Joel M Bradshaw

4Delight yourself in the LORD,
and he will give you the desires of your heart.–Psalm 37

We live in a world that encourages us to follow our hearts, to recognize our passions and let them lead us in our choices. We are told to find out what brings us most pleasure and pursue that thing. Just focus on you. You just do you. Etc. Etc.

So when we read this verse, we are tempted to celebrate. ‘Finally a God who gets me and wants to make me happy! I might just feel justified in my self-oriented approach to life.’

But my greatest delight no longer is to be myself. It is to be Yahweh. Not in what he does, but in just himself. His very presence is my greatest delight. The fact that I exist in a relationship with him gives me the utmost meaning and purpose.

Open your Bible to Psalm 37 and look at the surrounding verbs to our verse. Trust in the LORD, commit your way to the LORD, be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him. These are not self-oriented pursuits. They are an intentional alignment of the self towards God and his desires. It’s similar to what Jesus once taught. John 14…

13And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. 15If you love me, keep my commands.

Asking in Jesus’ name means aligning yourself to him, his glory, and his purposes. It all comes down to his glory and keeping his commands. Why wouldn’t the Father answer prayers that intentionally denied the self and pursued Jesus? You would be delighting in him.

The temptation with God is that he exists to give me the desires of my heart. He actually exists for his glory and purposes. To delight in the LORD is to align your desires with him. Thus, he gives you the desires of HIS heart. This is what you should pursue. This is what should be the focus of our prayers. This is the essence of ‘thy will be done.’ To delight in the LORD means your desires are not centered around selfish pursuits. Remember, this is a psalm of David, called a man after God’s own heart because he practiced here what he preached. David’s alignment was to God.–JMB