Loving God

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

In the Bible, we all have our favourite characters. In the Old Testament, mine are Joseph, Moses and Daniel. I love Joseph for the fact that he kept looking outward in the face of crushing setbacks, Moses for his gargantuan style patience and and Daniel for his unwavering commitment to God, even in the face of death.

However, there is another person that I also greatly admire and that is David. I admire him because of his love for God.

​In 1 Chronicles 28 we read of the vast preparations David made for the building of the Temple. Here are just a few...

​Then David gave Solomon the plans for the Temple and its surroundings, including the entry room, the storerooms, the upstairs rooms, the inner rooms...

David also gave Solomon all the plans he had in mind for the courtyards of the Lord’s Temple, the outside rooms, the treasuries, and the rooms for the gifts dedicated to the Lord...

​And he gave specifications for the items in the Temple that were to be used for worship...

David gave instructions regarding how much gold and silver should be used to make the items needed for service...

He designated the amount of refined gold for the altar of incense...

Finally, he gave him a plan for the Lord’s “chariot”—the gold cherubim whose wings were stretched out over the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant.”

However, not only did David hand over all the plans to Solomon, he also said, “And now, because of my devotion to the Temple of my God, I am giving all of my own private treasures of gold and silver to help in the construction.” 1 Chronicles 29:3 NLT

David knew that he would never see the Temple built in his lifetime. I wonder how many people today would pour their heart and soul into planning a work for God they knew they would never see and knew that it would bear another’s name? Not too many, I think. 

I also wonder if Solomon would ever have built this, had it not been for David. I suspect, perhaps not. 

You never read of David planning the name for the temple; he just planned everything else. So why did he do it all? He did it because he loved God more than he loved himself. He loved God more than his love for a name for himself. He loved God more than he loved riches for himself. He loved God more than fame for himself. In short, he loved God!!

I think that David brought much pleasure to the heart of God, and here’s the greatest thing...... so can we!