What Kind of Love?

I think it was during a recent Reformation service that I took to thinking, as I have thought many times before, that it’s helpful to reflect from time to time on the kind of love that God has for His own. There are of course the common adjectives we routinely ascribe to God’s love, the kind we find, say, in St. Paul’s famous love chapter, I Corinthians 13: love is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, etc. Certainly the Apostle is encouraging  the Corinthians (and us) to exhibit that kind of love, but it can also be said that love is like this because that is how God loves. Paul’s love chapter both exhorts us to love and extols the nature of God’s love.

But there is more to that love, which is hinted at when the Apostle adds that love never fails. I find it especially edifying to consider, in this vein, that there is another critical aspect to God’s love, namely that it is fierce. This is reflected in many of the Psalms, particularly in the imprecatory Psalms in which David calls upon God to avenge him of his foes. The Hebrew chesed is normally translated as “mercy,” which doesn’t quite do it justice, because the term contains also elements of eager zeal and desire, that is, fierceness; and it is commonly used in the imprecatory Psalms. In Psalm 31, for instance, David says, “I will rejoice in thy mercy” (v. 7, KJV), in the context of being beset by his enemies. He pleads for rescue, calling the Lord his rock and fortress, beseeching God to pull him out of the net that they have laid privily for him (v.  4) because God has redeemed him (v. 5). The term is repeated in v. 16: “Make thy face to shine upon thy servant: save me for thy mercies’ (chesed) sake.” And the imprecatory mode is evident, with this: “Let me not be ashamed, O Lord; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave. Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous” (v. 17-18). In Psalm 40, we read, “Let thy lovingkindness (chesed) and thy truth continually preserve me”; and this Psalm is also imprecatory: “Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil. Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha” (v. 14-15). So also in Psalm 44 comes the lament, “Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter” (v. 22), whereupon David calls upon God, saying “Arise for our help, and redeem us for thy mercies’ (chesed) sake” (v. 26). The imprecatory sentiment is also expressed in Psalm 143:12, which employs chesed, again translated as “mercy”; and here again, the ferocity of the divine love is in view: “And of thy mercy cut off mine enemies, and destroy all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.” It’s not really mercy alone that moves God to destroy the enemies; it’s fierce and passionate, jealous love. It’s chesed. God’s love for His own is fierce. It can even be seen as the very reason for His wrath. That is to say, God’s wrath is reserved most especially for those who have harmed His beloved saints.

Consider Jesus’ dark warning against offending His little ones: “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones; for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10).

In short, this means that when we consider God’s love for His people, for us, we may take comfort in knowing that this love is fierce and full of passion. This is what led Christ to suffer for us. See how fierce and unwavering it is; it is stronger than death (Song of Songs 8:6); and it is also leading to the Day of Wrath to come. He will vindicate His own people, and so His warning is serious: if any of them come to harm, for those that dare to harm them there will be hell to pay, quite literally. God is fiercely attentive to every need of His people, and fully invested in their salvation. This is why St. Paul can confidently assert, “I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). That kind of love is fierce indeed.