to live a good life. But because we are out of control of so many things, we are subject to bad days and negative elements of life. I wish it were not this way. But alas, this is our human predicament.
And I think that this is why David was so expressive in his worshipful prayers to God. He was able to say that God’s loving kindness was so much better than life. Why? Because while life and its circumstances are mercurial, God’s great love and care for us is a comforting constant. God is not available one day and absent the next. It is not heavy some moments, and then, as if evaporating into the air, it disappears in wisps of smoke. No, the love of God is ever present and unyielding. It is better than life. Not only, but life without love is almost not worth living at all. And that’s not just God’s love, that is human love. Therefore love is greater than life.
And think about this. When David wrote these words he was running for his life. He was living in a cave and yet held in his heart the reality that he had been anointed to be king. How many of us would worship and sing to God in such a time as that? Somehow David sensed that no matter how dismal life could be at times and no matter how volatile his situation was, God’s love conquered it all. The fact is, he knew that he was loved and understood that love was not an inoculation against problems, but rather a powerful reality in the midst of them. This experience can be yours and mine. Life will whip this way and that. But we rest in the affirming and always firm lovingkindness of the Lord.
This Sabbath David Harriss will be sharing a message entitled, “TESLA - The End (of) Solo Love Affairs”. Super intriguing title! I’m here at Camp Meeting fighting off mosquitoes, helping Benjamin at 3:45am with various needs, celebrating Maya’s birthday today, and getting ready to watch God do something amazing. I know that the Lord will glorify Himself among you this weekend. For those of you who plan to make it up to Camp Meeting this week or next, I hope to see you there. Blessings!
Pastor Dean