I have a general question about the Psalms. I noticed over the past few days of reading through the Psalms that David does not tell the Lord he loves him or that the congregation loves the Lord. If I'm wrong about that, I would appreciate the correction. If I'm right, the absence of his expression of love to the Father is remarkable. Clearly David did love the Lord with as much love as anyone has had and yet in his corporate worship songs of the Psalms he doesn't refer to his feelings of love towards God at all (although he does say he loves His laws). Thoughts about what this means???

Psalm 18:1 I love you, O Lord, my strength.

There's probably some more as well, but this is the first one that jumped into my head.

P.S. It's written by David ;-)

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patrick heaviside

[i] I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation. [/i] Psa 40:10

[i] My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise. [/i] Psa 57:7

[i] From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. [/i] Psa 61:2

[i] My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the LORD: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.[/i] Psa 84:2

I believe David surpasses superlatives in his expressions ...

[i]And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.[/i] Act 13:22

(A reference to 1Sa_13:14- [i]But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the LORD hath sought him a man after his own heart, and the LORD hath commanded him to be captain over his people, because thou hast not kept that which the LORD commanded thee.[/i])

Need to get back to the Psalms, thank you for bringing this up brother.

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Mike Balog

Davids psalms are chock full of his expressions of love for God although he may not say the words "I love you" over and over again. Clearly his expressions of praise and worship throughout the Psalms speak of a heart of extravagant love and extreme submission. Here's just a few...

I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.
(Psa 9:1)

Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
(Psa 103:1)

The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise him.
(Psa 28:7)

My heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed: I will sing and give praise.
(Psa 57:7)

I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.
(Psa 86:12)

I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee.
(Psa 138:1)

But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple.
(Psa 5:7)

Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.
(Psa 29:2)

Teach me thy way, O LORD; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name. I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.
(Psa 86:11-12)

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.
(Psa 138:2)

In Christ,

Ron

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Ron Halverson

Joh 14:15 "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

Personally I think God would rather have one show thier love by thier obedience than to just give lip service. In the same way our walk of faith is used in James like this Jas 2:17 In the same way faith, if it doesn't have works, is dead by itself.
Jas 2:18 But someone will say, "You have faith, and I have works." Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith from my works.
Jas 2:19 You believe that God is one; you do well. The demons also believe--and they shudder.
Jas 2:20 Foolish man! Are you willing to learn that faith without works is useless?


But back to the core Idea expressed in the beginning, love as an expression can be done effectively many ways and God weighs everything from all men every where, and David was a man after God's own heart, that came from the mouth of God before we read the history of David, now that's a very telling thought you may want to dwell on.

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D.Miller

Thanks for the responses. I didn't intend to suggest by my question that David and the other Psalmist don't love God or don't think and express their praise, worship and thankfulness to Him repeatedly in various ways which are surely implicit expressions of love. I just found it odd that there wasn't a direct expression of the love in explicit words as we often do in worship today. Our worship music today often is filled with explicit statements of love. It seemed odd to me which is not to suggest the Psalmist don't love God or that the Psalms aren't full of superlative expressions of wonderful, adoring, praise and worship.

Thanks Roaring Lamb for the correction. But that correction still allows for the point because it shows that when David wanted to he would express his love explicitly and yet so much more of his Psalms by an extraordinary degree speak of God, his greatness, lovingkindness, mercy, strength glory than they do of David's expressions of his own "feelings" towards God. Maybe there is something in this that speaks to where the weight of our own corporate worship should be found????

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patrick heaviside