I Have Loved

I will start by giving credit where credit is due. Patrick Henry Reardon was a professor of mine while I was at Trinity. He wrote a book called Christ in the Psalms. I have found it to be very helpful. Because he has approached the psalms intentionally looking for Christ in them, he has shed light on many passages that otherwise were obscure. Psalm 116:1-9 (the Psalm for this coming Sunday) is one of them. Some of his wisdom can be seen immediately in the translation of the first verse. Most translations read, “I love the Lord.” But early translations actually have no object and are better read, “I have loved.” As Anglicans, we often hear the summary of the Law, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment and the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two hang all the law and the prophets.” Reardon believes this psalm is not just about someone who loved God because he was rescued from death, but rather that it is about a person who embodies love for both God and their neighbor in obedience even unto death. For no greater love has a man, than that he lay down his life. This helps us to see that the person in the psalm was not suffering from some random illness that led them close to death, but rather that their suffering was driven by their love for you and me and the rest of humanity. It also is so much more meaningful if it is suffering born out of obedience because of love for the Father. Through this lens, the suffering in the Psalm is of ultimate importance because it was fulfilled in Christ and bought our redemption from sin and death.

The turning point of these verses is when the person suffering cries out to the Father that his soul might be delivered in verse 4. I am reminded of Christ crying out to the Father from the cross and committing his Spirit to the Father he loved. The psalm turns to a hymn of praise for the Father who “delivered the sufferer from death.” I can easily hear Jesus singing these verses on Easter morning as he walked into the light from the darkness of the tomb. “I walk before you in the land of the living!” —verse 9 Those words can now be on our lips because of the one who loved us enough to die for us, and because of his obedient love of the Father. Christ did love. Christ will always love, and because of that love, those who love him back will walk in the land of the living forever. Praise the Lord.

†Bishop Mark