Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Because I love your commands
    more than gold, more than pure gold,
and because I consider all your precepts right,
    I hate every wrong path.

• Psalm 119:127-128

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth— for your love is moredelightful than wine.

• Song of Songs 1:2

How delightful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much more pleasing is your love than wine, and the fragrance of your perfume morethan any spice!

• Song of Songs 4:10

Indeed, to them you are nothing more than one who sings love songs with a beautiful voice and plays an instrument well, for they hear your words but do not put them into practice.

• Ezekiel 33:32

To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

• Mark 12:33

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.”
“You have judged correctly,” Jesus said.

• Luke 7:41-43

“More than the greatest love
The world has known,
This is the love
That I give to you,
Alone.

More than the simple words
I try to say,
I only live to love you
More each day.

More than you’ll ever know
My arms long to hold you so.
My life will be in your keeping;
Waking, sleeping,
Laughing, weeping.

Longer than always
Is a long, long time.
But far beyond forever,
You’ll be mine.

I know I never lived before,
And my heart is very sure
No one else could love you more.

More than the greatest love
The world has known,
This is the love
That I give to you,
Alone.

More than the simple words
I try to say,
I only live to love you
More each day.

More than you’ll ever know
My arms got to hold you so.
My life will be in your keeping;
Waking, sleeping,
Laughing, weeping.

Longer than always
Is a long, long, long time.
But far beyond forever
You’ll be mine.

I know I never lived before,
And my heart is very sure
No one else could love you more.”

• Marcello Ciorciolini and Norman Newell (English), More

This is a very interesting song when you think about our love for Jesus.  There are a few pronouns that need changing, I think.

But for the Scriptures, I searched for More and Love in the same verse and there were many very unfortunate verses, but these selections say a lot.

With the two posts yesterday on love, this seems like piling on, but if we were to sing about no one could ever love you more, that would be God’s love toward us.  Vice versa, we’d come far short, but God should be our greatest love.

The other pronoun, or the line swap, is “You’ll be mine.”  If we are singing it, I think “I’ll be thine” works a lot better and it rhymes.  Too many people claiming to be Christians speak of God being theirs – Their Savior, but God has us, not the other way around.  I still cringe when I see a bumper sticker that says “God is my copilot” because that never ends well.  God needs to pilot the plane or the ship.

But the lyrics are wonderful, if you know in what direction the song is intended.  God loves us more than the greatest love the world has known.  For one reason, the “world” has rejected God and substituted a pathetic substitute.

The most secure moments in my life are when I feel the presence of God as He has me in His keeping, waking, sleeping, laughing, weeping.

And you have to admit that the lyricist has infallible logic.  Longer than always is indeed a long, long time.  And I love the assurance that the Lord gives us that we will be His for evermore.  Okay, that doesn’t rhyme.

And my simple words try to say that I will try to love Jesus more each day.

Here is Bobby Darin singing More.  His version is a bit upbeat.

Here is Nancy Wilson singing More.  A lot slower, and more sultry.

Some of this song works with God singing it to us.  Some of it is how we should love God, more and more each day.  And I love both renditions of a song that was the theme for a movie, and later translated into English.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.