Psalms 100:4,5 Bless His name, for the Lord is good, His steadfast love endures forever
Love and marriage, horse and carriage, soup and sandwich, Thelma and Louise, all are ‘famous’ word pairings. When it comes to speaking of the word “LOVE” in scriptures, there is another word closely associated it, even ‘paired’ with it. It is the word STEADFAST. Over 200 times in Scriptures the phrase STEADFAST LOVE is used. The constant repetition of this phrase is intentional for our sake.
We are so frail and so forgetful, that the Evil One constantly challenges us with his deceptions that God doesn’t love us anymore; or that we can lose His love; or that God suddenly stops loving us because of our sinful actions; or that when something ‘bad’ happens to us or a loved one, that it is proof that He doesn’t love us anymore. BALDERDASH! Over 200 times God is trying to tattoo this great truth onto our souls and under our eyelids, “MY LOVE IS A STEADFAST LOVE”. My love for you is not whimsical. It is not fleeting. It is not fickle. My love for you is a steadfast, immoveable love. My love for you is incomprehensible. My love for you is a heavenly love, not of this world kind of love. It is based on my very essence, “For God IS LOVE”
We are to bless the Lord and to give thanks to Him because He is good AND because His STEADFAST LOVE endures forever. This is a statement that repeats itself. The nature of divine steadfastness is eternal. When the Scripture repeats the same thought in the same sentence, it is a reinforcement of truth. HIS STEADFAST LOVE ENDURES FOREVER.
I worry and wonder sometimes after a choice to sin whether God could still love me. I ask, “Can I still come back to You?” “Is there forgiveness with You?” “Can You overlook my sin (again)?”
In Psalms 52, the Psalmist says, “But I am like a green olive tree in the house of God. I TRUST IN THY STEADFAST LOVE forever.” This is what made David great in God’s eyes. He really understood this truth about God. Even after severely ‘blowing it’ with Bathsheba, he prayed, “Have mercy on me O God, according to Thy STEADFAST LOVE, have mercy on me…” David knew that divine forgiveness and mercy were available to him because of God’s STEADFAST, non-fickle, LOVE. He trusted in it. WE too are challenged to have this same kind of trust in God’s STEADFAST LOVE.
