Briefing: There was a time when some of the most popular commercials on television were about the Energizer bunny. The slogan was “It keeps going, and going, and going.”

Dispatch (Assignment): Read Psalm 136.

On the Street: God’s love is similar to your lungs’ ability to make you breath and the heart’s ability to beat and pump blood. You don’t have to think about it or acknowledge it; your body will go on doing it anyway. God’s love is also different from your lungs and heart. One day they will stop working but God’s love never stops.

God has loved you long before you were born and will continue to love you long after you die. You can’t do anything to stop or prevent God’s love. God’s love will never stop. The Bible says we can do nothing to make Him love us more and we can do nothing to make Him love us less. It is a perfect love. Romans 8:38-39 says, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow, not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below, indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Now, don’t use the agreement that some have used; if God loves us this much then how could He ever send us to hell? Remember, the foundations of God’s throne are righteousness and justice. God is a just God. He knows what real love is. Real love has choice attached to it. God has chosen to love us and we must choose to love Him. It is a priority, 1 Corinthians 13 explains what God’s idea of love is.

This psalm has so many back to back examples of what God has done to show us that He loves us. Verse 1 says, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever.” The beginning of this psalm is so significant. The simple standout section of this verse is, “for He is good”. What makes this so important is the explanation Jesus gives us hundreds of years later when He says in Matthew 19:17, “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” Jesus confessed the only good person in the universe is His Father.

Continuing in verse 7, God did not just put the moon and sun in the heavens to look good, He put them there because He loves us. Genesis 1:16 says, “God made two great lights; the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars.”

Verse 9 says God made the moon and the starts. Proverbs 8:29, “when He gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep His command, and when He marked out the foundations of the earth.” Psalm 104:9, “You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.” Next time you are working a night shift, stop and look up at the moon and stars and realize God put them in place because He loves you.

Verse 25 speaks of God’s provision for all of His creation, “He gives food to every creature. His love endures forever.” There are two verses in Matthew that follow this thought. Matthew 5:45 says, “that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” And Matthew 6:26, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”

If God loves everyone this much and the foundations of His throne are righteousness and justice, can there be any doubt how much He loves the men and women of law enforcement?

Investigational Resources: Psalm 119:68, Nehemiah 9:20, 1 Timothy 4:4, Psalm 145:9.

Officer Safety Principle: Give thanks to the God of heaven. His love endures forever.

from Psalms Through the Eyes of a Cop, Volume 2
©by Charles Gilliland. Used by permission.
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