July 19, 2019 – Psalm 119:148-149

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night, that I may meditate on Your promise. Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love; O Lord, according to Your justice give me life. Psalm 119:148-149.

The longest Psalm praises God for the law or teachings, a blueprint for how to live a long and peaceful life.  The Israelites called God’s Law the Torah.  Jesus came  with only two commandments.  The Ten Commandments were burdensome.  Yet we have difficulty obeying. And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.   Matthew 22:37-39. 

These two commandments never change. The last verse of the ‘Love Chapter,’ 1 Corinthians 13, we find these words: So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant  or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;  it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.  I  Corinthians 13:4-7.

Next time we say, I love you, we will ask, Is this a casual love, or a Passing Fancy.  The deepest love is this, “I love you, like Jesus loves you!”  Without love, we are nothing.

Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.  John 14:23.

But You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are true. Long have I known from Your testimonies that You have founded them forever. Psalm 119:151-152.