Wondrous Love That Satisfies
“Wondrously show Your lovingkindness, O Savior of those who take refuge at Your right hand From those who rise up against them.” Psalm 17:7
David, hunted and hemmed in by enemies, does not plead for mere survival. He cries for marvelous lovingkindness—God’s covenant-keeping, faithful love that astonishes the soul. This is the first time the Psalms use the Hebrew word hesed (often rendered “lovingkindness”), a love rooted in God’s unbreakable promise to be our God.
As James Boice notes, “This is the love by which he enters into a favorable relationship with his people, promising to be their God.” It is not generic affection; it is the fierce, faithful devotion of a husband to his bride, now displayed with divine power—“by Your right hand.”
Charles Spurgeon marvels at the wonder of it: “The wonder of extraordinary love is that God should make it such an ordinary thing, that he should give to us ‘marvellous lovingkindness, and yet should give it so often that it becomes a daily blessing, and yet remains marvelous still.”
Yet how often do we settle for moderate grace? We pray small prayers, expect small mercies, and measure God’s love by our own fluctuating feelings. David refuses. He knows his sin has been marvelous—marvelously ungrateful, marvelously rebellious. Spurgeon presses this home: “Do you not see that you have been a marvelous sinner? Marvelously ungrateful have you been… marvelously did you kick against a mother’s tears… ‘Oh!’ saith he, ‘God will never have mercy on me; it is too great a thing to hope!’ Young man, here is a new prayer for you, ‘Show thy marvelous loving-kindness.’”
This is no abstract doctrine. This hesed is the refuge for the refugee, the shield for the surrounded. It is the love that saves, sustains, and ultimately satisfies.
David ends his prayer not in triumph over enemies, but in a vision of the future:
“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” Psalm 17:15
To behold God’s face is to know Him fully. To awake in His likeness is to be transformed by that knowing. Satisfaction is not found in circumstances, but in Him. The psalmist began in distress; he ends in delight. The bridge between the two? God’s marvelous lovingkindness.
Paul reflects this same longing in Ephesians 3:17–19, praying that we “…being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
To know this love is to be filled. To be filled is to be satisfied. And satisfaction in God’s love is the power to overcome all.
We often gauge our love for God by how fervently we feel. But feelings follow focus. When our love grows cold, the answer is not to try harder to love God, but to gaze longer at Him.
To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him.
The cycle begins not with our effort, but with His revelation. He satisfies our souls with His love—not because we deserve it, but because He delights to give it. As Derek Kidner writes, hesed is “steadfast love… that faithfulness to a covenant, to which marital devotion gives some analogy.” It is love that will not let us go.
Prayer:
O Savior of the sought-after,
Show me Your marvelous lovingkindness today—not the moderate mercy I often settle for, but the wonder-working, covenant-keeping love that silences the accuser and steadies my soul.
Teach me to pray big prayers, to expect great love, to gaze until I am changed.
When I awake—whether from sleep or from sin—let me behold Your face in righteousness, and be satisfied with Your likeness. Root me in the love that surpasses knowledge, until I am filled with all Your fullness.
In the name of Jesus, who is the Yes to every promise,
Amen.
David, hunted and hemmed in by enemies, does not plead for mere survival. He cries for marvelous lovingkindness—God’s covenant-keeping, faithful love that astonishes the soul. This is the first time the Psalms use the Hebrew word hesed (often rendered “lovingkindness”), a love rooted in God’s unbreakable promise to be our God.
As James Boice notes, “This is the love by which he enters into a favorable relationship with his people, promising to be their God.” It is not generic affection; it is the fierce, faithful devotion of a husband to his bride, now displayed with divine power—“by Your right hand.”
Charles Spurgeon marvels at the wonder of it: “The wonder of extraordinary love is that God should make it such an ordinary thing, that he should give to us ‘marvellous lovingkindness, and yet should give it so often that it becomes a daily blessing, and yet remains marvelous still.”
Yet how often do we settle for moderate grace? We pray small prayers, expect small mercies, and measure God’s love by our own fluctuating feelings. David refuses. He knows his sin has been marvelous—marvelously ungrateful, marvelously rebellious. Spurgeon presses this home: “Do you not see that you have been a marvelous sinner? Marvelously ungrateful have you been… marvelously did you kick against a mother’s tears… ‘Oh!’ saith he, ‘God will never have mercy on me; it is too great a thing to hope!’ Young man, here is a new prayer for you, ‘Show thy marvelous loving-kindness.’”
This is no abstract doctrine. This hesed is the refuge for the refugee, the shield for the surrounded. It is the love that saves, sustains, and ultimately satisfies.
David ends his prayer not in triumph over enemies, but in a vision of the future:
“As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness; when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness.” Psalm 17:15
To behold God’s face is to know Him fully. To awake in His likeness is to be transformed by that knowing. Satisfaction is not found in circumstances, but in Him. The psalmist began in distress; he ends in delight. The bridge between the two? God’s marvelous lovingkindness.
Paul reflects this same longing in Ephesians 3:17–19, praying that we “…being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
To know this love is to be filled. To be filled is to be satisfied. And satisfaction in God’s love is the power to overcome all.
We often gauge our love for God by how fervently we feel. But feelings follow focus. When our love grows cold, the answer is not to try harder to love God, but to gaze longer at Him.
To know Him is to love Him. To love Him is to trust Him. To trust Him is to obey Him.
The cycle begins not with our effort, but with His revelation. He satisfies our souls with His love—not because we deserve it, but because He delights to give it. As Derek Kidner writes, hesed is “steadfast love… that faithfulness to a covenant, to which marital devotion gives some analogy.” It is love that will not let us go.
Prayer:
O Savior of the sought-after,
Show me Your marvelous lovingkindness today—not the moderate mercy I often settle for, but the wonder-working, covenant-keeping love that silences the accuser and steadies my soul.
Teach me to pray big prayers, to expect great love, to gaze until I am changed.
When I awake—whether from sleep or from sin—let me behold Your face in righteousness, and be satisfied with Your likeness. Root me in the love that surpasses knowledge, until I am filled with all Your fullness.
In the name of Jesus, who is the Yes to every promise,
Amen.