Moment to Moment

Unchanging, never-let-you-go, covenant love

My church has been meditating on Psalm 103 for the past few weeks.

Perhaps that’s why I see it so much of it here in this passage.

I see parallels everywhere.

David sang,

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. (Psalm 103:8)

And,

He forgives all your iniquity… (Psalm 103:3)

And again,

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

Now, Paul writes to the Ephesians,

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! (Ephesians 2:4-5)

The connection becomes even stronger when you consider that John seems to translate “faithful love” as “grace” in the New Testament. (Exodus 34:6, Psalm 103:8, John 1:14, 17)

One of the preachers at my church translated the words “faithful love” in the Old Testament as, “God’s unchanging, never-let-you-go covenant love.”

I like that way of putting it.

Though we were dead in our sins and trespasses, God established a new covenant with us through Jesus’ blood shed on the cross.

Now through faith in Jesus, we are saved by his “unchanging, never-let-you go covenant love.”

And as we stand before him, he crowns us with his “unchanging, never-let-you-go covenant love” and compassion. (Psalm 103:4)

Or to borrow from Paul’s words,

He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his [unchanging, never-let-you-go, covenant love] through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:6-7)

That is so awesome to think about.