Day 35: A Womb-Word for Love
Read: Psalm 18:1–3
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
— Psalm 18:1 (ESV)
Reflect
Psalm 18 is one of the longest songs in the Psalter. It is full of battle, earthquake, smoke, and rescue. But it opens with a whisper: "I love you."
The word David uses is 'erḥamkha, "I love you" — and it is not the ordinary word for love. It belongs to the same family as the Hebrew word for "womb," and the word for "compassionate." The word family pictures love from the deepest inside, like the love a mother has for the child of her own body.
The word is rare in this form. This is the only place in Scripture where it is used for a person's love toward God. Elsewhere, this family of words most often describes God's tenderness toward his people. Here, David turns it around and offers it back.
Notice the order. Before the rock, before the fortress, before the shield and the rescue, David says, "I love you." He will spend fifty verses telling what God has done for him. But he starts with who God is to him.
Strength comes second in this verse. Love comes first.
Across Scripture
When God declared his name to Moses, he called himself "merciful and gracious," and "merciful" comes from this same tender family of words (Exodus 34:6). Isaiah asks, "Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?" — and God answers that he will not forget his people (Isaiah 49:15). In Jesus, that tenderness took on flesh. When he saw the crowds, "he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36).
Sit With It
Before the requests, before the needs, the psalm says, "I love you." What would it be like to begin your prayers there this month?
Pray
I love you, Lord, my strength.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.