Post 18 in Lifting up the Soul
All the paths of Jehovah are lovingkindness and truth
Unto such as keep his covenant and his testimonies. Psalm 25:10
David’s wife, Michal, was the daughter of King Saul. The Bible says she loved him, and she even helped him escape her father (1 Samuel 18:20, 1 Samuel 19:12-13). After David fled from Saul on threat of his life, Saul married Michal to another man. Later, David requested his wife be returned to him. The Bible says when she went back to him, “her husband went with her, weeping as he went” (2 Samuel 3:16). Michal did not have the feelings for David that she’d had when she’d first married him. She’d lost respect for him to the point of despising him (2 Samuel 6). David comes face to face with her disregard for him when he returns from a great battle, winning back the ark of the covenant. Michal speaks sarcastically about his behavior of dancing for joy on his return before his people. Her words aren’t kind. What had once been a marriage of love had turned bitter. David experienced how feelings can change. Michal’s love did not remain steadfast.
God compares our relationship with Him through the relationship of a husband with his wife, both in passages in the Old Testament and in the New Testament. Marriage was placed above all other human relationships when Moses wrote in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Jesus repeats this, emphasizing the importance of this covenant God first established before Abraham, before Moses, and before the kingdom of Israel’s covenant (Matthew 19:4-6). The marriage union lasts for the life of the man and woman. It is sacred in God’s eyes, and He uses it to express to us how our relationship with Him is a union, treasured and personal.
The union God shares with us is between the soul and the Creator. He will never break this covenant. When the psalmist writes of paths, he calls them “the paths of Jehovah.” We are walking a prepared path—an already chosen and circumscribed route. God owns all the roads. He has our lives mapped out, but only those who “keep His covenants and His testimonies” will He guide along His paths. This is a promise of God. We are not going to wake up one day and find that God has stopped loving us. The word for lovingkindness, hesed, can be translated as “mercy” and as “grace” in other Bible versions. This is not the same word that is used when a follower requests of God, “Have mercy on me.” Hesed is the idea of a protective sphere around a person who is walking a laid-out route. This mercy is God’s guided path. A soul in God’s mercy is never alone, never unprotected. She remains within His protective presence continually. 1 John 1:7 calls it the light.
This union with God comes with evidence. God doesn’t send us down a path without directions. He guides us with His truth. The word “emet” used here as “truth” is also translated faithful and reliable. God’s truth is unchangeable. It will always be there, and a soul can lean on Him without doubting His assurances. This is a new concept for those who have been taught that there is no absolute truth. How do we learn to trust in something that the world laughs at and says doesn’t exist? When philosophers discredit absolute truth, they discredit God. Satan dressed it up to sound intelligent, and that appeals to those who want to make and break covenants based on their personal whims. Believing there is no truth is a decision to remain ignorant and unreachable. It dulls the mind to the entire scope of eternity and the soul’s existence.
Our part in this soul union is to keep God’s testimonies. Testimonies are the words that come out of one’s mouth. The apostle Paul tells Timothy that the word is God-breathed (2 Timothy 3:16). Jehovah has testified to us throughout the ages. The beautiful covenant of His Son is the last testimony, a law book of freedom (James 1:25). We are given so much within Christ’s covenant: a sinless soul, a king who knows our suffering, His Spirit within us, a church family to support and encourage us, and the promise that He will resurrect us to live with Him eternally. God’s word is fully prepared to benefit and develop us (2 Timothy 3:16). Knowing this, we keep His testimonies. We rest on His true words, and we obey gratefully and fully.
Loving sister, your most important union is with the God who planned for you and prepared for you. When God sent His Son, He showed you how much you matter. He has made you His priority. He asks you to do the same, making Him and His kingdom your priority. This is not because He is selfish. He is steadfast love. His love brought you into existence for the express purpose of finding joy and ultimate happiness by being with Him always. This union lasts beyond the relationships of this life, even the life-covenant of marriage. He will never forsake His covenant with you. Don’t let go of him. Hold to Him with all the love you have in you, knowing that what He says is the absolute truth.
Listen as He expresses His covenant through the marriage relationship.
I will greatly rejoice in Jehovah, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with a garland, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. Isaiah 61:10
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything. Ephesians 5:23-24
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. Revelation 21:2
This is the eighteenth post in the Lifting Up the Soul study from Psalm 25. Subscribe to WomEnCourage to be notified as this study continues.