"How Could I Ever Say Thank You"

I heard a song on Pandora called "How Could I Ever Say Thank You?" by Kathryn Scott. It reminded me of 2 things as I listened to it. The first is a verse from Psalm 116. Verse 12 says; "How can I repay the Lord for all the good he has done for me?" This is a rhetorical question. The answer is very clearly that we cannot repay the Lord for all the good he has done for us. The very next verse (v. 13) says; "I will take the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord." That is our only option; to call on the name of the Lord who has graciously and mercifully extended his hand to the very beings that have so corrupted his wondrous creation all the while reviling the creator who has offered this grace.
The second thing that struck me about this song is a line from the chorus. In it, Kathryn sings; "Love that reaches beyond each defense. Your mercy disarms the most broken of hearts. Such complete and profound faithfulness." What entered my mind the first time I heard this was what the Marine Corps calls tactics, techniques, and procedures or in the lingo of the military, TTP's. What in the world does this have to do with Marine Corps TTP's? Well, setting up a defense is one of the most complex and intricate things a combat leader can direct. Attacking, while also complex, is a bit simpler in that, as Marines, we tend to say; "Where's the enemy? OK, over there. Let's go kill them." There are various ways to set up defenses ranging from simply putting your men in a line facing the enemy and wait for them to come (think trenches in WW1) to a defense in depth (you've probably never seen this in a movie). I'm sure many of you have seen war movies of some sort and so you can think about all the implements that are used to stop the enemy while on defense: concertina wire, landmines, machine guns in overlapping fields of fire, mortars honed in on the fields of wire, etc. You can probably imagine the D-day scenes from Saving Private Ryan and the German defenses on the beach. Very complex. Now, a defense in depth is even more intricate. This calls for, in a basic way, putting a unit out as bait to bring the enemy in to a killing zone where all your firepower is concentrated. This can be done from the fire team level (4 men; smallest unit) to the army level (think General Patton directing units this way in North Africa). Defense in depth is a strategy that is generally used when trying to delay the enemy from adavancing while preparations for a counterattack are made.
All of this is to relate just how complicated military defenses can be. It gave me a visual image that matched the song because I think that we put defenses up in an effort to stave off and delay God in our rebellion. When we were lost, we were at war with God and his enemies as we were on the side of Satan (Rom. 6:15-23). But he never stopped pursuing us. He reached behind every labyrinthine defense we could muster to seek us out even though we were not seeking him (Rom 3:10-11) and as the next line in the song says; he disarmed us. His love overcame our every defense and his mercy that he freely offers disarms us. This is "such complete and profound faithfulness" that only the God of Jesus Christ could offer. No other religion presents a God so completely soldout in his effort to bring us into the Kingdom of God. Not Islam, not Mormonism, not Jehovah's Witnesses, and I could go on. Not one. It is only Yahweh who can proclaim "Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." (Jer 31:3)
Paul makes this explicitly clear in a couple of passages from his letters that I will finish up with. Romans 5:8-10 says: "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life."
Titus 3:3-7 says: "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another. But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,  he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit,  whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,  so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life."
Praise be to our great God and savior, through his son Jesus Christ, our Lord!