A Psalm of David the servant of the Lord, who spoke to the Lord the words of this song on the day that the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. And he said: I will love You, O Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. (Psalm 18:1-2)
The first and greatest command given to us, as God’s people, is to love Him with all of our being. Accordingly, David begins this psalm with a heartfelt declaration, “I will love You, O Lord.” While all of us feel this same sentiment and would not hesitate to join with David in this declaration, the fact of the matter is that to love God with all our heart, soul and strength is a life-long pursuit. Until the day we die, we will be exposed to situations that put us to the test as to whether we love Him as much as we really want to.
To love God with all our being means that we make every attempt to draw closer to Him — as close as is possible — in this material world. Along with this desire to draw close to Him we must possess an appropriate fear of God; in fact, it could be argued that we must learn to fear God before we can truly love God in the way that is expected. Think of it this way: if we truly hold Him in the highest esteem and respect, acknowledging that He alone is the Sovereign of all Creation — all Knowing and all Powerful — then we will better understand that we are to serve Him without expectation of benefit or reward. In short, because we have learned to fear Him, we serve Him because we love Him.
That being said, I’m not of the opinion that God wishes us to serve exclusively out of fear. It seems to me that while the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, the fruition of it is to love God with all our heart, soul and strength. It may be that, in this life, this is a goal to which we will continually strive to attain. Nevertheless, having the desire to fulfill the goal is indicative of a heart that is inclined to love God. Also, let us not forget this very important point: “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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