"For great is Your love, higher than the heavens" (Ps. 108:4).
Returning to our study of the Psalms, we find that Calvin did not write a commentary on Psalm 108 because it is composed of portions from Psalms 57 and 60. We will then focus on verse 4, “For great is Your love, higher than the heavens,” using one of the most tender writings to come from a Puritan pen, The True Christian’s Love to the Unseen Christ, by Thomas Vincent.
“True Christians love Christ because of His love, His love which He bears to them. He loves them with a first love and with a free love. He loves them with a tender and compassionate love, with an active or doing love, with a passive or suffering love. His love is infinite, without bounds or limits; it is superlative, without comparison; transcendent, beyond comprehension; everlasting, without change; and will have no end or conclusion. He loves them when they were polluted in their sins, and washed them with His own blood; He loved them when they were naked in their souls, and clothed them with robes of His righteousness. He loves them in their sickness and sorrows, and is their Comforter; He loves them in their wants and straits, and is their Benefactor. He loves them in life, and is the life of their souls; He loves them at death, and is the stay of their hearts; and He loves them after death, and will be their portion forever.”
Vincent goes on to write that Christ loves His children with “the freest love, with the truest love, with the strongest love; and with the surest love.” It is free because His love is derived from nothing within us. He loved us while we were yet sinners. His love is true because in Christ’s love there are no selfish motives, no flattery or dissimulation. “He does not love you to receive good from you, but that He might do good unto you.” We find Christ’s love to be strong by what He has done for us. He assumed human nature, died on a cross, and rose again to bring us into His kingdom. He intercedes and protects us in strength and power. Lastly, His love is sure. It endures because it begins with Him, not with us. It is not dependent on anything within us but is rooted in His glorious, unchangeable nature. Such is the love that is “higher than the heavens.”
Read 1 Corinthians 13. Can a person love like this without divine help? If God loves His people, despite anything in themselves, how should you love others in Christ? Think of a fellow Christian you find difficult to love and ask God to help you love them unconditionally.
