What Do We Delight in?

“Delight yourself in the LORD” (Psalm 37:4a)

There are many enjoyable things in life; lots of things to delight in.  For me, these include holding my wife, teaching about Scripture, taking a long bike ride on good roads, having coffee with friends, and reading or listening to good books. Those things are fine, and God has provided many things in life to enjoy, like the scenery at Monterey Bay, CA. There are beautiful, enjoyable, and good things in life. Yet, Scripture points us toward God as the Ultimate One to delight in. Unlike a good conversation or fun activity, we will always be connected to God in this life and the next. There is a Bible passage about delighting in God that I have found puzzling in the past. David, in Psalm 37, tells us to delight in the LORD. How does one delight in God? I long wanted to do that, and sort of tried and prayed for God’s help. However, I didn’t know how. It wasn’t puzzling because I didn’t know what the words mean, but I didn’t know how to do that.

Then I heard a song that has become a daily prayer:

My Delight by Twila Paris

When I learn to listen

Follow where You lead

You will keep me satisfied

Give me what I need

My Delight

You are my delight

I think about you day and night

You are my delight

When I learn to love you

Keep my heart on fire

You will be my everything

All that I desire

My Delight

You are my delight

I think about you day and night

You are my delight

I will wait to hear your voice

I will look into your eyes

I could search around the world

And never find a greater prize

My Delight

You are my delight

I think about you day and night

You are my delight

You can hear it here:  My Delight.

I discovered this song because YouTube offered it to me in a mix of songs by Twila Paris. The album it is from, “Bedtime Prayers, Lullabies, and Peaceful Worship,” did not sound remotely interesting, and I had never tried to hear it. We don’t have little kids anymore. I have no use for lullabies. However, after pondering the words over and over, I’ve concluded that this must be what the album calls, “Peaceful Worship.” I can’t imagine singing these lyrics to anyone but Jesus. I want to delight in the Lord. How can we do that?

I began meeting with a spiritual director several years ago because my relationship with Jesus had been less than I longed for over many years. She told me that delighting in God means combining worship and gratitude. I have come to see that God has richly blessed me, despite some big negatives in my life, e.g., the permanent loss of sight in my right eye. As I have grown in gratitude and love for God, I’ve begun to find that delighting in Jesus has gotten much easier. I recognize that I still have a long way to go, and this will be a lifelong journey. Some readers may be well past where I am in this journey. He loves us, took steps to make us his own, sacrificed himself, and seeks us out. In response, I long to sit and delight in the Lord.

Delighting in God doesn’t mean rejecting anything else. This isn’t about being legalistic. It doesn’t mean one can’t watch Netflix or enjoy other things in life. It does mean that God needs to mean more to us than a cosmic therapist or divine vending machine. It involves loving Jesus with our whole being, with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. This isn’t a rule to follow. It is the life that God calls us to.

It is being in love with God to the point that he is the best and most important one in our lives. Now that I have a song to help me, I’m finding it easier to delight in God, and I can use it any time of the day or night to help me focus on the Lord. Delighting in the Lord isn’t puzzling to me anymore. It’s celebrating who God is and what he has done for me. This is true in spite of difficulties in my life. I don’t have a fully worked-out five step program to get to delighting in the Lord. However, I suggest three things that hopefully go together and will help us delight in God more and more. These are not steps and their order is random.

Worship God, Father, Son, and Spirit. The author of Psalm 150 knows what we should do.

Praise the LORD!

Praise God in His sanctuary.

Praise Him in His mighty expanse.

Praise Him for His mighty deeds.

 Praise Him according to His excellent greatness.

 Praise Him with trumpet sound.

 Praise Him with harp and lyre.

 Praise Him with timbrel and dancing;

 Praise Him with stringed instruments and pipe.

 Praise Him with loud cymbals; Praise Him with resounding cymbals.

 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD.

Praise the LORD! (Psalm 150:1-6 NASB)

Recognizing who God is, especially compared to us, is reason enough to worship him. He is awesome, exalted, high above all things. He made all things. There weren’t atoms before God started making the heavens and earth. God created a “good” world that is filled with beauty.

I enjoy going to Yosemite. Each time, I’ve gone to a spot along the Merced River early in the morning. At that spot, I see tall rock walls nearby. These reflect off the river itself. It is beautiful and it always feels like a sanctuary. I can’t help but offer praise to God for his handiwork. The word worship comes from an Old English word for “worthey.” God is worthy of our praise.

God is Love. God shows compassion and practices justice. He is gracious. He is good. While God has many attributes, he is love itself. That love is for anyone who will receive it. It is because God is love that he hasn’t destroyed the cosmos and started over. He loves his creation so much that he works in it to redeem it from bondage to evil. 

When we come to him and confess our sins, he does not slap us around for bad behavior. Instead, Scripture assures us that when we confess our sins, God forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness with the blood of Jesus. (1 John 1:9). God sent the Son to earth to be born in a humble place and grow up in an even humbler place. He doubtless cried and needed to be changed. He grew up in a rough time. There weren’t hot showers, soap, shampoo, or toothpaste. No electrical outlets. No natural gas appliances. No indoor plumbing. Then, he willingly marched into the jaws of Roman “justice.” He did all this to rescue us from ourselves and bring us to him.

My spiritual director told me that I am a “recovering legalist.” It was a defining moment in 2016 when I prayed for forgiveness (again) and mentally “saw” God’s face. No, I don’t think I actually saw God. This was a mental image. Instead of the anger or disappointment I expected to see, I saw love in his eyes. Yes, he loves even me. I can’t think of any good reason for that, except that God is love. I had just read Ephesians 1:3-14 about all the spiritual blessings that God has bestowed on his children.

I began to see God in a new way, after being a Christian for over forty years, and always wanting to grow closer to him. This is obviously not boasting. Some of us are just slow learners. Meditating on who God is and what he has done should lead to worship. 

Another “ingredient” is gratitude. If you search for “thanks” in the Bible, you’ll find it from Leviticus to Revelation. Numerous psalms include it. David begins Psalm 9 with, “I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.” Paul’s short letter to the Colossians has four instances of Paul giving thanks or telling his audience to give thanks.

Col 1:3 We give thanks to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for all of you

Col 1:11-12 “With joy, giving thanks to the Father who qualified us for a share of the inheritance of the holy people in light

Col 2:7 “Being firmly rooted and built upon him, confirmed in faith, as you have been taught, rejoicing with thanksgiving

Col 3:17 “and in everything, whether in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.”

Some years ago, I led a workshop on praying Scripture. I asked participants to list in their workbooks ten things that they are thankful for. One person was shocked at being asked for ten things. If you think about your daily lives, you can probably come up with at least ten. My informal list begins with being able to take an “instant on” hot shower in the morning in clean water.  I give thanks for soap, shampoo, and conditioner. Many, if not most, people cannot do that. They can’t use soap to clean themselves because they have none. Until relatively recent times in human history, no one could do that. I give thanks for my wonderful wife. I give thanks for our sons and that they have all made it safely to adulthood. I give thanks for my job and for my co-workers. When I give thanks for food at breakfast, I give thanks for the many books I have in bookcases that are visible from the dining room table. Perhaps these will give you some ideas.

We don’t have to give thanks for some monumental thing that happened yesterday. Most of us don’t have that sort of life. There are many things to give thanks for. While some say to give thanks for bad things happening to them, Scripture doesn’t do that and we shouldn’t.

Why do we give thanks? That should be obvious. God has given me employment that I can use to take care of my family. He didn’t have to do that. When I think about Christians in Nigeria being mercilessly killed for their faith, it’s not hard to recognize that I am blessed. For some time, I prayed for God to bless me. Then, one day God opened my eyes to see the blessings all around me. There are so many.

This is not denying the hardships we have in life. There are many, and anytime I’m ready to throw my own pity party, I remember that there are others with their own challenges. I wish they didn’t, but what this does for me is put my difficulties into a larger context that helps me see the realities of living in this world. I sometimes imagine a card game. I’ll see your job loss and raise you an autistic child. In other words, before we start feeling overwhelmed and maybe even ignored by God, we should remember that others are hurting too. I am not the only one. However, these things do not diminish God’s gracious love to us.

A third ingredient to building delight in God is to love him. I don’t mean to say the words, “I love you,” though that is important. It means recognizing and feeling love for God. However much love one has for God, there is always room for more. God tells us to love him with all our heart, soul, and strength (Deut 6:5). In Hosea 6:6, God states that he desires steadfast love, not sacrifice. Imagine that. God wants our love more than he wants what we might do for him.

The story of the “Sinful woman” in Luke 7:36-50 is instructive as well. A Pharisee invites Jesus to dinner. While he is dining, a “sinful woman” comes in. (Like other places and times, women sometimes turned to prostitution to survive, as there was no welfare system.) The woman begins to clean Jesus’ feet. She wets them with her tears and wipes them with her hair. In Jesus’ world, people did not normally wear shoes that covered their feet. They wore sandals. Jesus walked everywhere he went. His feet would have been covered in dirt, if nothing else. Jesus pronounces forgiveness for her sins, stating that, “her sins are forgiven because she loves much.”

That’s not to say that we should go out and sin more in order to be forgiven more and then love God more. Rather, if we look inside ourselves, and have in the past lived in ways contrary to God’s will, we can see our need for forgiveness. Even now, we may harbor envy or be committing sexual sin. We can turn to God to ask forgiveness. God is always ready to forgive a humble heart that recognizes the truth of our condition. When we confess our sins, God will forgive us, as he has promised. When I look at how many times I’ve sinned, whether visible or not visible to others, I see a very big pile. I pray that God will help me to love him at least as much as I have sinned against him. God’s love and mercy toward us ought to lead us to love him more.

 I really enjoy warm pecan pie with lots of whipped cream, but God is beyond that enjoyment and all pleasure that we can have. He is not just another good thing to enjoy. We only exist because of him. Let us all come to delight in the Lord more and more and more. With all that he has done for us, how could we not want to delight in him?