Delight!

 "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." Ps. 37:4

I have always believed that to Delight ourselves in the Lord means to enjoy spending time with Him.. find pleasure and joy in fellowship with Him.. and that is true.. but today I decided to dig a bit and while it is true the Hebrew word for Delight means have delight in.. the root word it is from means to be soft or pliable.  Wow!

To me that means we are to be pliable and let Him mold us into who He wants us to be..which is the imagine of Christ..  and all the while we are to delight in it. Now surely you know that molding and is not always pleasant.. so it will take a choice to delight in the midst of it.

And as for the desires of our heart.. I have heard folks take this verse to mean if we want it and ask for it, God will give it to us. Not really... He is not a genie in a bottle.. but in a way it is true IF we do the first part of the verse. If we are delighting in Him while He molds us into the person we are supposed to be, which is the imagine of Christ, then our desires will line up with His will and so He will give them to us.

Delight!

I am studying Psalm 1 this week and this morning I was especially drawn to verse 2 where it says "But his delight is on the law of the Lord"... now the but means instead of what verse 1 talks about.. instead of walking in the counsel of wicked, standing in the way of sinners or sitting in the seat of mockers, the blessed man delights in the law of the Lord.

The Hebrew the word for Law refers to the 1st 5 books of the Old Testament.. the Torah.. but we can also look at the Law as the entire Word of God from Genesis to Revelation.

So the question is... do you delight in it?

Jer. 15:16 says "When your words came, I ate them and they were my joy and my heart's delight for I bear your name O Lord God Almighty." Do you feel that way when you read His word.. when a verse pops to mind at just the right time?

Over and over we read about delighting in the Law or in His Word... here are just a FEW verses..

Ps. 112:1 Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who finds great delight in His commands.

All of these are from Ps. 119 --

v. 16 I delight in Your decrees
v. 24 Your statues are my delight; they are my counsel
v. 35 Direct me in the path of Your commands for there I find delight
v. 47 I delight in Your commands because I love them
v. 70 ... O delight in Your law.
v. 77 ... Your law is my delight
v. 92 If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my afflictions

Romans 7:22 For in my inner being I delight in God's law

Don't you want that? to delight in His Word. The key is to spend time in it AND to ask God to make it the delight of your heart. He will do it!

So why should we delight in His Word? Ps. 19:7-11 gives us a few reasons..

The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple.
The precepts of the LORD are right,
giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the LORD is pure,
enduring forever.
The ordinances of the LORD are sure
and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold,
than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Add to that the fact that Jesus is the Word made flesh and that the Word endures forever... and the question becomes why NOT delight in it? What better could you delight in?

Oh Father, how I praise You for Your precious Word. You did not leave us to fend for ourselves. You left all we need in the 66 love letters You wrote for us. I pray that our hearts will be drawn to You and to Your Word and that it will be the delight of our hearts. That we cannot get enough of it! Give us a hunger for the things of You, Lord. In Jesus' precious powerful name I pray, Amen.