EP 05: Cultivating a Heart of Delight
Cultivating a Heart of Delight
Today, we are going to discuss the importance of cultivating a heart of delight according to Psalm 37:4. Grab a cup of coffee, your Bible, notepad and pens, and let’s dive into the life-giving truth of God’s Word!
A Heart of Delight According to Psalm 37:4
Hey friend, WELCOME to another episode of the Daughter of Delight podcast. I hope you have come ready to learn, because today we are going to plant ourselves in Psalm 37:4 and talk about what it looks like to delight in the Lord.Looking at today’s focus Scripture, here is what Psalm 37:4 tells us: "Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."
CONTEXT MATTERS
First off, let me just say that this verse is a great example of the importance of NOT reading God’s Word at surface level and leaving it at that. When we do this, we take God’s Word out of context, which results in a flawed interpretation of the text itself and a false application of it to our lives altogether. Context matters. Say it with me!
College Confession
It took me until college to learn how to read God’s Word the right way. As someone who was raised in the church, this is a little embarrassing to admit, but it’s the truth. I remember feeling so sad and so excited after coming to this revelation. Sad, because I was learning all of this much later in life than I wished I had. Excited, because my eyes were finally opened to just how much MORE there was to God’s Word. I could actually swim in the sea of the truths found within it without feeling as if I were drowning. This newfound freedom breathed life into my being in ways I had never experienced, and it made way for my relationship with God to thrive ALL THE MORE! I was truly delighting in God and His Word.
Contextual Keys for Psalm 37
Before we really dive into Psalm 37:4, I want to take a few minutes to reflect on the context of Psalm 37 with you. Again, knowing the context of Scripture is vital to truly understanding it.In this particular Psalm, David shines light on a dilemma. During the time he wrote this, evil people were prospering while those who faithfully pursued God continued to find themselves facing one struggle after the next. As we know, this same issue still exists today! Perhaps you have witnessed this timeless dilemma firsthand.
The Struggle to OBTAIN A HEART OF DELIGHT
When we find ourselves struggling with things like not being able to provide for our families or not being able to manage all of life’s endless demands, it can be pretty tempting to envy the people who do not belong to God, yet enjoy wealth and the many luxuries this world has to offer. David alludes to this very struggle in Psalm 37:1-2. Here’s what he says: “Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.Again, if we think about it, we realize things really haven’t changed much throughout history. Since the fall, wrongdoers have acquired wealth through deception, innocent people have gone hungry, and there are evildoers who enjoy luxury without a care in the world outside of themselves while righteous and humble people suffer great need.
The Purpose of Psalm 37
David wrote this Psalm as an acknowledgment to the fact that this earthly life is not fair. He also wrote this knowing that this life is temporary. This Psalm, in particular, was written in order to encourage God’s people to view this life through an eternal lens rather than a lens dependent on one’s circumstances. He wanted to encourage his brothers and sisters to battle the anxieties and fears that come from a loss of control of one's circumstances with the weapon -- the antidote -- of a heart of delight.David desired for His brothers and sisters in Christ to make room in their hearts for the unending truth that the spiritual will always outway the physical.Take a look at verse 16 with me:Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.Now skip down to verse 20:But the wicked will perish;the enemies of the Lord are like the glory of the pastures;they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.
The Wicked Will Not Win
The overall purpose of Psalm 37 is to encourage those who trust and delight in God that the wicked will not win...because evil does not and will never have the final say! Now that we have considered the context surrounding this specific Psalm, let’s go back to Psalm 37:4 and take a deeper look at what it means to delight in God with these things in mind.
Delight Defined
"Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart."Something special to note about Psalm 37:4 today is the word Lord is in ALL caps.I bet you’ve seen Lord in ALL caps before in God’s Word, but just in case you are unsure what the difference is between spelling it in all caps versus spelling it regularly, the all caps spelling is meant to intensify the name of God in all of His fullness. So, David uses LORD in all caps here in order to intensify the unique name of God in His fullness, as Lord and Creator. David tells us to delight ourselves in Yahweh- the God of Israel, the God and Father of Jesus Christ, who came down to the world to die for sinners like you and me, and who will rise again in order to establish an eternal kingdom. Sis, no matter what this world appears or how unfortunate our circumstances are compared to someone else’s, we are to delight in the truth that His great love made a way for us!
The Hebrew Word for Delight
Here’s a fun fact for ya: The Hebrew verb hapes means to take delight in or to be pleased in. Now, I am no Hebrew scholar, but based off some research, I learned that there is more than one verb in Hebrew that expresses delight. However, hapes is the most emotional of them and the verb for delight I believe we should refer to here in Psalm 37.
How to Delight: Trust in the Lord
Now, David doesn’t just tell us to delight in the Lord...if we read the verses surrounding Psalm 37:4 we will see that he tells us HOW to delight in the Lord. First, in Psalm 37:3, David tells us, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.” Sis, we are to trust God and live in obedience to His Word- even when everything else around us seems to be a mess. If we place our trust in anything outside of Him -- our desire to be in control, our job, our savings account, you name it -- we are not truly delighting in Him. Depend on God and God alone to supply your every need, because He will surely do it!
Befriend Faithfulness
I love the phrase “befriend faithfulness” that we see here in Psalm 37:3 because, to me, it beckons us to step into God’s loving embrace. The Lord’s faithfulness is a friend that never leaves our side. If you are struggling to place your trust in God day, I want to challenge you to do two things:
Plant Roots
First, Root yourself in the Word of God. Spend time marinating in the promises of His sweet and Holy Word!
Remember
Second, spend time remembering the things He has done for you! Look at the cross! Consider when He first drew you to Himself, how He saved you, ways in which He has blessed or healed you.
A Piece of My Story
I remember the moment I really met God. My family has always attended church growing up, but it wasn’t until high school I experienced a lifechanging rescue. You see, while in high school, I was in an abusive relationship (for two and a half years) with a guy who did not know the Lord. Did I have hopes that he would come to know him? Absolutely. Did I think I could be the one to save him? You bet.Fast forward those two and a half years and I find myself having a mental breakdown. On the outside, everything appeared great about this relationship. I started dating this guy when I was a freshman and he was a senior. I was that girl in high school who dated someone in college, and I prided myself on it. But I was miserable.
Suffering in Silence
I couldn’t bear the idea of someone seeing me suffer, so I hid. Maybe you’ve been there too. Anyway, on this particular day, I just could not take it anymore. The tears were flowing, the pain was so deep, and I was staring at the hole I had dug so deep for myself, trying to reach the top but it was just too much. I could not do it on my own.
The Great Rescue
And then I called out to God and begged Him to rescue me. I promised Him that I would get my priorities straight and focus on growing into who He had called me to be. In that moment, I committed my life to Him in exchange for the strength to walk away from this relationship. And boy did He show up. Something inside me shifted and I walked away with the strength to not look back. Even when my ex showed up in church with a brand new Bible to try and get my attention, I held my ground and kept walking.
In His Strength
Because of the strength my Father had supplied me with, I was able to get to know myself all over again -- real parts of me I had not paid attention to -- as I focused on getting to know my Father’s heart.
God is Faithful!
When I reflect on this, I remember that I serve a God who is faithful and always comes through for me. He is the God who sent His son to die on the cross for me. A God who doesn’t look at me in my sin and shames me as a result, but desires to rescue me from it and lead me in His saving grace back Home into His loving arms.And I am reminded that my trust is faulty anywhere outside of His arms.
How to Delight: Surrender
Now, let’s look at Psalm 37:5: “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.” A large part of the trusting process involves the act of surrender. In order to really trust Him in all things, we are to surrender all things into His hands so that we can submit to His good and perfect will. This is how our delight for and in the Lord is fueled in our lives. By acknowledging our utter need for Him and seeking His ways for us rather than our own.
How to Delight: Be Still
And last but not least, take a look at Psalm 37:7 with me: “Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him.”The takeaway here is to carve out time and space to sit in stillness before God. To confess what it is that has caused you to fall into the mindset of believing His timing is not perfect. Depending on what it is we’re waiting for, we can easily find ourselves running out of patience with God and His timing. But the thing is, His timing doesn’t work like our timing. It’s completely different and our minds simply cannot comprehend it. This is the fact of the matter. God is God and we are not. This is GOOD NEWS.So, instead of trying to take matters into our own hands when it feels as if God has left the picture or is taking His sweet time, let’s take a deep breath and recall the living reality of God’s Word in that, He wastes NO thing or time. Take delight in the truth that even when it doesn’t seem like it, God IS on the move. Romans 8:28 tells us, And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
Desires of the Heart
So, now that we know what it means to delight and HOW to delight in the Lord, let’s talk about what it means when David says that God will give us the desires of our heart as a fruitful result of delighting in Him.
Delight in God First
Notice that the desires of our heart piece comes AFTER the call to delight in God. There is a reason for this! Delighting in God does not mean that we will get the things we long for in this life as long as we believe in Him and do things that bring Him joy. Sadly, many people read Psalm 37:4 in this light because they neglect the surrounding verses and context, which results in a prosperity-driven way of thinking that circulates itself around the false teaching of the more we do good things, the more God will give us good things. And then people fall into the false belief of a works-based salvation. Our faith is GRACE-based, meaning there’s literally nothing we can do to earn our salvation because it has already been earned FOR us- not because of anything we did, but because of everything that Christ accomplished on the cross! He literally took His last breath with us in mind. We would be helpless and so very lost without His saving grace in our lives. What a true comfort for us sinners!
Eyes on Him
What David was really getting at with Psalm 37:4 is this: if God’s people will continue to delight in Him, their “desires” -- our desires -- will be satisfied. This is because when our eyes are truly set on Him, the desires of our heart will become more in sync with His ways rather than the ways of this world.
Delight Defined
The biblical reality of the word delight, is that we delight in God's will for our life over our own. This is where true joy and contentment come from. And the joy that flows from seeking the heart of our Father regulates our desires to be more in alignment with His will for us.Again, this doesn’t say to delight yourself in the Lord AFTER you get the desires of your heart. The sin in us wants to distort this and make it the other way around, but don’t let it! If the desires of your heart come first, then you will never delight yourself in the Lord. When you delight yourself in the Lord and your heart longs for the things God has in store for you, then you will see the blessings flow!
God Delights in Us When We Delight in Him
Here’s a little truth nugget for ya: What God delights in about us is that we delight in Him!When we truly take delight in God, He rejoices because our sight is more set on Him than the desires of our flesh. And we find ourselves all the more satisfied because our delight is truly where it belongs. Nothing and noone can satisfy like our good and gracious God.Sis, when I choose to take delight in God's ways over the selfish, sin-prone ways of my flesh, I become more complete in Him and in my identity as a daughter of the Most High King. I become His Daughter of Delight.
He Sustains
My joy is found in the One who sustains- in His being, His perfection, His friendship, and His love! So, no, delighting in God is not found in the temporary pleasures we want and hope He will give us. It's found in taking heart in the gift of eternal life we have BECAUSE of Him! God wants to be the desire of our hearts- our true delight. All we will ever need is found in Him.
Rejoice with a Heart of Delight TOday
Let us rejoice and give thanks to our Heavenly Father for all that He has done, is doing and will do. Let us live as His Daughters of Delight! In our next episode, we are going to chat all about what it looks like to delight in God’s Word! I’m going to walk you through my step-by-step process of reading, interpreting and applying God’s Word for all its worth. Talk with you real soon! But in the meantime, go and share the glory, sis.
Thank You!
Thank you so much for joining me today. A big thanks to Hosanna Revival for sponsoring this episode! If you enjoyed today’s episode, would you consider taking a second or two out of your day to leave a review? It would mean SO much to me! Not only will it help the show grow, but it also helps me be able to continue providing content and resources for you! I’m already counting down the days until our time together next week! In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your week and shine on! Chat soon!
Want More?
If you enjoyed today's topic of discussion, be sure to check out last week's episode -- Why We Lack Motivation to Read the Word and What to Do About it.