Show Your marvelous lovingkindness by Your right hand, O You who save those who trust in You…Remember, O Lord, Your tender mercies and Your lovingkindnesses, for they are from old…For Your lovingkindness is before my eyes, and I have walked in Your truth…How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings…Oh continue Your lovingkindness to those who know You, and Your righteousness to the upright in heart…The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime and in the night His song shall be with me – a prayer to the God of my life (Psalm 17:7a, 25:6, 26:3, 36:7,10,42:8 NKJV)
God’s lovingkindness is mentioned 24 times in the book of Psalms – more than any other book.
I understand that God is holy – a God of justice and love. His justice must be met, sin must be dealt with but once I realized that and asked Him to save me, what I have experienced in my own relationship with Him is a keen awareness that everything He does and allows in my life is because He loves me. He is a caring loving Father who disciplines when necessary, but absolutely showers with blessings when I stand close to Him. Of all the promises of the Psalms, this one is the most precious to me. I can have peace during times of uncertainty and turmoil and I know I can count on Him to be there for me in every circumstance – not because of anything I have done, but simply because He loves me.
Since the above verses come from the NKJV which uses a lovely language that is somewhat foreign to us today, it helps to examine how other translations describe this word. Faithful love, wonderful love, amazing kindness, steadfast love, covenant love, marvelous mercies, miraculous deeds of mercy, gracious love, loyal love, strong love, wonderful faithfulness, great love, unfailing love – all these define the lovingkindness of the Father that I know and love.
When we move to the New Testament, we see the love of the Father expressed through the loving sacrifice of His Son. That was foreseen by the prophets of the Old Testament, but when God’s timing was perfect, God sent Jesus to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).
Now THAT is lovingkindness.
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