Salmos 37

Salmos 37

Clarke - his will, desire, affection, every motive in his heart, and every moving principle in his soul, are on the side of God and his truth. What does delighting in the Lord look like practically? If we delight in a person, we desire to be in their presence and to hear their voice. Indeed, we should seek to be like the blessed man whose "DELIGHT is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night." (Ps 1:2-note) And like the psalmist who "opened wide his mouth and panted, because he longed for God's precepts." (Ps 119:131, 40) We need to daily chose to "delight in His commandments, which we love." (Ps 119:47) We should be like a young couple who is so in love that their greatest desire is to be in each other's company prompting them to rearrange all their priorities! Why? Not because that was their duty but because it was their greatest desire and delight! This begs the question "Do I DELIGHT in God's Word like this? Do I set aside time to commune with Him in His Word because I DELIGHT in hearing to His voice? Has my quiet time become "too quiet," because I have begun to see it more as a duty than a DELIGHT?" THOUGHT May God's Spirit revive our hearts according to His Word (Ps 119:25) that we might be like Jeremiah who said "Thy words were found and I ate them, and Thy words became for me a joy and the DELIGHT of my heart." (Jer 15:16-note) If we truly DELIGHT in Jehovah, we desire not only to spend time with Him, listening to His voice in His Word, but also longing to speak with Him. We need to imitate godly Nehemiah who prayed "O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant, and to the prayer of Your servants who DELIGHT to fear (reverence) Your Name." (Neh 1:11) And may our heart be like "Mary, who was listening (cp Ps 81:10b) to the Lord's word, seated at His feet" and not like "Martha (who) was distracted…worried (fretting) and bothered about so many things." Indeed, may we delight in Jesus' words that "There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her." (Lk 10:38-42) Remember, beloved, that our Lord desires our delight before our duty, our presence before our presents! Father grant that by Your Spirit we like the saints of old might discover that the one thing that is important in time and eternity is to sit lost in DELIGHT at our Savior's feet communing with Him through His Word and prayer. Amen To DELIGHT in the Lord is to desire to be near Him, to be like the OT saints who cried "My soul longs for Thee, as a parched land. Selah." (Ps 143:6) "Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And besides Thee, I DESIRE nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever." (Ps 73:25-26) When we DELIGHT in the Lord we come to understand more fully that "the nearness of God is our good," (Ps 73:28) and that "a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of wickedness." (Ps 84:10) And as we learn to delight in Jehovah, we will desire even more to daily be in His presence, for "In His presence (literally before His face) is fulness of joy. In His right hand there are pleasures forevermore. (Ps 16:11) So let us each morning enabled by His Spirit choose to DELIGHT in Jehovah and beseech Him to "hide us in the secret place of His presence." (Ps 31:20) "Let us come before His presence (face) with thanksgiving. Let us shout joyfully to Him with psalms" (Ps 95:2), confident that He will make us "glad with the joy of His presence." (Ps 21:6) Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews encourages, "Let us therefore draw near with confidence (boldness) to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need (which is ALL the time!)" (Heb 4:16+) "O God of my delight, Thy throne of grace is the pleasure ground of my soul." (Valley of Vision) While it is amazing grace that saved sinners can DELIGHT in the Lord, it is even more amazing that He takes DELIGHT in us! Like a diamond miner who picks up a rough, dull stone and rejoices with delight, God delights over unlovely people. He knows what precious gems, through His Spirit's shaping and polishing, sanctified sinners will become in Christ, yea, even becoming His own treasured possession (Dt 26:18, Titus 2:14+)! And so the prophet Zephaniah exults (speaking to Israel, but in principle applicable to saints) "The LORD your God is in your midst. He is a warrior Who can deliver. He TAKES GREAT DELIGHT in you. He renews you by His love. He shouts for joy over you." (Zephaniah 3:17NET+) PRAYER - May our prayer daily be like the words of the devout Puritans in the Valley of Vision - "If Thou seest in me any wrong thing encouraged, any evil desire cherished, any DELIGHT that is not Thy DELIGHT, any habit that grieves Thee, any nest of sin in my heart, then grant me the kiss of Thy forgiveness, and teach my feet to walk the way of Thy commandments. Produce in me self-despair that will make Jesus precious to me, DELIGHTFUL in all His offices, pleasurable in all His ways, and may I love His commands (delight yourself) as well as His promises (desire fulfilled). Give me the saving lamp of Thy Spirit that I may see Thee, the God of my salvation, the DELIGHT of my soul, rejoicing over me in love (Zeph 3:17+)." Amen Take My Life and Let It Be Take my life and let it be, Consecrated Lord to Thee. Take my moments and my days And let them flow in ceaseless praise. Take my hands and let them move At the impulse of Thy love Take my feet and let them be Swift and beautiful for Thee Take my voice and let me sing Always, only for my King Take my lips and let them be Filled with messages from Thee Take my silver and my gold; Not a mite would I withhold; Take my intellect, and use Every power as Thou shalt choose, Every power as Thou shalt choose. Take my will, and make it Thine. It shall no be no longer mine. Take my heart, it is Thy own. It shall be Thy royal throne. ake my love; my Lord, I pour At Thy feet its treasure-store. Take myself, and I will be Ever, only, all for Thee, Ever, only, all for Thee. THOUGHT - It is "easy" to sing these beautiful words of this prayer to God, but not so easy to follow up these words with the attitudes and actions about which we have just sung. The only way is by depending on the Holy Spirit to carry through with what we have just offered to God. And while we will not achieve "perfection" in keeping our offerings to the Lord, it is not about perfection (that is called glorification) but it is about direction (steady, upward progressive sanctification) As an aside, if you are serious about this short life, this hymn would be a great prayer to offer up to the King! What do you do when you don't desire to delight in God? Clearly this is an important question so I would strongly encourage you to watch the 6 part series by Dr John Piper on what do I do… "When I Don't Desire God" THOUGHT - What do you do when you don't desire to delight in God? Clearly this is an important question so I would strongly encourage you to watch the 6 part series by Dr John Piper on what do I do… "When I Don't Desire God" The wonderful truth is that we who were once hostile to God, can now delight in Jehovah. And even more amazing is that He delights in us for we are "accepted in the Beloved." Amazing grace indeed! Ps 16:3-note As for the saints who are in the earth, they are the majestic ones in whom is all my delight. Douglas Carew notes that in Ps 37:4 "A close interplay exists between “delight … in the LORD,” and “desires of your heart.” The path to true self-fulfillment does not lie in a preoccupation with self but in selfless preoccupation with God. When the psalmist sets his heart on God, God reciprocates by making him truly fulfilled. And since no one seeks after God on their own, we are continually dependent on the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us to give us the desire and the power to seek the face of God. When something delights us, we are preoccupied with it and we tend to protect and guard our time so that we can more quality time with the object of our delight. To delight is to take pleasure or enjoyment from an object (in Ps 37:4 not an object but a Person, Jehovah) and implying the object has desirability! Delight in something or someone depicts a high degree of pleasure, or satisfaction of mind. While the verb is different, the idea is similar in Ps 1:3 where read that the "blessed" man (Ps 1:1) is the one whose "delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night." (Ps 1:2) In other words, how does he show he truly delights in the Word? He spends time with (in) the Word. He makes the Word a top priority. By the same token if we truly delight in Jehovah, we desire to spend time with Him, to listen to His voice in the Word, to speak with Him in prayer. And we make those items top priority. Even as I write this, I am convicted -- I might tell you I delight in the LORD, but honestly do the actions of my live, my priorities, my passions, etc validate my claim to delight in the LORD? C S Lewis was right when he said "If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." A W Tozer writes "when the Holy Spirit shows us God as He is we admire Him to the point of wonder and delight." When we delight ourselves in the Lord, we will desire the things that delight Him. When our delight is in the love of God, our desires will be in the will of God. If what we desire is God, God will give us what we desire. Delight (06026)(see more in depth discussion on anag/anog) is a verb which means to be soft, to be delicate (in Pual stem) but also means to delight oneself in ("to take exquisite delight" - BDB), to be glad in or to enjoy (in Hithpael stem), especially taking delight and pleasure in God (Job 22:26, Isa 55:2, Psalm 37:4). To find enjoyment in (implying the desirability of the object). Delight is in the Hithpael imperative (command) which primarily expresses a "reflexive" action (thus the pronoun "yourself"). The idea is to enjoy oneself and in Ps 37:4 the object to enjoy is God. The idea of this verb delight is that the one who obeys this command to delight (obeying enabled by the power of the Spirit) experiences a sense of joy in the Lord. The picture is of one who enjoys the Lord, taking pleasure in Him, experiencing satisfaction in Him. It is the call for us as finite created beings to take exquisite delight in the infinite, transcendent, majestic, glorious Creator of the universe. Delight is the picture of my being highly pleased and fully contented with God's Person and Presence. As David so beautifully puts it in Psalm 16:11 "Thou wilt make known to me the path of life (ultimately this is Jesus Himself… He alone is the Way… the Life! Jn 14:6). In Thy presence is fullness of joy. In Thy right hand there are pleasures forever." The Hebrew word "fullness" pictures satisfaction or sufficiency by simply being in the Lord's presence! To be pampered encourages us to spoil ourselves with God's presence! The Septuagint (Lxx) translates the Hebrew word anag here in Psalm 37:4 with the verb katatruphao (used only here in the entire Bible) in the aorist imperative which is a command to do even with a sense of urgency. Do what? Take delight in Jehovah! But as already explained, if we are honest, our fallen flesh does not naturally gravitate toward but away from God. In other words our natural tendency is not to delight in God. Therefore we must depend on the Holy Spirit to give us the desire and the power to delight in Jehovah (Php 2:13NLT+). When we make the choice to delight in Him, we fulfill the command to work out (present imperative) our salvation in fear and trembling (Php 2:12+)! God's Spirit sparks the urge and gives the power to delight, but we are not robots and we must still choose to delight. It is the mysterious "marriage" of God's sovereignty and human responsibility. When Spurgeon was asked how he reconciled God's sovereignty and man's free will he responded "I never have to reconcile friends!" See discussion of the Need for the Holy Spirit to obey NT commands (or "How to Keep All 1642 Commandments in the New Testament!") As an aside the root verb for katatruphao is truphao and is used only once in the Bible (James 5:5+ = "lived luxuriously"). In this sole NT use of truphao, the verb is clearly conveys the negative sense of living in pleasure for oneself. Now think about delight in the context of Ps 37:4 and you get the picture of "living luxuriously" in the presence of Jehovah. Contrast the world's counterfeit which is material wealth, thinking that this "idol" will bring us lasting delight, when in fact James says it will bring "a day of slaughter!" (Jas 5:5+) Only in the presence of Jehovah is there fullness of joy. THOUGHT - This begs the question of all of us "Where are we seeking our delight? In this passing godless globe (cf 1 Jn 2:17+) or in our eternal glorious God? There is simply no comparison. This will be a constant battle because our flesh desires to delight in the temporal babbles and bangles with which we are continually enticed, while the Spirit continually leads us to desire to delight in the eternal. Walk by the Spirit and you will delight yourself in Jehovah. Or as Paul says "Walk (present imperative) by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh." (Gal 5:16+) Isaiah 58 God gives a wonderful (conditional) promise related to delighting in the LORD - If because of the Sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure (NOUN = chephets - the related verb chapes means to incline toward, to take delight in, to be pleased with) on My holy day, and call the Sabbath a delight (NOUN = ONEG), the holy day of the LORD honorable, and shall honor it, desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure, and speaking your own word, THEN (WHEN YOU HAVE MET THE PRECEDING CONDITION) you will take delight (SAME VERB USED IN PS 34:7 = anag in Hithpael; Lxx = peitho = to trust) in the LORD, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken." (Isa 58:13-14) Jehovah in essence is saying that the path of true "self-fulfillment" paradoxically lies not in a preoccupation with self (NOTE 4X REPETITION OF "YOUR OWN" ABOVE) but in a selfless preoccupation with God (in this case specifically His Rest). As we set our heart on God as our chief delight, God reciprocates supernaturally by making us truly fulfilled! God grant that the chief desire of our heart would first and foremost be to take great pleasure in Your presence. Amen When we delight ourselves in the infinite God, our finite desires begin to be changed by His indwelling, transforming Spirit (cf 2 Cor 3:18+) into His eternal desires and "the things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace." So the Sabbath was to be a day of delight, a time of enjoyment for Israel (Isa 58:13). And if Israel turned from selfishness to selflessness on this day, God would cause them to "take delight in Jehovah!" Not to mention He would take them on the "ride" of their life! And so to delight in this day was to delight in Jehovah, in fact to delight in "the Son of Man (Who) is Lord of the Sabbath (our Rest, our cessation from labor!)." (Mt 12:8, Mk 2:28, Lk 6:5) THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART And He will give you the desires of your heart. - The way to have our heart's desire is to make God our heart's delight. Delight in God and He will become your greatest desire! If God has our hearts, He can trust us with His blessings. Treasury of David on the desires of your heart. A pleasant duty is here rewarded with another pleasure. Men who delight in God desire or ask for nothing but what will please God; hence it is safe to give them carte blanche. Their will is subdued to God's will, and now they may have what they will. Our innermost desires are here meant, not our casual wishes; there are many things which nature might desire which grace would never permit us to ask for; these deep, prayerful, asking desires are those to which the promise is made. (CHS) As