“I love You, O LORD, my strength.” The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, My God, my rock, in whom I take refuge; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1–2)

The closest to the NT word “agape” that we find in the OT is the Hebrew term “hesed,” which refers to God’s covenant-keeping love for His people (see Ps 18:50, where it is often translated “loving-kindness”). God loves us as an outworking of His promise to Abraham and His subsequent promises and covenants. This is His commitment to His people.

Psalm 18, which reflects David’s deliverance from King Saul (2 Sam 22), uses a Hebrew word that expresses a deep inward feeling for God. When used to describe God’s love it carries the connotation of compassion or mercy. Of course, there is little sense in which we can show that kind of feeling for God, so the word’s wider field of meaning includes the idea of an inner affection or tenderness toward God for what He has done for us. In David’s case, he saw God’s deliverance from King Saul as a supremely relational activity. Unlike a pagan’s response of fearfulness to an impersonal god, David saw his deliverance as a deeply interpersonal event, between himself and God.

So in Psalm 18:1-2 we see an effluent pouring out of adjectives to describe the God with whom David senses a growing relationship. Notice what follows: “my” rock, “my” fortress, etc. These words reflect a growing bond between Creator and creature, Master and servant, Father and son, Friend and friend, Lover and loved one.

Now the first thing David has to say about God is to call Him “my strength.” His life was filled with physical violence, with Saul trying to murder him, and his engagement with the armies of the Philistines, Amalekites and other surrounding people groups. His love of God was rooted very pragmatically, in God’s provision of military strength. Some may think this an inferior kind of love: we ought to love God simply because He is beautiful in His being and worthy of love because of His person. Such lofty notions sound spiritual, in a sense similar to those who present legalism as “the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion …” (Col 2:23). So pseudo-spiritualists speak of an esoteric worship of God divorced from the reality of our physical humanity. But God meets us in this physical world where we live. It is His working in our creaturely life (in David’s case, giving Him strength), that brings a person deeper into relationship with Himself. So I can love God as “my strength” as I see Him strengthening me for the struggles of life. That is good and acceptable to God.

Lord, You are my strength and song (Ex 15:2), and I love You for that.