Psalm 48:14 “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.”
Strangely enough, this verse, however comforting it is, was not wholly the basis for this study—more along the lines of a complement. The real basis is a little caption above Psalm 102, which I came across in the wee hours of the 14th of December. There’s me, taking a little nocturnal sip of honey to ease my throat, sitting at the kitchen table (very careful to keep my feet under me to avoid the similarly-nocturnal cave crickets) and paging through the Psalms. I’d had a rough day, and needed comfort—earlier, I had even resorted to my childhood method of hiding under a table…unfortunately, while children grow, tables stay much the same height. (My poor neck!) And He gave me everything I needed in one little caption—not even a verse! Not even properly in the Bible!—but it held all the comfort I needed.
“The Lord’s Eternal Love.”
It hit me like a thunderbolt. My spoon literally froze in midair, halfway to my mouth.
I hadn’t really thought about the Lord’s eternal LOVE before. I’d thought about plenty of eternal things, of course—eternity with Him, His eternal faithfulness, His gift of eternal life, etc., etc. I even knew factually about His eternal love—I guess it just never quite sunk in before, that God could love me—ME—forever.
Forever’s a pretty long time. (I know, I know. Bit of a cliché. But it’s true.) He’ll never leave me. He’ll never cease to love me. No matter what happens, no matter how bad a day—or week, or month, or even year—I’ve had. No matter what I’ve done, that phrase is still waiting for me through it all, soothing my tattered nerves and calming me when I feel I’ve gone too far to be loved, when I feel like I’ve ‘burnt my bridges’ beyond repair. Just four little words, but they will—HE will—comfort me all my life.
