David, Lover of God – The Great Commandment

David, Lover of God

Matthew 22:37, 38

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

Psalm 31:23

Love the LORD, all you his saints!

They who love God provoke others.

Love for God consists in fearing Him, entering into His glory, and serving Him in every aspect of our lives. David certainly loved God by those criteria. But he shows us yet another way that the Law of God leads us to love Him. David provoked others to love the Lord. On so many occasions, when things had gone badly for David and his followers, we find him constructing a psalm of praise and thanks to the Lord, often setting it to a familiar tune so he and his followers could sing it. David’s love for God was such that he longed for others to share in it with him. This is the way it is with everything we “love” – a favorite movie or TV program, a favorite food or vacation place. We want to tell others about it so they can enjoy it with us, and together we can sing the praises of what we “love” to many others besides. David understood this principle well, and he constantly labored to provoke others to know God, fear God, come into the presence of God, and serve Him. If we love God we will extol His many virtues to others and call them eagerly and earnestly to join their hearts and lives with us in loving God with all our soul and strength.

How do you try to provoke others to join you in loving God? What opportunities for doing this can you expect to have today?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.