Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

Meditations on Christ in the Psalms

August 25, 2022

Looking For Love In All The Wrong Places

 

“Do not abandon me, O LORD.

Do not stand at a distance, my God.

Come quickly to help me,

O Lord my savior”

Psalm 38:21-22

Waylon Jennings’ song, Looking for Love, can be sung through the experience of many, many people: “Playing a fool’s game, hoping to win. Telling those sweet lies and losing again. I was looking for love in all the wrong places.”

All people have needs for love, acceptance and self-worth. God alone can fully, and eternally, meet these needs. Yet we go through life trying to meet our need for love and acceptance through our relationships with others. We try to feel love and acceptance by performing in certain ways or by manipulating other people. But true love is not “I’ll love you if you love me;” it is unconditional. Until you know who you are in Christ, you cannot truly and authentically love others. All you can do is take from others as you try to satisfy your needs for love.

The author of Psalm 38 is sick: not the sickness of a diagnosable physical illness, but the sickness of sin. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of the 21^st Century church is how closed our spirits have become. In an era of entitlement, we have acute feelings of alienation when we don’t get what we want; however, seldom are people aware of their sin sickness that is caused by their seeking from the world what only God can give.

 In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus quotes Isaiah 42:3, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice” (Matthew 12:20). This is Good News for us. God does not give up on us; “But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness” (1 John 1:9).

My Takeaway: Therefore, with hope and courage let us cry out to God,

“Do not abandon me, O Lord. Do not stand at a distance, my God. Come quickly to help me, O Lord my savior” (Psalm 38: 21-22).

 

Sē’lah

<><  <><  <><  <><

(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2022 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.