Delighting in the Lord
Ps 37:4[1]
5-29-05
Intro
I want to introduce the message this morning with a clip from the movie, “What About Bob?”
Ch 9: (0:49:36) to (0:51:22)
Our subject this morning is: Delight yourself in the Lord. Bob’s attitude toward his meal gives us some idea of what it means to delight yourself in the Lord. For Bob supper was not an inconvenience or duty. It was a delight. He pursued it with a passion. He was not afraid to express his appreciation for what he received. He was so caught up in enjoying the food that little else mattered. Everybody around him knew that he was enjoying that meal.
Are you enjoying God? Are you enjoying all the trimmings? By that I mean the things that please God—the things that God provides to you—the word He speaks into your heart—and the fellowship you have with Him. I want to be a person who lives in a state of delight.
Our thought this morning comes from Psalm 37:4 where David said, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” Have you learned how to do that? In your experience is God a delight or a duty? How many have discovered that delight is a better motivator than duty.
When people view God and church as just a duty to be performed, what happens? They slowly reduce their involvement to a bear minimum. Churches all over America are a living testimony to that fact. For a very large number of people, Christianity is a two hour commitment per week—and some of them are hardly awake even during the two hours. There are 168 hours in a week. So those two hours equal less than 2% of the person’s time. That’s what duty leads to. And that’s why our text focuses upon a higher motivation than duty. “Delight yourself in the Lord…”
How do we do that?
1st Know that you were created for such delight.
When God created Adam, He demonstrated considerable concern for Adam’s enjoyment. He placed Adam in a garden—not a wilderness. He provided for Adam all the trees of the garden and the fruit of those trees for his enjoyment. There was only one tree denied Adam—and even that tree provided Adam with something. It provided him the opportunity of choosing to live in obedience to God. Have you discovered the joy of pleasing God with your choices? When we live to please ourselves something kind of dies within. There may be temporary pleasures in living for one’s own enjoyment—but there is not lasting, abiding joy. I believe as long as Adam said no to the forbidden tree he enjoyed the inner affirmation of living in obedience to God.
There is Adam in the Garden. God has given him a perfect environment. God gives him work that is affirming and meaningful. He is a gardener for God. He is privileged to do a work that God has assigned him to do. And I am quite sure he was delighting in that assignment. Have you ever had an assignment from the Lord that you knew without a doubt came from Him? There is something very energizing about that. What a joy it is to make yourself available to God for His service—and then God take you up on the offer. Sent by God—that is a powerful statement.[2] Jesus was sent by God and was energized by doing the will of the Father. Remember what he told the disciples in John 4? Verses 31-34 “31 Meanwhile his disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something." 32 But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about." 33 Then his disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?" 34 "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.” The work (God gave Adam to do) yielded something in his soul that was absolutely wonderful. For Adam dressing that Garden was a delight much more than a duty.
Look closely at Genesis 2 and you will see God’s supreme interest in Adam’s joy. God did not just produce a work animal in Adam because He needed someone to take care of His Garden. [3] God took delight in Adam and took joy in providing him everything he needed for living life to the full. God looked at Adam there in the Garden. He saw him as something good—the pinnacle of His creation.[4] He placed him over all the earthly creation. But He saw something missing in Adam’s life. Listen to what God said in Genesis 2:18 “The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him." You know what followed that observation. Genesis 2:21-23 “So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ’woman,’ for she was taken out of man."
Is there anything missing in your life? Adam needed a companion—so God gave him a companion. “No good thing will He withhold from those who walk uprightly before Him.”[5] He withheld no good thing from Adam and He will withhold no good thing from us if we will live in obedience to Him.
Everything we have described was for Adam’s enjoyment. But none of it was the most important thing for Adam. More important than a perfect environment and a perfect mate was the daily presence of God. In the cool of the morning God would meet with Adam and Eve.[6] He would fellowship with them because they were a delight to Him. I believe Adam & Eve passionately looked forward to those personal times with God. In his perfect state man delighted himself in the Lord because he was designed to do so.
That delight was broken by only one thing. As soon as Adam & Eve stepped out of God’s revealed will they lost something immensely precious. Instead of enjoying God they hid from God. Instead of looking forward to His presence they dreaded it. Tolerating sin and disobedience in their lives robbed them of the joy of the Lord. It is impossible to delight in sin and delight in the Lord at the same time. Jesus said, “The thief comes not but to steal, kill, and destroy.” Satan had destroyed their delight in the Lord. He goes about looking for opportunity to rob us in the same way. Jesus followed that statement with this contrast, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” (John 10:10) Living life to the full is characterized by this principle: Delight yourself in the Lord.
How do you delight yourself in the Lord?
2nd Discover God’s goodness for yourself.
Many of you have done that. You have experienced God in a very real and personal way. Without an experience with God Christianity can seem like an old worn out set of rules and regulations. But real Christianity is so much more than that. That’s why David wrote in Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good....” There is nothing like experiencing the real thing. You could describe to me all day long the ingredients of Andy’s ice cream. You could explain to me that it’s really not ice cream but custard. You could give me the scientific name for all its ingredients. You could even tell me that I ought to try it. But I will never delight in Andy’s Custard until I taste for myself and see that it is indeed very good. I can tell you that I don’t eat Andy’s custard out of duty. I don’t eat it because I have to. I eat it because I want to. I delight myself in Andy’s custard every chance I get. If you have no delight in the things of God, it may be that you have never really experienced Him for yourself.
Are you here this morning out of mere duty? “Taste and see that the Lord is good….” The God we serve is a living God. He is not like dumb religious idols that can neither speak nor hear.[7] He hears our prayers and speaks to our hearts. He involves Himself in our daily needs and delights in His relationship with us. In Revelation 3: 20 Jesus says, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.” (NKJV) In other words, He will come into our lives and fellowship with us. Have you discovered God’s goodness for yourself? “Taste and see that the Lord is good….”
How else can we delight in the Lord? We can
3. Nurture an Attitude of Gratitude.
One way to delight in the Lord in the now is to remember your previous experiences with Him. Do you remember the day Jesus called you out of darkness into His marvelous light? Do you remember the moment the load of guilt and shame was lifted off your soul and you knew that you knew that your sins were forgiven? Think about what God has already done for you and you will find yourself delighting in the Lord. Think about those times of refreshing that you have experienced in God. Think about the times He delivered you from the snares of the enemy. Think about His love and joy will fill your soul.
In the first 8 verses of Psalm 37 we are told three times to not fret. Have you noticed that the Bible never tells us to worry? We are told to pray. We are told to rejoice. We are told to trust. But we are never told to worry. Worry is never the answer. Worry and fretting robs us of precious energy and steals our joy. If God be for us who can be against us?[8] Sometimes it’s real easy to see God at work in our lives. At other times it is not so easy. But faith knows God is always working in our behalf. He has not forsaken us for He promises to never leave us nor forsake us.[9] Let’s learn from Israel’s experience.
When the Children of Israel passed through the Red Sea they were filled with joy. Can you imagine walking across that river bed with a wall of water on each side of you—held back by the hand of God?[10] God was obviously taking care of them. Then when Pharaoh’s army tried to follow, God removed His restraint and the waters drowned the most powerful army on earth at that time. In Exodus 15 Israel celebrated that great deliverance. They looked and saw the Egyptian soldiers lying dead on the shore. Miriam, Moses sister, took up a tambourine and they had a Holy Spirit celebration that day. They danced before the Lord and sang the song of the redeemed. Exodus 15:21 “Sing to the LORD, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea!" (NKJV) I think those people got happy in God that day, don’t you?
But did they continue in their joy? No, within a few verses they are complaining because of a lack of water. God took care of that and the next thing you see they are complaining again. Ex 16:2-3 “Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. 3 And the children of Israel said to hem, "Oh, that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (NKJV) You know the rest of the story. They entered into a life-long pattern of complaint and disobedience. We know from Hebrews 3 and 4 they died in defeat and failed to enter into the promises of God because of the unbelief that accompanied their murmuring. They missed what God had prepared for them because they lost perspective somewhere there in the dessert.
What is going on in your life? Is it easy to see God’s hand at work in your life? Or is it hard to discern God’s goodness? Are you at the glorious shores of the Red Sea or are you in the wilderness? God has remained the same either way. Whether the sun is shining or the night is dark—you can still delight in the Lord. He gives songs in the night. Praise is comely for the righteous whether it be night or day. Whatever is going on, delight yourself in the Lord. And then you will have a song even in the night.[11]
In Acts 16 Paul and Silas were in a pretty discouraging set of circumstances. They weren’t in trouble because of their own disobedience to God the way Jonah was when the fish swallowed him. They had been faithfully doing the will of God when they were thrown into a dark, stinky prison. Why in the world would God let this happen to His servants? It really was not fair. They had done nothing wrong. But unlike Israel in the wilderness, they had found a delight that was greater than their circumstances. Because their delight was in the Lord they continued to worship and praise God. It was the night but they had a song in the night and they sang it with all their heart. Remember what God did in that situation. The prison doors flew open. Their chains fell off. And the jailer got saved. They were not praising God because the prison doors had opened and the jailer had gotten saved. Their praise preceded that because their joy was rooted and grounded in God Himself. I wonder how the story would have read if Paul and Silas had withdrawn into a pity party. I wonder what would and would not have happened if their delight had not been in the Lord. I wonder what God may be trying to do in your life and my life. I wonder what chains He wants to break and what soul He wants to save. But first I think I hear Him saying to us, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.”
Phil. 4:4 is the New Testament echo of our text. “Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice.” How is that possible? With all the ups and downs of life is it possible to always be rejoicing. It is only possible if we have learned to rejoice in the Lord—who is the same yesterday, today, and forever.[12] Circumstances come and go. Circumstances and feelings are not the basis of our joy. Our joy is found in delighting in the Lord Himself. It is easy to think we are delighting in the Lord when in reality we are simply delighting in what the Lord is giving us at the time. God provides all kinds of things in life for us to enjoy and it is right to receive them with thanksgiving and enjoy them. But to delight in the Lord goes beyond that. I thank God for a nice house, a good wife, a car to drive. But would I lose my joy if I lost all that? If my delight is truly in the Lord there would still be a deep abiding joy in my heart. I would feel the loss but my life would not be void of peace and joy. I suspect that Israel’s joy at the Red Sea was more about what they had received from God than about God Himself. Otherwise there would have still been cause for praise even in the wilderness. Appreciation for what God gives us and does for us is a good thing. But even better than that is to learn to delight in the Lord Himself.
4. Desire to please God and you will be pleased with God.
The goal we pursue in life is an essential part of what we are talking about here this morning. When you minister to others what is the underlying objective? If it is to please people, you will find out that some are not pleased no matter what you do. If it is to feel successful, you will find that sometimes your efforts succeed and sometimes they fail. All those objectives produce mixed emotions. But if we will live to please God we will find satisfaction in what we do even if externally it seems to fail by the world’s standards.
Isaiah 58 concludes with these words in verse 14. “Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken." NKJV
“Then you shall delight in the Lord.” There is instruction in how to delight in the Lord found in what precedes that word “then”. “Then you shall delight in the Lord.” Look with me quickly at Isaiah 58. Verse 6-7 “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter--when you see the naked, to clothe him,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Verse 9b-10a "If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, 10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed….” Verse 13 “If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words,
14 then you will find your joy in the LORD.” Isaiah 58 is the chapter about God’s chosen fast. When you boil it all down—God’s chosen fast is an unselfish life! When I embrace an unselfish life-style of obedience to God rather than a pursuit of my own pleasure—then and only then can my experience be characterized by the words of our test: Delight yourself in the Lord.
Here is the paradox. When we live to please ourselves we find ourselves frustrated, disappointed, and unfulfilled. The carnal mind does not think it will happen. But it happens that way for everyone. “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My (Jesus said) sake will save it.” Luke 9:24 NKJV But whoever gets lost in doing the will of the Father will discover abundant life. Whoever seeks to please God will ultimately find himself pleased. That person will delight himself in the Lord and live life to the full.
One other key for delighting in the Lord:
5. Anticipate God’s goodness. The future is bright for every child of God. Look with me for a moment at Psalm 37. There is in this Psalm a significant contrast between what happens to God’s people verses what happens to the ungodly. Verse 1 tells us not to fret or be envious of those who do wrong. They may seem to prosper for a time. They may be enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season.[13] They may seem to be getting away with murder (so to speak). But look at what Psalm 37 says is in store for the ungodly. Verse 1 “…for like grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away.” Verse 10 “A little while, and the wicked will be no more; though you look for them, they will not be found.” Verses 12-17 “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. 14 The wicked draw the sword and bend the bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose ways are upright. 15 But their swords will pierce their own hearts, and their bows will be broken. 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.”
Now look at some of the promises God makes to His people in this Psalm. Ps 37:3-4 “Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. 4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart. Verses 18 & 19
18 The days of the blameless are known to the LORD, and their inheritance will endure forever. 19 In times of disaster they will not wither; in days of famine they will enjoy plenty. Verses 23 & 24 3 If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; 24 though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand.”
Which team would you rather be on? Which set of promises do you want to live in?
Psalm 37 was written to help us keep life in proper perspective. Sometimes it looks like the wicked are having it easier and are having more fun. Sometimes we are tempted to say, “It is vain to serve the Lord.”[14] But when we look at the big picture—when we see it all in the light of eternity—we are reminded of just how good God is being toward. When we look beyond the immediate challenges of life we see something so delightful it totally captures our hearts. We see God!
Conclusion
The invitation of Psalm 37:4 is this: “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” God can safely satisfy the desires of anyone who is truly delighting in Him because those desires will be according to His will.[15] The key to enjoying life is not found in getting God to give us what we want. It’s found in learning to want what a loving God is longing to give us!
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[1] All Scripture quotes are from New International Version unless otherwise indicated.
[2] John 20:21
[3] The assignment was for Adam’s benefit, fulfillment and enjoyment. God was not creating a work robot because His Garden would deteriorate if he didn’t have someone to work it. Those of us in full time ministry are especially in need of this reminder.
[4] When God saw His creation as very good I think it is safe to assume He was delighting in all that was produced but especially in man, created in His image. Adam was a delight to God.
[5] Psalm 84:11
[6] These thoughts spring from Genesis 3:8 with the assumption that God’s presence there was characteristic of their experience and although God is omnipresent they experienced special visitations of God.
[7] Psalm 115
[8] Romans 8:31
[9] Hebrews 13:5
[10] Exodus 14:29
[11] Job 35:10; Psalm 139:11-12
[12] Hebrews 13:8
[13] Hebrews 11:25
[14] Mal 3:14
[15] This verse may be saying that if we will delight in the Lord He will give us the right desires. The end result is the same for if we ask anything according to His will He will do it (1John 5:14-15). It is certainly not saying that if we get exciting about God He will satisfy selfish desires (James 4:3).
