God Speaking

“My heart is stirred by a noble theme as I recite my verses for the king; my tongue is the pen of a skilful writer.” (Psalm 45:1)

Perhaps one of the best known writers of love poems is Elizabeth Barrett Browning who wrote an exquisite piece numbering the ways she loved Robert Browning in, “How do I love Thee?” She begins by replying to her own question by saying, “let me count the ways”, and spends the rest of the poem writing down an in depth study of her own feelings as to why and how she loves this man. I was re-reading this poem recently and enjoying her words when it suddenly occurred to me that writing down why you love someone reinforces and strengthens your love, and how Robert Browning must have felt when he first read his lover’s words. It is a wonderful practice to do this in our everyday life, writing down exactly how and why we love our spouses/ our children/ our parents.

I then remembered a workshop I had attended some time ago entitled. “Prayer and Praise in the Psalms.” Searching through the psalms to find these love poems was a very rewarding experience, but the exercise at the end of the day has stayed in my mind. We were asked to compose our own Psalm of prayer and praise to present to our Heavenly Father and to write down and count the number of ways we loved him. It was so refreshing not to present the Lord with a list of requests or a list of fears or pester him with doubts and beg to be re-assured, but to simply concentrate on loving him and to describe how that loving him stirred our hearts and became part of our being.

The psalmists truly knew how to do this and to present their writings as a gift to the one they adored.

“I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will make your faithfulness known to all generations.” (Psalm 89:1)

Telling the Lord that one of the ways we love him is when we sing out aloud and praise his name is a great way to start.

“But I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love…” (Psalm 59:16)

Another one to add to the list is to tell the Lord that starting in the morning being aware of his love and strength sets us up for the rest of the day.

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.” (Psalm 63:3)

Acknowledging that we love him more deeply than life itself gives great credence to his all surpassing love.

“The earth is filled with your love, O Lord…” (Psalm 119:64)

Loving him through nature is recognising the Creator’s gift to us.

Once we start consciously concentrating on our loving response to God’s love, a remarkable change takes place; our love for him deepens, we are more aware of his love, we become more lovable towards others, we even grasp that he sees us as loved children of his.

Perhaps this little prayer I came across would be a great start for any of us to write a psalm to our Heavenly Father and dedicate it to him.

“Instil in my heart a desire to know and love you more every day”