Better Than Life

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 322, Better Than Life.

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

Stay with that for just a moment. Better than life. Not better than suffering, not better than hardship — better than life itself. The most precious thing a human being can hold.

David wrote this in the wilderness. Not from a palace balcony. In the wilderness — running, no throne beneath him, no guards around him, no comfort of any kind. He had lost nearly everything a king could lose. And yet — and yet — the first thing out of his mouth was not about his pain. It was about the love of God.

That stops me.

Because we tend to do the opposite. We wait. We say, "When this is over, when I work through this problem, when my life settles down — then I'll have peace, then I'll be able to give thanks." But David didn't say that. David praised in the middle of the crisis — not because the circumstances had changed. They hadn't. But because the reality of God was greater than the circumstances.

And there's a word in that verse we can't rush past: hesed. The Hebrew, hesed. We translate it "steadfast love," but the word carries far more than emotion. Hesed is commitment. It is covenant. It is the love that doesn't break when you break. The love that doesn't leave when you feel like leaving. It is God saying, "I am not going anywhere. Let the desert come, let the betrayal come, let the darkest night come — I am still here."

Christ fulfilled that word in a way David could only glimpse from a distance. Because hesed didn't stay a promise — it came down, took on flesh, went to the cross. The love that is better than life gave up life itself. For you.

So when David says "my lips will praise you" — he is not describing a feeling. He is making a choice. Praise, my friend, is not the reflex of your mood. Praise is an act of the will. It is opening your mouth before you have the answer, before you have the solution, before the wilderness ends — and declaring that God is greater than all of it.

When you open your mouth like that, you are not pretending everything is fine. You are proclaiming that He is real, that His hesed is real, that the covenant has not broken — even when your life feels broken.

And that, over time, leads your heart somewhere new. The lips go first. The faith follows.

So today, the call is simple — but it is not small. Before breakfast, before you open your phone, before you check the messages — say out loud one thing for which you are grateful for God's steadfast love. Just one. It can be small. It might be hard to find. But open your mouth. Let your lips lead your heart.

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