Love on a Binder

Psa 63:1-8 NLT - [1] A psalm of David, regarding a time when David was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, you are my God; I earnestly search for you. My soul thirsts for you; my whole body longs for you in this parched and weary land where there is no water. [2] I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power and glory. [3] Your unfailing love is better to me than life itself; how I praise you! [4] I will honor you as long as I live, lifting up my hands to you in prayer. [5] You satisfy me more than the richest of foods. I will praise you with songs of joy. [6] I lie awake thinking of you, meditating on you through the night. [7] I think how much you have helped me; I sing for joy in the shadow of your protecting wings. [8] I follow close behind you; your strong right hand holds me securely.

I once heard someone discussing a sermon they heard which underscored the point that the love we have for God ought to possess the same sort of giddiness and passion of a schoolboy/girl crush. I thought about this a bit. Middle school girls often scribble the name of their beloved onto binders, daydreaming of being with the one they want to be with. It is not often love, merely infatuation, but the passion is nonetheless a property which is bound to both love and infatuation. With infatuation it is merely a passing state. With love, it is a powerful bonding relationship.

King David’s writing of Psalm 63 reflects such an attitude of romanticism. His love for God is so strong that his “soul thirsts for him; his whole body longs for him.” The love of God is so strong to him that “God’s unfailing love is better to him than life itself.” Now, I know not many men who would wish the love of God more than he wishes his life. At least, not completely. There are many men working to such a state, but very few of us, I should think, have reached the composure of Saint Paul: “I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far” (Phil. 1.23b). And yet that is how great the greatness of God is. It kept the psalmist up at night. He “lies awake thinking of God, meditating on him through the night.” Such a man desires God more than he desires bread or even physical life itself. Oh, that we may have such a love!

Oh, that our passion of God would be such that we are enveloped in an eternal infatuation and love with our Lord Jesus Christ. That we would wish to write His name a thousand times a day for a thousand ages because we love Him so much! Let us love God to the fullest extent. He desires it of us. He wants you to run into His arms. He wants you to be obsessed with Him. He is life itself: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain (Phil. 1.21).