1. I love the Lord. A blessed declaration: every believer ought to be able to declare it
without the slightest hesitation. It was required under the law, but was never
produced in the human heart except by the grace of God, and upon Gospel
principles. It is a great thing to say it, for the sweetest of all graces and
the surest of all evidences of salvation is love. It is great goodness on the
part of God that he condescends to be loved by such poor creatures as we are,
and it is a sure proof that he has been at work in our heart when we can say, “Thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee.” Because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. The
psalmist not only knows that he loves God, but he knows why he does so. When
love can justify itself with a reason, it is deep, strong, and abiding. They
say that love is blind; but when we love God our affection has its eyes open
and can sustain itself with the most rigid logic. We have reason, superabundant
reason, for loving the Lord; and so because in this case principle and passion
go together, they make up an admirable state of mind. David’s reason for his
love was the love of God in hearing his prayers. The psalmist had used his voice
in prayer, and the habit of doing so is exceedingly helpful to devotion. If we
can pray aloud without being overheard it is well to do so. Sometimes, however,
when the psalmist had lifted up his voice, his utterance had been so broken and
painful that he scarcely dared to call it prayer; words failed him, he could
only produce a groaning sound, but the Lord heard his moaning voice. At other
times his prayers were more regular and better framed: these he calls supplications.
David had praised as best he could, and when one form of devotion failed him he
tried another. He had gone to the Lord again and again, hence he uses the
plural and says my supplications; but as often as he had gone, so often
had he been welcome. Jehovah had heard, that is to say, accepted, and answered
both his broken cries and his more composed and orderly supplications; hence he
loved God with all his heart. Answered prayers are silken bonds which bind poor
hearts to God. When someone’s prayers are answered, love is the natural result.
According to Alexander, both verbs may be translated in the present, and the
text may run thus: “I love because Jehovah
hears my voice, my supplications.” This
also is true in the case of every pleading believer. Continual love flows out
of daily answers to prayer.
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