In the Desert… You’re Loved By God
We've walked with David through his desert this week, seeing him seek God, remember God, and glorify God, but the real high point of the Psalm is when David declares that even in the desert, he knows that he is loved by God.
He wrote in verse 3 that he glorifies God and sings His praise: "Because [God’s] love is better than life".
The Priority of God's Love Over Comfort
For many people, a comfortable and easy life is the number 1 priority. A life with no struggle, no pain, no tough moments, this is the goal. Eliminate all difficulties so that life can be easy!
For such people, the desert road is an unthinkable inconvenience. They will do everything to get off the desert road, even if it means breaking their closeness with God.
But David knew that God's love is better than life. It's as if David was saying "I'd rather be in the desert with the love of God than be in a palace without Him. His love means more to me than life itself."
Discovering Deeper Fellowship in Desert Seasons
Often the desert road can make us wonder if we're loved by God. We are, even in the desert!
Often the desert road makes us doubt if He cares. He does, even in the desert!
You see, often it is in the desert that God can bring us into closest fellowship with Him. Who needs God when you’re in a palace with the latest, greatest, most comfortable set up? Pleasure and ease have a way of making us forget God's love in our lives.
And so, I believe, sometimes God allows us into a desert so that we remember His love. What did the Israelites learn when they spent 40 years in the desert? That God provides for them. What did David learn in the desert? That God's love was better than anything a good life might bring.
Learning to Trust God's Love in Hard Times
Sometimes God allows us into the desert because if we will just stick close to Him in that time, we will discover - in a way that we never would in the palace - that He loves us.
If you are in the middle of a desert, friends, take hold of God today. Seek Him with all your heart, because your thirst will only be quenched in a relationship with Him. Remember His faithfulness in the past, and trust Him today. Fall on your knees and praise Him, because even as you walk through the desert, He cries out "My child, I love you, I love you, I love you!"
I’ll say it again: It's better to have the love of God in the desert, than to live without Him in a palace.
May you go well into your weekend, assured of His love. And may it be this love that sustains you, even through the driest and hardest deserts you face.
