God's Love in the Old Testament

Throughout the month of February I have posted daily on Facebook and Twitter about ‘True Love.”    All these posts have come from the New Testament, affirming God’s great love for us and calling us to love others as He has loved us.

Often we think the New Testament is the book of love, and the Old Testament dwells on judgment and condemnation.  But that just isn’t true.  The love of God shines through the history, the prophets and the wisdom books of Scripture.

Here are just a few of many reminders of God’s unfailing love.  May they bless and encourage you.Without a doubt one of my favorite verses is the assurance that God is singing a love song to me—to you:

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his lovehe will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.”(Zephaniah 3:17)

Then there is this amazing truth—because He loves us, He invites us into His house, to live with Him, to be with Him:

But I, by your great love, can come into your house; in reverence I bow down toward your holy temple. (Psalm 5:7)

Why, yes, my youth included sin and rebelliousness.  Yet, with the psalmist, I can ask for God’s love to guide how He remembers me:

Do not remember the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways; according to your love remember me, for you, Lord, are good.(Psalm 25:7)

And surely, along with King David, I have also sinned in my maturity.  Despite his great sins of adultery and murder, David could request mercy because of God’s love.  So can I:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.(Psalm 51:1)

This is good news--His love also catches us before we fall:

When I said, “My foot is slipping,” your unfailing love, Lord, supported me.(Psalm 94:18)

When pain comes and distress overwhelms, His love notices and cares:I will be glad and rejoice in your love, for you saw my affliction and knew the anguish of my soul.(Psalm 31:7)

His love even takes the negative words spoken to us and the wrongful deeds done to us and turns them into blessings:

However, the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. (Deuteronomy 23:5)

Some days—or weeks or months or years—are too much.  Life threatens to crush us.  Then God’s love steps in:Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. (Lamentations 3:22)

I love this picture of God’s love—tenderly reaching down to us, His children, to feed us with love and kindness:I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.(Hosea 11:4)

And finally these wonderful words from our Lord Himself:

The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.(Jeremiah 31:3)

May you rest and rejoice in God’s everlasting love for you.

What about you?  How has God assured you of His love for you?

C2014 Judy Douglass