Psalm 116:1-14: Why Do We Love God?

Faith tends to be made or broken in the face of crisis. 

Introduction

(Read once to be introduced to the series. After that skip this to go right to the good stuff!) 

Welcome to my Devotions Series. This series features devotions based on the Scriptures of the Common Lectionary. The series is being prepared for eventual and hopeful print publication.

By going to my Main Article List you can also find the complete collection posted on Gather, including the additional readings not posted to any groups. New Scriptures selections will be posted every Monday through Thursday to my main page and to my groups.

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Lectionary Series Year A: Third Sunday of Easter
Psalm 116:1-14 (Read it on Bible Gateway)
Why Do We Love God?
As someone who has been in ministry for quite a few years, I've managed to hear a good number of personal testimonies of how people came to their faith and what it has meant to them ever since. It's always amazed me how each story has been unique, emphasizing just how personal this particular journey is for each of us, and how much it reflects the pilgrim walking that pathway toward the Divine.

For some of us faith is a lifetime journey that began when we were children. For others, faith was something we began exploring as we got older and started looking at the bigger picture of life. Whatever the specifics, however we initially were introduced to or found our faith, something many of us might share in common was that that faith didn't take on the deeper, most essential characteristics it's had in our lives until we faced a time of crisis.

Faith tends to be made or broken in the face of crisis. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who experience the latter. When they come face to face with life-changing illness, loss of a loved one or other tragedies, their faith doesn't seem strong enough to sustain the blow and questions grow into doubts, which in turn grow until they begin to overwhelm, then undermine the faith, leaving the former believer feeling alone and abandoned.

However, for every story of someone who has lost their faith in the face of trial or tragedy, there is a story of someone who found their faith in the midst of the same. Some of the most inspiring stories to me have always been those of people who were struggling with addiction, or a life being torn apart by bad choices, or one being buried under the incredible burdens of addiction or abuse and who turned to God and were delivered. They found in their faith a transforming, life-changing and redeeming grace from God that was able to bring them to where they could overcome and face whatever particular challenge was set before them, and as a result were able to bring their life to an entirely new place of healing and thankfulness.

The writer of this Psalm certainly seems to echo this sentiment. The opening verses reminded me of many of these sorts of stories I've heard over the years, of people who came to love the Lord because they had cried out and God had answered. Faced with overwhelming odds, or overwhelming burdens, they cried out to God, often as a last desperate hope when everything else had already failed, and God had provided.

One of the most common themes to these kinds of stories is the resulting intense relationship with God that than springs out of that kind of experience. When such people speak of God and their faith there is often a very deep passion and intimacy, a total dependency and willingness to follow God that can be truly inspiring. For some, their knowledge of Scripture may be little, their experience in organized religion perhaps even less, but the personal fire they have come through with God's help gives them a language and vocabulary of singing God's praise, sharing God's love, telling God's story and living a life of faith that overshadows the trivialities of things like formal religion and formal theological understanding.

In their stories is a sense of immediacy and personal connection that touches the heart and often can be a powerful means of sharing the faith and bringing others to Christ and to God. This Psalmist speaks with that kind of passion, that kind of fire. There is the sound of someone here that knows suffering and knows God's deliverance. Having experienced that kind of powerful thing firsthand, they bring an element of personal depth to their praise that a mere intellectual appreciation of God will always be lacking.

To put it in simpler terms...
Some of us as children grew up around boats and may have always been taught the value of a lifesaver. Others of us may intellectually appreciate the mechanics and purpose of a lifesaver, and even perhaps know the statistics of how many people a year have been saved by such a device. Either of these types could share with another person the value of such a device and put forth good points on their value. Ask someone who was about to go under for the last time because they could no longer swim, who had given up hope of survival and then reached out and found that lifesaver in their grasp and you will get a whole different story of that lifesaver's value.

So, maybe a good question for each of us is what in our own life has personalized our love for God? What experiences have crystallized our faith, made real our own connection and given depth to our praise?

For the complete listing of our Devotions, see our Devotions Archive