9 We dwell on your faithful love, God,
in your temple.
Reflection
Where would we be without God’s faithful love in our lives? I know I can’t imagine my life without God’s love! God’s love is undeserved, eternal, unconditional, unfailing, patient, kind, loyal, merciful, compassionate, steadfast, generous, grace filled, and life giving. The psalmist in this psalm calls on us to meditate on God’s faithful love in our lives. This is a good spiritual practice for us to do each day, to think about how much God loves us and how God sent Jesus into the world to show us God’s love. To think about the Holy Spirit at work in each of us, growing us in faith, making us more loving like our Savior, Jesus, that we follow. When we take time to contemplate God’s faithful love for us, we realize that we must share God’s love with
others, so that they too, can come to experience God’s transforming love in their lives.
But we aren’t only meant to dwell on God’s faithful love in our own time of prayer and
meditation. We are meant to recall God’s faithful love together, as a congregation of faith. The psalmist describes the joy of worshipping God in the Temple. The Temple in Jerusalem was the place where the presence of God dwelled among God’s people, Israel. For thousands of years the Temple was also a place where people prayed and worshiped God, and where priests offered up sacrifices for the forgiveness of the sins of the people. Jesus went to the Temple to teach and to pray, to seek a deeper relationship with God and to discern God’s will for his life. The people’s faith was strengthened by worshipping God together, by recalling all that God had done for them in the past, how God cared for them in the present and confident in the hope of all God would do for God’s children in the future.
by Jeneene Reduker
For Pondering and Prayer
God loves us with a faithful love. Today, find time to sit in God’s presence and dwell on God’s faithful love for you in your life. How can you share God’s faithful love and what God has done for you, with others you meet today? Whether you worship online or in person, think about you have experienced God’s faithful love in worship together with your faith community.
Prayer: Holy and loving God, we continue to experience your faithful love in our lives. Help us to share your love with others so that they can come to know your faithful love in their lives. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
