Faithful Love

He remembered us in our weakness.

His faithful love endures forever.

He saved us from our enemies.

His faithful love endures forever.

He gives food to every living thing.

His faithful love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

His faithful love endures forever. Psalm 136:23-26

LOVE GETS US UP in the middle of the night to feed our infants and keeps us awake until they get home when they’re teenagers. Love is why we fill our calendars with their sports activities and empty our pockets on their education. Love for our children makes us want to open up the beauty of the world to them as well as shield them from its brokenness.

We truly, deeply, sacrificially love our children. But our love has limits. No matter how tuned in we are to their needs, we don’t always have the ability to grasp the real issues behind some of their struggles or the wisdom to address them. We don’t always have the power to protect them from the things life throws at them. We can’t always provide them with what they need most.

This is why we don’t mind the repetitive nature of Psalm 136. We need its truth pounded into our souls. Twenty-six times we feel the drumbeat of the unwavering, unending, inexhaustible, unlimited love of God for us and for our children. Over the course of the psalm’s twenty-six verses, the psalmist rehearses God’s love for his people demonstrated through his faithful acts: the world he made for us, the redemption from slavery he accomplished for us, the protection from evil he provides for us, and the gracious way he cares for us.

Lord, the very best news and the most blessed reality of this day is your faithful love toward us and our children. Were it not for your faithful love, we would have no hope and no song. We see in this psalm what divine love looks like. It looks like the beauty of creation, the rescue of redemption, and the rest of provision. It looks like being remembered, being rescued, being provided for. We rest today, not in our love for ________, but in yours. Your faithful love toward ________ endures forever.