Come to the Table 2: How Precious is Your Lovingkindness
How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God!
Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings. (Psalm 36:7)
The Lovingkindness – the steadfast love and covenant mercy – of the LORD is indeed precious. For it’s by His Lovingkindness that He has redeemed us from our sins and rescued us from death and hell. It’s by His Lovingkindness that He’s brought us rebels into His family as well beloved children of God. It’s by His Lovingkindness that He pours out His Holy Spirit upon us so that we know His great fatherly love. The Lovingkindness of the LORD is precious, because it’s the source of our salvation. It’s ‘because of His great love with which He loved us, [that] even when we were dead in trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’ (Eph. 2:4-6). We are saved and raised from death to life by the Lovingkindness of God.
But the Lovingkindness of God isn’t just a nice loving feeling. It’s covenant love. It’s steadfast love. It’s the outgoing, redeeming love of the One who is Love Himself. ‘In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins’ (1 John 4:9-10). The Lovingkindness of the LORD isn’t a feeling, but a Person: the Person who came into the world for us and died on the Cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The Lovingkindness of the LORD is precious, because that Lovingkindness is Jesus who died for us!
And the One who died for us is now the One who has risen for us. In His great love, Jesus stretched out His arms upon the Cross, and now, in that same love, He is risen with healing in His wings. Christ lamented over Jerusalem, ‘How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!’ (Matt. 23:37). Now, we who trust in Him, run to Him for refuge under those healing wings of love and care.
It’s because the Lovingkindness of the LORD is precious that we shelter safely under His wings. It’s because Jesus our crucified and risen Redeemer is precious that we know refuge and salvation in Him. And as we gather round His Table on the Lord’s Day, we gather under His love and care. We gather under His healing wings. We gather there because the One whose body was broken for us and whose blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins is precious. We gather round the Table where He feeds us with His body and blood, because there is nothing more precious than the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. We gather where He feeds us, because there is no love or care greater than that of the Risen Lamb who gently feeds us, strengthens us, and keeps us.
At the Table, we taste and see that the Lord is good, for we taste of His Lovingkindness. Remember, the word ‘lovingkindness’ is all about His steadfast covenant love, and what do we drink at the Table? We drink the New Covenant in His Blood! We taste the goodness of His covenant mercies in Jesus.
O how precious is the Lovingkindness of God!
O how precious is the Lamb who was slain for us and lives!
O how precious is the Saviour who invites us into His presence at His Table!
O how precious is Jesus!