“Because he loves me,” says the LORD, “I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.” Psalm 91:14
The Psalmist tells us that the Lord will act on behalf of those who love him and acknowledge his name. This is different to what we would expect.
Human logic would tell us that God acts for the benefit of those who are law-abiding, morally pure and study his word. As well as those who are making genuine attempts to be responsible. It seems reasonable to our human faculties that a holy God would want his people to work hard to be holy. Yet human logic doesn’t allow for God’s immense holiness or our pathetic attempts to be holy.
Our wholesale failure to meet God’s standards, reveals that God has an entirely different way of being moved to act on our behalf. He looks into our hearts. It’s the criteria he used when he chose David.
“People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7). Even then, the love he finds in our heart for himself isn’t self-initiated. It’s the result of us responding to his greater love for us. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
God wants people who will acknowledge his name. Proverbs tells us, “In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:6 NKJV). We acknowledge God by understanding that he is Sovereign. He is our authority. We anticipate that he will direct our words, actions and thoughts. Our heart’s desire is to follow his direction.
God is looking for people who acknowledge his name and respond to his love for them, so that he can act on their behalf.
