Psalm 116:1-19

This Psalm starts out with a beautiful and simple statement that should be at the heart of every single one of us: “I love the Lord.”  There are many aspects of our walks with God that involve obedience and duty.  However, we must not be satisfied with a dutiful walk with God.  Certainly, we must walk in obedience and fulfill our duties as believers.  But, we must recognize that the purest motive in our lives is that of love.  We must open our hearts to truly loving God in all that we do, say and think.  God wants to be the delight of our hearts and not just some sort of duty that we must perform.  There are many reasons that we should love Him as well as results that should evidence that love and this Psalm reflects these thoughts.

THE REASONS WE SHOULD LOVE GOD: The first reason that we should love God is because of the many things that He has done for us.  God hears and answers our prayers when we call upon Him.  No matter how difficult this life may become, God is always available to us and He will faithfully provide for us according to His will.  We are never alone because we can always call out to the Lord in prayer. God has also saved us, we were all in the deadly trap of sin, but God is His love and mercy has saved us.  He preserves us and makes us whole once again.  In the midst of our affliction He sees us and helps us.  The second reason we should love God is because of who He is.  His attributes are truly lovely and should draw our hearts to Him.  He is gracious, righteous, merciful, generous, kind and He provides all that we need.  Reasons abound for us to love God.


THE RESULTS OF LOVING GOD: If we do truly love God, it will affect the way that we live.  We should not look at these as being duties, nor should we look at them as being some way to repay God for all that He has done for us.  These are simply things that those who truly love God will naturally do as a response to what He has done for us.  If we love God we will call on Him in our times of need.  It is the most natural response in the world for us to seek out our loved ones when we are in need.  When we love someone, we keep our promises to them so it is only natural that if we love God, we will keep the promises we make to Him.  We will be grateful to God if we truly love Him and our gratitude will be demonstrated by obedience, praise and love.  Perhaps the greatest demonstration of true love is simply talking about Him to others.  When we truly love someone, we cannot stop talking about them and it should be no different with God.

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