Let me count the ways

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote one of the English language’s most powerful love poems. It begins:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight . . .

And it ends

With my lost saints—I love thee with the breath,

Smiles, tears, of all my life! - and, if God choose,

I shall but love thee better after death.

Browning’s powerful poem wasn’t the first to count love’s ways. The first was David, who a thousand years before Jesus, set down a list in Psalm 103 of ways in which God loves you and me. And his list is far more specific, far more extensive, and far more wonderful than Browning’s.

How does God love us?

He forgives our sins and heals our diseases [v3].

He preserves our life and crowns us with love and compassion [v4].

He satisfies our desires with good things [v5].

He works justice for the oppressed [v6].

He made known His ways to Moses and revealed Himself in history’s mighty acts [v7].

And the list goes on.

He is compassionate and slow to anger [v8].

He does not treat us as our sins deserve [v10].

And still there is more. Far too much to record here in this brief blog.

But if life ever seems hard and the future so bleak that you can see nothing but darkness ahead, turn in your Bible to this psalm that celebrates God’s love. As you count with David the ways that God loves you, the darkness will break. And, with David, you will be lifted up to sing God’s praise.