The responsive Scripture reading this Sunday morning was Psalm 136. As it was being read, the congregation’s line to recite was: “His love endures forever.” This phrase comes at the end of each of the 36 verses in this Psalm. I tend to get bored with repetition ~ for some reason, if I say something over and over again, it feels meaningless.During one of our Bible studies in Israel, we took the very familiar verse: “The Lord is my shepherd” and did an interesting exercise with it. I’ll never forget it. We took each word and as we recited it, we emphasized a different word in the sentence. For instance, “THE Lord is my shepherd.” And then we would say, “The LORD is my shepherd” and so on. As we accented each word, we meditated on that word and its meaning. You might ask, well how does a person meditate on the word “the” or “is”? Well, the verse doesn’t say “A Lord is my shepherd.” It says, “THE Lord is my shepherd.” The One and Only LORD! It’s a wonderfully simple method to stop and really think about what is being said. So Sunday morning, I did this with the congregation’s part of the Scripture reading as we said, “His love endures forever” over and over again.
HIS love endures forever.
~ Whose love endures forever?
God’s! The Triune One! The LORD (136:1) The Master of everything and everyone. The God of gods (136:2) The Lord of lords! (136.3). The One "who alone does mighty miracles!" (136:4). The God who “made the heavens so skillfully!” (136:4). The One “who made the moon and the stars!” (136:7-9). “The God of heaven.” (verse 26) The God who made every beautiful winter scene, the One who commands the universe ~ God who gave us His one and only Son ~ on and on you could go, and without very much effort pages and pages and book after book could be and have been written about our GOD, "whose love endures forever. "
His LOVE endures forever.
~ His what?
God’s love! Love that is "deeper and higher and wider" than we can imagine. Love that is completely without prejudice, without respect to the rich or the poor. Love that is strong. “He remembers our utter weakness.” (verse 23) Love that rescues us! “He saved us from our enemies.” (verse 24). Love that meets our every need! “He supplies food to every living thing.” (verse 25). And let's not forget, God's love is one that FORGIVES us ~ completely! It's a love that pursues us, seeks us out, goes looking to find us! Isn’t it incredible to think that God’s deep affection and desire is toward us ~ and the length that He goes to show His love to us?
His love ENDURES forever.~ What is the quality of this love of God’s?
It is enduring. It does not give up. It does not get sleepy, tired or fed up. It does not reject us. It is patient and kind. It’s the kind of love that lasts. It’s the love that once you have it, "nothing in all of creation can ever separate you from it." God’s love is unfailing, true, solid.
His love endures FOREVER.~ And how long does this awesome God’s amazing and always-faithful steadfast love last?
Until I mess up later on today? How about next week? Or if I’m really lucky, 50 years? NO! F-O-R-E-V-E-R ! It never ends! For all of eternity, until the end of the ages, world without end, Amen! That’s a really long time . . .
There are lots of cute Valentine’s cards with lots of catchy phrases like: “Love at first sight” or “True love never dies” or “Love makes the world go ‘round” or “We were made for each other” or even “Our love was made in heaven!”. But there is nothing that can beat this one: "HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!" To me, that’s the ultimate valentine!
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Psalm 73:26 says: "…God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever."
6 comments:
I love your post mom! I never thought of emphasising the different words in a verse to really dig deeper and meditate on it more. The greatest Valentine truly is that His Love Endures Forever!
Thanks, Sabrina. It's so much fun to do this with Scripture, especially verses that you think you know really well. Even the word, "is" in "The Lord IS my shepherd" takes on special meaning when you realise that it doesn't say, "The Lord WAS my shepherd" or "The Lord WILL BE my shepherd" (although both of those are true), but "The Lord IS my shepherd" ~ right now, present tense, always right next to me in this moment, being my shepherd!
Happy Valentine's Day to all of you down there in Austin :) !
Love this post! My smile got bigger and bigger as I read it. HIS LOVE ENDURES FOREVER!
I have never done that emphasis exercise - makes me want to try it out now. Completely cool. Especially to recapture a verse that has become familar.
I love your writing, Carol! There are times when I feel as though I've had my devotions after I have read your blog. Thank you. I also LOVE the Lord's Prayer version that you have on your blog. I could listen to it over and over!! It is very enthusiastic for a little kid - he also seems to have some understanding of what he is saying. I love it!
Hi Mom! Happy Valentine's Day! I just had to give you a little 'heads up'. I was looking at the pictures of my kiddos on your side panel of this blog, and I noticed that you spelled Nia's middle name a little differently than we do. =) We spell it Madelynn. Love you so much!!
OOPS, Nick & Rachel! :( I will correct that spelling right away! My apologies!
Hi Shelley ~ It's so fun to do this simple kind of word study with really familiar Scripture. Suddenly, it seems brand new! :)
Hi Sis ~ I almost cry every time I listen to the Lord's prayer by this little kid. I don't know who it is, but it is so sweet and certainly brings home the truth that "the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." :)
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