Compelling Love

In Psalm 62, David describes how he has rest, salvation and glory in God alone.  His refuge and strength are in God, his strong rock.  Faithful love belongs to Him and He repays each according to his works.

Psalm 62
¹ I am at rest in God alone;
my salvation comes from Him.
² He alone is my rock and my salvation,
my stronghold; I will never be shaken.

⁷ My salvation and glory depend on God, my strong rock.
My refuge is in God.
⁸ Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts before Him.
God is our refuge. Selah

¹¹ God has spoken once;
I have heard this twice:
strength belongs to God,
¹² and faithful love belongs to You, Lord.
For You repay each according to his works.

Psalm 33 also speaks of trusting in God as our help and shield, putting our hope in Him, and praying  that His faithful love will rest on us.

Psalm 33
²⁰ We wait for Yahweh;
He is our help and shield.
²¹ For our hearts rejoice in Him
because we trust in His holy name.
²² May Your faithful love rest on us, Yahweh,
for we put our hope in You.

This Biblical theme, of strength, salvation, and faithful love coming from God alone,  is conveyed even by the Hebrew words contained in the first sixteen letters of the Bible.  Dr. Yonathan Fass has analyzed these embedded Hebrew words in great depth.  In his book, “Creation’s Heartbeat”, he writes:

“The entry code to the Bible declares that the heartbeat of creation is the Creator’s loving kindness expressed through sacrifice to make relationship.  All that follows can be read – is to be searched and understood – in this light.  Here is where God is to be found.”  (p. 165)

Dr. Fass explains that the third word in the Hebrew Bible, and first name given for God, is “Elohim”, with roots meaning “the God who laments”.  This ties in with the Biblical theme that the Creator knew that there would be a breach in relationship due to the errant decisions of those made in His image and likeness, and planned from the beginning to restore this relationship through a sacrificial covenant including the Son of God dying in our place and rising again.

Dr. Fass shows how these embedded Hebrew words also strongly suggest that the restoration of relationship between the Creator and created beings now depends upon the decision of individuals to receive this sacrifice and to enter freely into His offered covenant of love.

The coming of the Son of God to bring this salvation to God’s people is prophetically pictured in Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.”

Isaiah 53 describes how the Messiah would take upon Himself the judgment for our sins to enable restoration of relationship with God:

Isaiah 53
⁵ But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.  ⁶ We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all.

“Yeshua” is the actual Hebrew name of Jesus.  This name in Hebrew means “Salvation”,  or more precisely, “Yahweh Saves”.  Matthew records that when an angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph in a dream he said, “you are to name Him Yeshua (Jesus), because He will save His people from their sins.”  Matthew notes that this all took place to fulfill God’s word spoken by Isaiah.

Matthew 1
¹⁸ The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After His mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.
¹⁹ So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
²⁰ But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.
²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to name Him Yeshua (Jesus), because He will save His people from their sins.”
²² Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
²³ See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name Him Immanuel,
which is translated “God is with us.”

God alone is our refuge and salvation, not any works that we may do.  We receive this salvation by believing in the Son of God who came to die in our place and is risen again.  This is the message of John 3:16:

For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

Paul (Shaul) explains this further in Romans 3 and 6:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)

This salvation by God alone received through faith in His Son means that nothing has the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord:

Romans 8
³⁸ For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers,
³⁹ height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

David Krause, dhkrause@neteze.com, https://compellinglove.net/, 12/21/13

(Bible Quotations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.)