How precious is your steadfast love, O God! The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

—Psalm 36:7

These days love has gotten a bit of a bad reputation. Not in the sense that people think poorly of love. I don’t know if we will ever get to the point where we try to avoid our most basic emotional need, but we have gotten a little off track as a society when it comes to love.

Self-sacrificing love has been replaced with self-love and self-care. The kind of love that stands firm in the face of difficulty and speaks truth that’s not easy to hear has been replaced with a feather-weight love that’s only focused on making each other happy.

That kind of love seems pretty good for a while. After all, feeling pretty good is the goal, but there is so much more that we crave and every last bit of that so much more can be found in the great, great Love of God.

It’s my deepest desire for anyone I can tell to know how deep and good and utterly fulfilling the Love of God is, so we’re going to be looking at different facets of God’s Love for us in the hope that we’ll find some beautiful treasures we hadn’t seen before.

A few weeks ago, the number of animals on my parents’ farm went up by three when my daddy found three abandoned puppies on the side of the road. One was a young hound of some kind who had been injured and left in the woods near the farm. The other two are mystery-breed sisters with speckles and the most beautiful green eyes I’ve ever seen in a dog.

The hound in particular struggled to adjust to her new home. For several days, she wouldn’t leave the kennel they set up for her. It took a whole lot of treats, calm words, and gentle petting before she began to get more comfortable. 

But that’s not what I saw this past weekend when I went for a visit. Now, a few weeks later, I got to sit on the porch and enjoy watching her play and lounge around with her two newly adopted sisters in complete confidence. She’s found a home and she knows it.

God’s Love does the same for us. It acts as our safe haven. When others reject us, we can return to the safety of the Love that isn’t taxed or annoyed when our hearts are hurting. When we experience persecution, we can cling to the Love that doesn’t disappear when things get truly difficult.

That’s what David is describing in this psalm. 

There are two words in this verse that I particularly like. The first is precious. The English word paints a strong picture for us—something that’s of great worth—but there’s more. This same word also means rare, splendid, and my personal favorite, weighty. When we talk about God’s Love, we’re not talking about some trinket or bauble. God’s Love is weighty. It’s equal parts substance, significance, and splendor.

The second one is the word translated as love. I enjoy this word because each meaning seems to reveal a new shade or dimension to what God’s Love is really like. It’s not just love; it’s also kindness, gentleness, loyalty, faithfulness, devotion, goodness, and mercy. All this is wrapped up in the Love of our Heavenly Father.

The result of accepting all the riches of this gift is exactly what three sweet puppies are experiencing in southern Mississippi—joy, comfort, and peace. Those sweet little puppies have got it made! And we can too. Not in the sense that life will always be good, but in the sense that we will always have a safe place with our Father, wrapped in the goodness of His Love.