Delighting in the Lord

This morning I opened my Bible to Psalm 37:1-13, 16-19, 23-24 NIV:

[1] "Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; [2] for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.

[3] Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. [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: [6] He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun.

[7] Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes.

[8] Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret---it leads only to evil. [9] For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the Lord will inherit the land.

[10] A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found. [11] But the meek will inherit the land and enjoy peace and prosperity.

[12] The wicked plot against the righteous and gnash their teeth at them; [13] but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he knows their day is coming.

[16] Better the little that the righteous have than the wealth of many wicked; [17] for the power of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord upholds the righteous.

[18] The blameless spend their days under the Lord’s care, and their inheritance will endure forever. [19] In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty.

[23] The Lord makes firm the steps of the one who delights in him; [24] though he may stumble, he will not fall, for the Lord upholds him with his hand."

I am always encouraged when I read these verses for they talk about the constant care the Lord gives to those who put their trust in Him. I broke out the verses, as they do in my Bible, because they are so rich, one could just sit and meditate on any one of them for hours.

For instance, I love verse 4 - "Take delight in the Lord, and He will give You the desires of your heart." The whole concept of delighting in the Lord is foreign to many of us. Many of us were raised with God and church in some peripheral role, a once a week interaction, or maybe 2-3 times a week if your family was active in the church. The Hebrew word translated delight is 'anag and it has a couple of meanings that are interesting. It can be translated to be dainty, or soft, and for me this speaks of vulnerability. The second translation, used here, means to take great pleasure, to be happy about, or take exquisite delight in something. Either definition speaks of a very different interaction or experience than what many of us grew up with, or maybe still experience.

The more time I spend in prayer, or reading my Bible, the more I am convinced of God's awesome love for me and care for me at a personal level. Christian author and Pastor John Piper wrote several books and one of His primary tenets is that God wants us to be happy. One quote from him says - “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”. He draws a deep correlation between our experience of God, and our attitude and pleasure in Him. When he wrote this book he received plenty of criticism from people who just couldn't think of God as a happy God, who wanted us to be happy. They had been raised with an authoritarian model of God, and only saw Him as someone who was waiting to punish them. We see the flow of this thought still today when someone has a bad experience or gets sick, we can find ourselves thinking that God is punishing them for something. This is bad theology, and at best a very early old-testament mindset, and not a full revelation of the nature of God. Jesus provides for us the perfect revelation of the Father and in which Gospel do were ever see Jesus punishing someone for sinning, or inflicting sickness on someone? If Jesus never did it, its because He never saw the Father do that, because He only did what He saw the Father doing (John 5:19). This is not the heart of the Father, nor the way He acts, yet much of the church remains mired in this type of thinking.

God's invitation is for us to get to know Him, to learn who He is, and to ultimately take delight in Him. This is all about relationship. When I first met my wife, I didn't know what a wonderful person she was, I didn't know her character, her heart, the way she thought. It was only through times of interactions and conversation that I came to know her, and the more I discovered about her the more I took delight in knowing her, and wanted to know her more. The more I got to know her, the more I wanted to make her happy, which in itself made me happy. Relationships are two-way, and what flows in one direction also is supposed to flow in the other. The more I knew about her the more I was able to do the things that were the desire of her heart.

One could argue that since God knows each of us perfectly, He could just give us the desire of our hearts without all this relationship stuff. But that is not how God is - He wants relationship with us! That is the invitation and the way to life for each of us. Because He knows us so well, He is most able to provide the deep desires of our hearts, because He knows us perfectly. As I read other authors and saints, and see their interactions with God, its clear that God consistently takes delight in blessing them in little as well as big ways. I think the little blessings are ways that God reminds us throughout the day that He loves us and cares about our happiness! Its interesting to note that its only when we know someone knows us that we can correctly ascribe their affection and gifts and desire to make us happy, as a desire to fulfill our desires. When I bring my wife home a gift, she knows its not because I want something, but because I really know her and know that this will make her happy. She knows my heart and affection for her, and so she knows my motivation. That is the exact same type of relationship God wants with each of us, and what David was talking about in verse 4.

So let us learn to take delight in the Lord, opening our lives to Him, and experiencing Him, and let us discover how He will give us the desires of our heart.