The Unexpected Treasure

While studying Psalm 8 this week, I ran across a commentary called Explanatory Notes and Quaint Sayings on Psalm 8 by Charles Spurgeon. The part I really like relates to verse two, which puzzled me. In the NASB, it reads: "From the mouth of infants and nursing babes You have established strength because of Your adversaries, to make the enemy and the revengeful cease." I had an idea that it might be a prophecy related to the birth of Christ and the strength of God that would be established in Him and accomplish his purpose and ultimately bring peace; however, I really wasn't sure, so I began searching through some trusted commentaries to discover more about what it might mean. In searching for meaning, I found something exquisitely beautiful and entirely unexpected, and I want to share it with you.

The work that is done in love loses half its tedium and difficulty. It is as with a stone, which in the air and on the dry ground we strain at but cannot stir. Flood the field where it lies, bury the block beneath the rising water; and now, when its head is submerged, bend to the work. Put your strength to it. Ah! it moves, rises from its bed, rolls on before your arm. So, when under the heavenly influences of grace the tide of love rises, and goes swelling over our duties and difficulties, a child can do a man's work, and a man can do a giant's.  Let love be present in the heart, and "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God ordaineth strength." Thomas Guthrie, D.D.

I'm pretty sure that dying on the cross for sinners was tedious and difficult to a degree I can never fathom, and the weight of that is something that I will never fully comprehend. I can understand grace because it has been extended to me, but I will never truly understand the cost of that grace in the way God the Father and God the Son understand. I want the tide of grace and love to swell in my life to the point that it floods everything I come into contact with. I may be a toddler in this struggle right now, but I want love to consume me to the point that I can do a giant's work. I wasn't expecting to find a passage about love in the context of a verse about infants and nursing babes, strength, adversaries, and enemies, but this unexpected treasure made an indelible impression I won't soon forget.