Better Than Life

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 258, Better Than Life.

Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. Psalm 63:3.

Stay with that for a moment. Don't rush past it. Because David did not write those words from a comfortable place, with life settled and his heart at ease. He wrote them from the wilderness of Judah — a man running from his own son, betrayal still raw, dust on his feet and grief in his chest. And yet his first word was not complaint. It was praise. A barren place could not silence a heart that truly knew God.

I need you to understand what is underneath the phrase "steadfast love" in this verse. The Hebrew word is hesed — and that word carries a weight that English barely holds. It is not a feeling. It is not the love that shows up when you have earned it, when you perform well, when your life is together. It is committed love. Covenant love. Love that made a promise and will not break it. It is the love that finds you in the wilderness — especially in the wilderness — and says: I am still here. I have not moved.

And David makes a declaration that, to any Hebrew ear listening, would have sounded almost too large to say: this love is better than life. For his people, life was the highest good — the most precious thing a human being possessed. To say something surpasses it was the greatest claim a person could make. David was not being poetic for the sake of poetry. He was being exact. Without this love, life itself loses what makes it worth having. He knew that — not from a theology book, but from living it, right there in the desert.

And we, standing on this side of the cross, understand even more than David could see from that wilderness. Because what he sensed — that hesed, that faithful, committed, covenant love — we watched it happen. Jesus gave His own life so that God's love could reach us. The love that is better than life did, in fact, cost a life. His. And that changes everything.

Now look at what David does with all of this. He does not wait to feel like it. He does not wait for morning to look different, for the situation to shift, for the mood to arrive. He makes a declaration of intent: my lips will praise you. Not "if I feel up to it." Not "once this is over." Now. Praise begins as a choice — and the feelings very often follow after. You do not need to wait for circumstances to improve before you open your mouth. The act of opening your mouth is already faith.

And that is exactly what I am asking you to do today. Before breakfast — before the phone, before the rush, before the weight of everything the day is carrying — open your mouth and say out loud one sentence. Just one. Something for which you are grateful for God's love today. It does not have to be eloquent. It does not have to be long. It has to be sincere. Let the day begin with that sound on your lips. Because that is the sound the wilderness could not silence in David — and it will not silence it in you.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.