“Because Your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise You.” (Psalm 63:3). David wrote these words while he was in exile, hunted unjustly by king Saul, with a bounty on his head. The word for “life” in this verse is plural – meaning, God’s lovingkindness is better than many lives! It’s a vital truth in this life where suffering abounds.
There are two men who thought life wasn’t worth living anymore. The first was Job. His sufferings were so deep that he finally cried out, “Let the day perish in which I was born!” But his sufferings didn’t have the last say, and only clarified to Job God’s nearness and power… “I have heard of You by the hearing of my ear: but NOW my eye sees You!” And God “blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning.”
Jeremiah was God’s prophet calling a wicked generation to repent. He was persecuted so badly he prayed… “Cursed is the day I was born.” But the Lord’s nearness and kindness during those years brought this triumphant conclusion from his mouth… “It is because of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is Thy faithfulness! The Lord is my portion (inheritance), says my soul; therefore, I will hope in Him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him” (Lamentations 3:22-25).
No sufferings of this life last with Jesus. But to experience His kindness and love, even while He takes us through fires of hatred and floods of evil, is to make life worth living… “Because You have been my help, therefore, in the shadow of Your wings will I rejoice… those who seek my soul to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth… but the king (David speaks of himself, when his sufferings are over, as God promised) shall rejoice in God.”
Everlasting joys await, but Jesus will “show us His marvelous kindness” even while we endure the days until He comes for His own. It’s His promise.
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