May 28, 2012 … To Know Him Is to Love Him

Passage of the Day: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: 1st Kings: 1-2 … To study these chapters, go to this link - 
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Passage of the Day #2: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 37 … To study these chapters, go to this link - 
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Passage of the Day #3: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 71 … To study these chapters, go to this link - 
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Passage of the Day #4: Reference of Today’s Chronological Bible Study: Psalm 94 … To study these chapters, go to this link - 
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Highlight Passage : 1st Kings 2: 1-4 … 1 When the time drew near for David to die, he gave a charge to Solomon his son. … 2 "I am about to go the way of all the earth," he said. "So be strong, act like a man, 3 and observe what the Lord your God requires: Walk in obedience to him, and keep his decrees and commands, his laws and regulations, as written in the Law of Moses. Do this so that you may prosper in all you do and wherever you go 4 and that the Lord may keep his promise to me: 'If your descendants watch how they live, and if they walk faithfully before me with all their heart and soul, you will never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.' 
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Highlight Passage #2 : 1st Kings 2: 46b … The kingdom was now established in Solomon's hands. 
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Highlight Passage #3: Psalm 37: 4-5 … 4 Take delight in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. 5 Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: ...

Journal for Today: Over into the book of 1st Kings today in my reading plan; and historically King David passes his throne to Solomon amidst a lot of family and political intrigue. If you’re reading along with this, we see that David is still living out the consequences of his past sin with Bathsheba and God’s covenant with David, as well as God’s curse upon David’s family, is still working itself out during all the political intrigue occurring at the end of David’s life.

However, in today’s readings, God seemed to have me focus on the charge King David gave to his son, Solomon, as the power of the kingdom was passed from father to son in these troubled times. And the advice David gave to his son in this passing of the torch of kingship (see 1st Kings 2: 1-4 was much the same as the spiritual advice given by David in a passage of one of David’s Psalms, which we often hear quoted by Christian preachers; and that is Psalm 37: 4-5, copied above.

You’ll note, if you study the emboldened and underlined verses above, how the spiritual advice, given by inspiration of God from David, is much the same. If we are to be empowered and enabled by God and His will for our lives, we must “delight ourselves in the Lord.” David certainly wanted His son, Solomon, to prosper in the ways of the Lord; and from life’s experience, David knew that the only way this was going to happen for Solomon would be for his son to live out the life-leading instructions found in God’s word – for David and Solomon, which was the “Book of the Law.”

In other words, Solomon’s ability to receive God’s blessings would dependent on just how much David’s son would “delight” in doing God’s will as spelled out in God’s word. And so this was David’s charge to Solomon, as you can read above; and it was David’s charge to all believers in the lyrics of Psalm 37: 4 as well. We will only deeply experience the desires of our hearts when/if they are the desires of God’s heart.

If you’ve read here with me in my morning devotionals in the past, you quite likely have heard my chain of directives which I was once given by a mentor and which I have tried to live out in my own life, since I truly desire to be blessed by God. It goes like this … to know God is to love God; … to love God is to obey God; … to obey God is to serve God; … and to serve God is to be blessed by God.

David wanted Solomon to be blessed by the Lord; so, he charged his son to “delight” in the ways of the Lord and to do this by following those ways from God’s word, … knowing that if Solomon did this, he would be blessed by a delighted God who pours His grace upon those who obey His will and follow His ways.

Perhaps you see that David’s charge to his son is God’s charge to us as His disciples. Solomon later wrote to his son (in Proverbs 3: 5-6) in my wife’s life verse, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him; and He will direct your paths.” 

Doesn’t that sound a lot like the advice you read above in Psalm 37: 4-5? I think it does. And I plan to follow it; … how about you?

My Prayer Today: … Lord, I so desire to have You smile, knowing that I am delighting in Your ways to follow Your will from Your word. Amen