God is ever-present with His people, continuously attending to their needs by His steadfast love and caring for them in His faithfulness according to the promises of His covenant.

He expects the same in return.

God commands His people to love Him as much and as continuously as He does us. Of course, we cannot possibly hope to realize this objective; nevertheless, He expects us to strive for it, so that we might always have God in our hearts and on our minds to shape our values and priorities and to guide our steps.

Our text speaks of three ways we may accomplish this. First, we must learn to love God and His Law as the supreme desire of our hearts. Love for God and His Word will guide everything else we are and do, but we have to work hard to keep other, lesser “loves” from crowding out supreme devotion to God and His Word. And we must devote time to being in God’s Word and meeting Him there in order to nurture fear of God into love for Him. The more we hear and learn the Word, the more we will delight in and love it.

Second, we must keep God’s Law and Word in our minds like frontlets strapped to our forehead, so that all our thinking, planning, evaluation, and doing are guided by the instruction of His Word. Daily meditation and memorizing of Scripture can certainly help in this requirement, as can talking often with other believers about the things we are learning from God’s Word.

But, third, we must bring the Law to expression in the work of our hands so that every aspect of our lives, all our words and deeds, reflect the glory of God and the practices of love revealed in His Law and Word. Paul would affirm as much for New Covenant believers as well (1 Cor. 10.31; Col. 3.23, 24).

In ancient Israel everyday reminders of their status as a holy people – tassels on their robes, not wearing clothes made of two cloths, observing daily sacrifices and offerings – would help them actively to remember the Lord. The Hebrew verb, “remember” (zachar) means something like “pay continuous attention to” and thus helps us to understand better how we should practice this discipline in every aspect of our lives, every moment of every day.

T. M. Moore

The book of Ecclesiastes is a crucial resource for understanding the Biblical worldview against the backdrop of our secular age. Follow T. M.’s studies in Ecclesiastes by downloading the free, weekly studies available in our Scriptorium Resources page at The Fellowship of Ailbe. Click hereto see the weekly studies available thus far.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.