DELIGHTING IN THE LORD

PSALMS 37:1

A. "DELIGHT THYSELF IN THE LORD; AND HE SHALL GIVE THEE THE DESIRE OF THINE HEART"
  1. The text might be correctly paraphrased "Delight thyself in the Lord, and then thou mayest trust thy desires; they will be the forerunner of blessings, the beginning of their own realization"
    1. The desires would be rightly directed
    2. They would not be of a selfish nature
  2. The gratification of human desires:
    1. Would do more harm than good
    2. Would not be to the glory of God and thus be contrary to His holy will B. DELIGHTING IN THE LORD
  3. Meaning of the word "delight":
    1. To delight is to take pleasure in; to enjoy - Job 34:9
    2. "I delight to do Thy will, O my God; yea, Thy law is within my heart" - Ps. 40:8; 1:2; 112:1
  4. Practicing the presence of God:
    1. Delighting in God means to begin with realizing the presence of God
    2. "In Thy presence is the fullness of joy - Ps. 16:11
    3. "For with Thee is the fountain of life" - Ps. 36:9
    4. Delighting in the Lord implies sympathy with His mind and character; His character is the absorbing thought of our life; that was true of David in most of his life
    5. Delight means to hold close communion with Him; Examples: Enoch - Gen. 5:22-24; Noah - Gen. 6:8-9; Abraham - Gen. 17:1; 22:12; Job - Job 1:1-3; Daniel - Ezek.. 14:14
    6. It simply means entire surrender to God's holy will. The highest desire in prayer is not desire, or aspiration, or praise; it is surrender. Examples: Jesus Christ - Matt. 26:42-44; Saul of Tarsus - Acts 9:6; the young ruler was lacking that evidence - Matt. 19:16-20
  5. The satisfaction of desire:
    1. Nothing more disastrous could happen than that God should gratify the desires of all men; human selfishness would make utter confusion out of life
    2. When we delight in God, we are free from the distractions and various desires that are harmful to us and to others; Examples: The parable of the prodigal shows what happens when the natural desires are in control - Luke 15:11-20; the sons of Eli had their way and that spelled disaster to them and their father - I Sam. 2:12-16; 4:14-18 C. TRUE DELIGHT IN THE LORD AND ITS RICH REWARD
  6. To truly delight in the Lord means:
    1. To have a desire for spiritual food - "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb" - Ps. 19:9-10; 119:1-3
    2. The word of God, the great truths of the Bible will be the true source of our daily delight - we will delight in them
  7. When we delight in the Lord:
    1. Our chief desires will not be so much to have as to be and do
    2. This is the chief characteristic of the record of the men and women that were noted for their deep piety in all ages; Examples: Let us begin with Jesus, His chief desire was to be and to do the will of His heavenly Father Ps. 40:8; John 5:19; 30; 12:49-50. Jochebed, the mother of Moses was minded the same way - Ex. 2:2-3; Hannah, the hand-maid of the Lord was minded the same way - I Sam. 1:28. Paul after his conversion and a fruitful ministry expresses the desire of all truly dedicated children of God - Phil. 3:8-14; 4:8
  8. And yet, we must not bypass the great blessing of rightly directed desires of man:
    1. Solomon desired of the Lord "an understanding heart to judge Thy people, that I may discern between good and bad; for who is able to judge this thy people?" - I Kings 3:5-9
    2. And the Lord granted both to Solomon - read carefully - I Kings 3:10-13
    3. When Job made the Lord first in his desires, when he endured the cross, God gave sevenfold blessings - Job 42:10-16


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