Is There A "Love Song" in Your Heart?

Is There a “Love Song” in Your Heart? What are the elements or a great “love song?” Maybe a better way to pose the same question is to ask, who can place a song of everlasting love into our hearts? If you will indulge me further, there is something else I would like to know. Have you ever wondered why we should love God? Yes, I know the Bible commands us to love the Lord God supremely with every facet of our being (Matt. 22:37). This is good and healthy, but there are other reasons for loving the LORD beyond this precious obligation. Though this command is the greatest, there are still other wonderful reasons worthy of our exploration. David knew the secrets to having a song in His heart for the Lord (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) and he presents a few of these early in the eighth Psalm:

            I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
            The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer;
                  My God, my strength, in whom I will trust;
                  My buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
           I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised:
                  So shall I be saved from mine enemies. (Psalm 18:1-3)

David is singing a “love song” to the LORD! In fact, He declares, “I will love Thee” (v. 1). In this psalm David also employs a barrage of metaphors to describe the LORD, and to express His great love for Him:

I.                    He is My Strength (Strength)—he loves the LORD because He strengthens

II.                 He is My Rock (Stability)—he loves the LORD because He affords solidity/steadiness

III.               He is My Fortress (Security)—he loves the LORD because He affords complete security

IV.              He is My Deliverer (Savior)—he loves the LORD because He rescues

V.                 He is My God (Sovereign)—he loves the LORD because He is Supreme

VI.              He is My Buckler (Safety)—he loves the LORD because He protects

VII.            He is My Horn (Salvation)—he loves the LORD because His salvation is strong

VIII.         He is My High Tower (Security)—he loves the LORD because He provides refuge

Obviously, David had many reasons for loving the Lord, and so do we. No wonder David bellowed, “I will love Thee” (v. 1) to Jehovah God! The same should be true of every Believer in Christ Jesus. Simply stated the LORD means everything to us Believers; we are completely lost without Him! When we really know Him, we do not want to live without Him; when we know Him, we cannot help but love Him more and more! In fact, we cannot live without Him. He is everything!

Since Jehovah God meant so much to David, he loved God for the many roles He played in his life. God provided security, significance, strength, and salvation to the Psalmist of Israel in grave situation of mortal danger. Who could not love a great God who supplies all the vital essentials for our very existence? In addition, David welded his identity and needs together in the very references he made toward God. By calling God his Rock he recognized God’s constancy/immutability and his own instability.

Yet, in life he needed stability. When he refers to God as his Buckler, he was acknowledging God’s ability to provide strategic and specific protection/safety against certain assaults. Yes, he needed God’s protective hand in his daily affairs. When he calls God his Fortress, he is identifying comprehensive security in God. Yes, in life or death, for time and eternity, and in heights or depths he needed the complete 360 degree security only God can afford (Rom. 8:28-35). In each name or title, there is a confession of need on David’s behalf. He needed safety, security, significance, and salvation. God supplied generously in each instance by rescuing David from serious peril. By defining God with these terms or titles He defined himself as well. This reveals that David’s identity, significance, and security were all rooted in his relationship with Jehovah God.

Identifying these realities gave David strength of conviction and clear perception. Reality could be known and explored with this guiding perspective. He knew who God was, who he was, and what was really important. Folks who fail to root their identity and significance in God commonly look to their jobs, families, society, a movement, achievements, or something else. When these human entities fail or fade in some way, these individuals often feel lost, stripped of meaning, confused, empty, inept, worthless, and even suicidal. They lose their moral and ‘spiritual’ compass often spinning out of control or descending into dark depression. Drugs, alcohol, and sensuality/promiscuity become far more inviting and alluring. Serial overindulgence in TV, movies, and video games become a way to escape these nasty and harsh realisms. Other folks in their desperation, actually race to some other cause, person, or event to give their lives meaning and validation. Life for these folks is one string of restarts, rediscoveries, and trends; they are every waiting and looking forward to the next thing. Unfortunately, every one of these streets has painful and dark dead ends. When we root the meaning of life in temporal and fragile things or mere people, we cannot enjoy a lasting sense of meaning or significance. In contrast, for Believers anchored in the LORD God, we can be steadfast and constant in convictions and perceptions because we are rooted in the changeless eternal foundation—GOD. Such a meaningful relationship provides security deep within, and stirs a song in our hearts. And be assured, Beloved, we must sing or burst! Therefore, sing unto the Lord a song of love (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).

This truth is not automatic for all Believers, though we would naturally think that to be the case. Each Christian must embrace it must conscientiously. We must deliberately recognize who God really is, what He affords us, and who we are in light of His Person and truth. Such theological meditations can generate a song in the soul. We appraise and accept His views, diagnosis, solutions, values, power, and opportunities personally for all areas of our lives. By faith we transfer our identity, significance, and security to God through Jesus Christ.

We are completely defined in Him. That is, we embrace biblical truths in order to be governed by a Bible-informed worldview. We repent and believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ because we believe we are sinners needing to be saved. We believe we matter because God loves us, has shown us grace, has a purpose and design for our lives, and is at work in each of us Believers (Eph. 2:8-10). Without Him we are nothing, and we can do nothing! We embrace God’s value system knowing that it is extremely different from society’s (Matt. 5:1-20). We by faith embrace God’s prescriptions and solutions to life’s challenges believing He has real answers to our critical challenges. Besides all this, without the LORD and His Word life ceases to have any real transcendent meaning.

Beloved, we must literally trust the LORD to supply all our needs in His grace and in full accordance with His plan for us. Understanding Him leads to greater understanding about ourselves because He defines us. Use His Names and Titles when you talk to Him because they confess His glory and our needs most honestly. Again if you endeavor to know Him, you will love Him more. He is marvelous and He will set your soul afire with a growing passion for Himself. Why? Well, because He is the absolute best Person for you and me in the entire universe! Remember, when God saved us, He gave us Himself! Not just heaven, but His glorious Self! He has written a love letter, the Bible, to each of our hearts, and there He made bare His glorious Soul! He loves you and me. Think about it…He really loves you and me. That is supremely what Calvary says (Rom. 5:8). If we really get this, we will find ourselves behaving like David and habitually singing “love songs” to God. What about you? Is there a love song in your heart? Have you recently caught yourself singing to God, “I will love Thee, O LORD”?

A Creator Explains A Lot

“IN the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen. 1:1). The Bible opens with this brilliant and authoritative declaration of how the universe came into existence. Boldly asserting the Ultimate Reality—there is a God, the universe is not eternal, and God created everything from nothing (Heb. 11:3). And how did He do this miraculous thing? The Bible offers an astounding answer—He spoke and galaxies, solar systems, planets, and our earth appeared. “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Ps. 33:6). In fact, he still sustains the universe by His infinite power and common grace (Col. 1:15-18). Who is this Creator God? He is known as the Word of God, but more familiarly as Jesus Christ (John 1:1-4). As God, He deserves respect because He owns the entire enterprise of the universe and He is uniquely responsible for our very existence. The myriads of heavenly creatures know how to treat their Creator. Listen to them energetically exclaim, “Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11).Certainly the Creator is worthy of our most profound worship, and we exist finally for His pleasure.

Now that we understand who the Creator is and what He created, it would be helpful to ponder why He even bothered. Why did God create? As already indicated, all of creation was originally intended to bring glory and pleasure to God (Isa. 43:7; Ps. 19:1-2; Col. 1:16; Rev. 4:11). This is healthy to recognize because it is welded to our own purpose and significance in this world. Furthermore, as creation demonstrates God’s supremacy, great power, wisdom (Jer. 10:12, 16), and goodness (Gen.1:4, 10, 12, 18, 21, 25, 31), we also realize an additional design: our spiritual enrichment by these realities. Do not make the mistake of concluding that these observations are limited to ‘spiritual’ discussions or considerations. No, this singular reality gives shape to a worldview that embraces every facet of life, government, society, science, personal deportment/behavior, humanitarianism, medicine, faith, family, and our occupations. In all honesty, this list could run on indefinitely entirely free of any elements of exaggeration!

The appropriate response to such an incredible gift is thanksgiving, praise, and unharnessed worship towards God, the superb Designer. Then we should follow this with more heart-felt conviction-filled adoration for His majestic exploits and creative wonders. His creative genius is evident all around us and predictably deep within each of us as well. When we have calculated these biblical facts correctly, we will gladly acknowledge His ownership of all, and our comprehensive stewardship obligations to Him. We will intensely appreciate the explanation of our own existence residing exclusively in Him. We will rejoice in this clarification that affords us a dignified origin, identity, purpose, meaning, and destiny. You see, the reality of a Creator explains a great deal that does not make any sense without Him. In contrast, we have no trans-mundane purpose or significance if we are merely the results of a few chancy cosmic burps billions of years ago.

Most importantly, the Scriptures roundly and consistently testify to the fact that God exists and that He created. Any cursory reading of the Bible can produce this conclusion. Though many have criticized the credibility of the Bible and especially its account of origins, it remains the most attested Writing on the planet. Nothing else even comes close to the reliability of the Scriptures! I, personally, am absolutely comfortable taking a biblical account over any professor who diminishes this holy Book.

God in the equation of the universe fills life with truth, hope, and peace. We are not alone in the universe, and it is safe to live each day on earth free of despair. There is Someone who can bring beauty out of ashes, purpose out of pain, healing out of heartache, blessing out of brokenness, triumph out of tragedy, and salvation from sinfulness. Truth has a bedrock anchor that will not change with new research discoveries, the fickleness of society, or the inventions of religionists. A divine Creator really does explain a great deal.

In a highly scientific age, I still believe in a Creator and gladly consider myself one of His creatures. In spite of the many supposed enlightened objections, a Creator is a far more plausible explanation for existence than anything else I have ever read or studied. Yes, I have looked honestly at both sides of this debate. I am far more pleased with my position than the alternative of macro-evolution. It simply requires too much ‘blind faith’ to believe in evolution, when there is zero supporting evidence. This is not an exaggeration; the solid observable empirical evidence does not exist anywhere on the planet. All evolutionary scientists can offer are theories and models front-loaded with tons of presuppositions, and assumptions. Yes, it is true that the Christian worldview holds its own set of assumption, but they do seem to align with the evidence more readily than evolution. In addition, Christianity does not claim to be science; it is a faith based on the Scriptures and anchored in the Person Jesus Christ.

Finally, belief without evidence is more of a religion than a science. Honestly this is precisely where science unwittingly finds itself today. Modern science worships at the altar of ‘beliefs’ and ‘myths.’ Research the history of this supposed modern science apparatus and you will discover many re-definitions, theories that failed to deliver, blatant frauds/forgeries, and even embarrassingly desperate lies. Read the writings of early evolutionists and they will admit their uncertainties and unqualified ‘convictions.’ The modern movement does not fare any better. Evolution simply cannot be reproduced in a laboratory, and it cannot be examined or observed anywhere. This is not science! It is simply believed…that sounds like a religion to me. Evolution is boldly thundered and asserted without really proving anything. Once again I also assert a Creator really does answer more questions than it raise. “In the beginning God created….”