Psalm 49 – Threatened by Love

Over the past year and a half (or so) I’ve been approaching the Bible in a different way. I’ve been reading it looking for the answer to the question, “God, in what ways did you love us?” It initially came from Jesus’ command, “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

I’m reminded of this search today as I read Psalm 49. I really hope to not only understand the instruction of God’s word but also to hear the utterance of His heart.

“My mouth will speak words of wisdom; the utterance from my heart will give understanding. I will turn my ear to a proverb; 
with the harp I will expound my riddle” – Psalm 49:3-4

What’s behind this for me? I’ve come to a place where I’ve embraced the reality of struggle in the Christian journey. I'm not talking about the struggle of comprehending doctrine or truth, more so the struggle of not understanding our own flesh and our battle to actually do what’s right. Paul addressed this struggle in detail in his “I do not understand what I do” speech.

As a church leader, there is an added pressure to “have it all together”. Reality: I don’t. None of us do. There are things we are convinced of, but what about the things we’re not? What do we do? How do we act? How do we lead with confidence?

My answer? “Read with love and lead with love”.

What do I mean by that? First, we should always read scripture through the lens of love. I believe it was written with this lens. When we do, it changes everything. If God is love, why wouldn’t we? If we’d do so, we’d see the “why” behind every mandate, recommendation, suggestion, and hope of the Bible.

Second, always lead with love. This should be the motive and the “how” we do all things. Even when we decide something should be done because of love (even tough love or discipline) in our application, we often let our flesh take over, and leave love at the door. Not a good idea.

It’s interesting to me how much this attitude is being criticized even by many believers. I’ve heard others say it sounds too much like the “social gospel”, or some kind of watered down “new age” movement. Honestly, if we find ourselves resisting love as a real, viable, and holistic answer, we need to take a look at ourselves and ask why we’re so threatened by it. What tradition, personal bias, insecurity, or fear do we have? We should ask this if we hesitate to offer love, even more so if we find ourselves criticizing it.

I guess here’s my point. Love never fails. Love casts out fear. Jesus said the greatest command is love. Paul said that even compared with faith and hope, that love was the greatest. When we don’t know what to do, when we’re confused, when we’re threatened, when we’re offended and even hurt… love. And we can’t go wrong.