Concluding thoughts on Psalm 37:4

I fully intended to move on from discussing Psalm 37:4. I had devoted two blog installments to this verse and subsequently moved on to other subjects. But there’s more that I feel I should say about this.

Once again, by way of reminder, look at how Psalm 37:4 reads, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” First of all, as I previously said, many skip the first part and focus on the “he will give you the desires of your heart” phrase. But I submit to you that the first part, the “delighting in the Lord” part is actually the best part. You don’t delight in the Lord just so you can check off that box and move on. To the contrary, I’ve found that delighting in God is its own reward. I have a friend who uses the word “delightful” regularly. The dictionary defines delightful as “very pleasing.” We can and should find our delight in God simply because He is delightful.

Incidentally, let me also state that this idea of delighting in God is a daily process. You don’t arrive and stay at this place forever. I know for myself it’s always two steps forward, and one step back. Some days I delight in God, other days I don’t. This is just the unfortunate reality of living life in this world. The old hymn says, “Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” Because our hearts are so fickle, by default, it’s a daily battle to move in the direction of choosing to delight in God.

For the remainder of this blog, I want to share the two things that I believe you and I must do if we are to find our delight, happiness, and satisfaction in God.  Perhaps there is more than these two, but these are essential. Item #1: trust in God. I see that this is true for me and I'm confident that it’s true across the board: you won’t delight in God if you don’t trust Him. It simply will not happen.

Confession time: I often battle the tendency to question God and even get frustrated with Him at what He is doing (or not doing) in my life. Don’t get me wrong: this is not to suggest that I would give up on my faith in God or anything like that. Having said that, I do look at specific life circumstances, and I inwardly wonder, “Lord, what in the world are you doing?” But, in the midst of this, I cling to the truth that God’s plan is superior to my own plan. A Bible verse that has been very precious to me for the past several years is Proverbs 3:5; “trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.”

Item #2: Obedience. God is teaching me that if you want to delight yourself in the Lord, you must obey what He has decreed in His holy Word, the Bible. I sincerely believe that God’s way is the best way.  Think about it. If I think that my selfish way is better than God’s way, how can I honestly claim to be delighting in God at that moment?  The directives He has given are not burdensome (1 John 5:3), they are liberating.

In conclusion, I was pleasantly surprised when I was mentally going over all this, to be reminded of a phrase in a famous hymn. I could hardly believe the correlation with today's material when this phrase came to my mind: “Trust and obey; for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.”

Kevin