#DailyDevotion We Love The LORD Because He Hears Us
Psalm 116 I love the LORD because He hears me call and plead. 2Because He turns His ear to me, I will call on Him as long as I live.
Some people who are so pious they of no earthly use might complain we should love the LORD just because He is the LORD. They should perhaps chew on this verse a while and learn a little humility. It’s ok to love the LORD because of what He does as well as who He is. David here loves the LORD because the LORD hears his call and pleading. He loves the LORD because He turns His ear to him. It is the justification of calling on Him as long as he lives.
We should follow suit. To love the LORD yes, but we should call upon the LORD as long as we live. Jesus has promised us as much as David says here about himself. In Matt. 6:7 He says, “Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” In Matt. 6:32 He says, “Your Father in heaven knows you need them all.” In chapter 7 Jesus says, 7“Ask, and it will be given to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8Anyone who asks receives; anyone who searches finds; and anyone who knocks, the door will be opened for him… 11Now if you, as wicked as you are, know how to give your children good gifts, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?”
3The snares of death came around me; the distress of the grave took hold of me; I experienced anguish and grief. 4So I prayed in the LORD’s name: “Please, O LORD, rescue me!” 5The LORD is kind and righteous; our God is merciful. 6The LORD protects the helpless; He saved me when I was weak.
David experienced a rescue from the snares of death. These verses seem to come from Psalm 18 which David prayed when the LORD rescued him from his enemies and the hands of Saul. On the one hand, I don’t think we can say the LORD is going to rescue us from every peril. We just don’t know how our death will serve Him. A faithful death may serve Him more than a rescue from it. Nevertheless, these words of David encourage us to cry out to Him when we are experiencing some peril of life.
David bases his words on the name of the LORD, from Ex. 34:6 when he says, “The LORD is kind and righteous; our God is merciful.” We should rely on these words and the words that follow, “The LORD protects the helpless; He saved me when I was weak.” It is the very nature of the LORD to be kind, righteous, and merciful. But we do not always experience that when we are living contrary to His will. Then we experience His discipline, if we are so blessed, or His righteous anger and wrath. Even if we seem to be experiencing His discipline, anger or wrath, and we are certain that we have been faithful, the LORD may be testing our faith, purifying it, even as He did His servant Job, the Israelites in the wilderness, and even the apostles in their ministry.
For we have been joined through baptism and faith to Jesus’ suffering. Jesus has called us to bear our crosses with Him. He told Pastor Ananias concerning Paul, “I will show him how much he has to suffer for Me.”(Acts 9:16) In 2 Cor. 1 Paul writes, “As Christ’s sufferings overflow to us…” Peter tells us, “7Gold is tested by fire, and your faith, when it is tested, should be found to be much more precious than gold, which perishes. This is how you will have praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ appears again.” So whether God delivers us from our trials or not, we should call upon the LORD trusting His mercy, kindness and righteousness. When we turn to Him in faith we know He hears us and will do for us what is best. We might not like the answer but we know the answer is in His love.
Merciful and Kind Father, hear us when we pray in our trials and do for us what is good and right according to Your loving-kindness. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.